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Updated: April 6, 2024 @ 8:03 am
Tony Danza will perform “Standards & Stories” at Musikfest Cafe in Bethlehem on April 5.
Digital Producer
Tony Danza will perform “Standards & Stories” at Musikfest Cafe in Bethlehem on April 5.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — After nearly five decades in show business, Tony Danza has more than a few good stories to share.
And he’s excited for fans in Bethlehem to hear them this weekend.
The “Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss?” star will bring his “Standards & Stories” show to Musikfest Café on Friday night. “Standards & Stories” features Danza and his four-piece band performing songs from the Great American Songbook, with a few twists and a ukulele.
“You’re around this long, you almost have to reinvent yourself,” Danza told 69 News. “Otherwise, you can’t stay a sitcom star forever, because there’s going to be somebody better, and cheaper and younger, you know what I mean? This was my attempt to be a more well-rounded performer.”
Danza said the show is a culmination of hard work, refinement and a love of music that started with Danza’s mother, Anne, who herself was a fan of the Great American Songbook and Frank Sinatra. (Anne Cammisa Iadanza died in 1993.)
“I don’t want to jinx myself, but it’s really been well received. The one thing I wish I could have, I wish my mother could see it,” he shared, later adding, “I think [because] of her love of this music, I think she would be thrilled that I found the same love for it.”
Danza said “Standards & Stories” is reminiscent of classic television variety shows, but with one big difference. “In this show, I’m the host and the acts,” he said, chuckling. “It’s such a gift to do it. It’s every Italian’s fantasy: a tuxedo, a microphone and a stool. The more fun you have, the more fun they (the audience) have.”
But putting yourself in a light not often seen by fans means opening yourself up to scrutiny and paying your dues. Danza takes it all in stride.
“You can’t really gripe without going out there and doing it. When you stink you stink, you know. It takes time to get good at it,” Danza said. “One night, you’re singing in a performing arts center, the next night, you’re singing a ballad as the roller-coaster goes by. You have to understand what you have to go through to get here.”
Showing a different side of himself on stage, Danza said, has had a trickle-down effect on his lengthy body of work. He points to his recurring role as mafia godfather Stefano Marchetti on the Starz crime-drama television series “Power Book III: Raising Kanan.”
The New York native was initially hesitant about going after the part. Danza said he was concerned about contributing to what he calls, “the trope of the Italian wise guy mafia thing.”
“I went home and said to my agent I’m not sure they’re going to buy me as a bad guy,” Danza recalled. “Not only they bought me as a bad guy, but they hired me for five episodes, and that was two years ago, and I’m doing eight this season and I’m picked up for next year, so I’m doing something right.”
Danza doesn’t take his past small-screen success for granted either. The veteran actor — whose career has also planted him under the bright lights of Broadway — said a recent reunion with his “Taxi” co-stars made him realize the generational impact the show has had on audiences.
“There was an audience of people, some of them are, I don’t want to say, not even 45 years old, and the show was on 45 years ago and here were these people standing and cheering for the show and laughing at the clips,” Danza said. “I said to myself, this incredible. It’s so wonderful. First of all, I’m in something so great that 45 years later people are standing and cheering for it. That’s really what got me started. A lot of people in Hollywood get a break, but not everybody gets ‘Taxi.'”
Showtime for Tony Danza’s “Standards & Stories” is Friday at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $55-$79.
Digital Producer
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Plenty of clouds, a few sunny breaks, and continued brisk and cool; a few sprinkles or flurries possible, but mainly dry.
Becoming partly cloudy, brisk, and chilly.
Partly sunny and not as breezy or as cool as recent days.
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