‘Tony Danza: Standards & Stories’
Cafe Carlyle, Through May 6

It was about 20 years ago that Tony Danza, who to this day is still best known as a television sitcom star, did his first one-man show at Manhattan’s old Feinstein’s at the Regency on Park Avenue and 61st Street. He spent a great deal of that evening telling us, in fact, that he had no business doing such a show since, as he said, he couldn’t sing or do anything else that cabaret performers were expected to do. 

It seemed like he thought we would most enjoy his show if he conditioned us to lower our expectations. Whatever he did, it worked, and we spilled out of the Regency fully charmed.

Many years and many shows later — not to mention a major Broadway musical — no one is underestimating him. In fact, he starts his show with a joke about an old rooster and a younger rooster where the punchline is, “Stick with the standards.” Mr. Danza does indeed do so, but we don’t come just for the songs, the singing, the jokes, or even the stories; rather, we come for Tony Danza himself and his considerable charm.  

He starts with Bobby Darin’s rousing opener, “As Long as I’m Singing” — not exactly a standard, but close enough — and does about 10 more songs over the course of an 80-minute show, interspersed with copious personal anecdotage. He also plays the ukulele (on “Nevertheless”) and tap dances (on “Just in Time”), and talks about his mother and his kids and his grandkids.

The major recurring character throughout the evening is Sinatra, who looms large over the proceedings like the ring-a-ding ghost of Hamlet’s father. Nearly all the songs are from his songbook, especially “Drinking Again,” “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry,” “Don’t Worry ’Bout Me,” and “Luck Be A Lady.” His tale of being able to introduce his mother to Sinatra during an episode of “Who’s the Boss?” warmed the heart of every Frank fan in the house.

There were other excursions: Peter Cincotti, the dynamic young jazz pianist and singer-songwriter, who’s playing the Carlyle next week, joined him on stage for a duet on a terrific original song titled “One Too Many.”  This is a funny “list” number, more or less in a King Cole Trio vein, detailing the specifics of alcoholic excess — in fact, it set the stage for the standard “You Go to My Head,” which followed later in the program.

He also treated us, and that is the right word, to three songs from the 2013 show, “Honeymoon in Vegas.” This is probably the most traditionally tuneful — and fun — of Jason Robert Brown’s musical theater works. “I Love Betsy” is, as John Pizzarelli has affirmed, sweet and endearing; “Out of the Sun” is self-mocking on a grand level; and “You Made the Wait Worthwhile” is a short and touching Hawaiian style waltz — with uke, no less — that leads logically into Lieber & Stoller’s “Love Potion #9.”

He encored with a medley of Motown hits that seemed, in the intimate space of the Carlyle, mainly an excuse for a singalong. As he neared the conclusion, he slipped into another drinking song, “One For My Baby” — and one couldn’t help but think that a few decades ago, he would have never have had the chutzpah to take on such a classic Sinatra signature, complete with pianist Joe Davidian replicating Bill Miller’s iconic piano intro.  (The rest of the excellent trio is bassist John Arbo, guitarist Dave Shoup, and drummer Eddie Caccavale.)  

There are better singers than Tony Danza, for sure, and even funnier comedians, but there’s no one as thoroughly and disarmingly charming with whom to spend an evening.