Song and Danza

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 3:01 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: June 9, 2002

Tony Danza is a machine. A perpetual-motion machine.

The 52-year-old native of Brooklyn, N.Y., works out religiously. He in-line skates. He loves to play sports. He's on television and in movies. He has been on Broadway -- and off. He sings, plays piano, dances and tells jokes.

Danza, who will appear Friday through June 16 at Suncoast, is unable to sit still, relax and simply enjoy the success he's earned in almost every field he has tackled since graduating from college.

If he watches television, he does so while riding a stationary bike.

Danza's credits include the classic television series "Taxi" (ABC, 1978-82 and NBC, '83); "Who's the Boss" (ABC, '84-'92); "The Practice" (ABC, '99) and the recently canceled "Family Law" (CBS, 2000-'01).

Among Danza's film credits are "Angels in the Outfield" (1994) and "Dear God" (1996).

He made his theatrical debut in the 1993 off-Broadway production of "Wrong Turn at Lungfish." In 1999 he appeared on Broadway in the revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh."

But the machine broke down in 1993. Danza was almost killed in a skiing accident in Utah. He fractured his back, broke six ribs and punctured his right lung. The iron man had to learn to walk again, spending four hours a day, six days a week in a six-month rehabilitation program.

It took a couple of years for Danza to fully recover, and when he did he launched yet another career -- as a stand-up comic and song-and-dance man -- with a variety show that he has taken on the road for a couple of months every summer since 1995.

Reviewers give the show good marks, usually describing it as -- what else? -- high energy.

Danza recently spoke to the Sun from his office in Los Angeles about what makes the machine run:

Las Vegas Sun: You always seem to bring a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to whatever it is you are doing.

Tony Danza: I like to think that's true. I put everything I have into everything I do, but I always think I could do more.

Sun: What drives you?

TD: Life is a race. I feel like one way to keep yourself in the race is to stay in shape. I'm a physical-fitness nut. There's no other way of doing it -- there's always someone younger than you coming along.

Sun: How do you stay fit?

TD: I work out. I'm a Rollerblader. And I like to play all kinds of sports, especially basketball. I play pretty hard. I recently hurt my knee, pulled something. It upset me. I would have been tap dancing, getting ready for the upcoming show dates. I'm all right now, but the knee injury was kind of unsettling.

Sun: You're an actor. What prompted you to add "performer" to your resume?

TD: My mother and father loved music. They loved to jitterbug. I sang a lot. I was always singing.

Sun: When did you decide to create an act?

TD: I hit a tree skiing back in '93. Almost killed myself. When I recovered I decided I was being given a second chance and I was going to make the most of it. Being a performer was a longtime dream. I love entertainers and show business. I was a big fan of the Rat Pack, of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Sun: How did you develop your performance skills?

TD: I've been tap dancing since the end of "Taxi." So I figured I could tap. I was not the greatest singer in the world, but I knew I could tell a joke and play a little piano and a little trumpet. So all of a sudden, I had a show.

Sun: What was it like at first?

TD: I started out with a comedy show. I opened for Tony Bennett and Joan Rivers. This has the element of those shows -- some stand-up, some dancing, a band. I bring some enthusiasm to the stage.

Sun: What's your show like?

TD: I write my own stuff. One of things I do is, I have a thread that runs through the shows I take on tour each year. One year it was about things I wanted to do with my life. I used to make lists of all the things I wanted to accomplish, and I took that premise and wrote the show around it ... I turned 50, and that was the thread.

This year the show is called "The House I Live In." The thread is all the different houses I've lived in -- I even have pictures of my old places. Each house is a different period of time. I bring in the music and different things that were going on when I lived in each house.

Sun: You sing in the show, and you recently released a CD, "The House I Live In." Are you a natural vocalist?

TD: I took some lessons. You've got to study. Singing is all about technique, unless you naturally have great pipes. But I like the process. It takes some discipline, some effort and determination. It's a pain to do the vocal exercises. But you have to do them, just like you have to do the piano exercises.

Sun: Your singing has received some good reviews. That must be gratifying.

TD: It's very rewarding when you can get somewhere after all the practice. When I started this thing I didn't know how long I could stick with it, but seven years passed in the blink of an eye. Whatever you want to do in life, at first it's so hard. I didn't know if I could go out there (and perform onstage). But I decided I would just see how well I could do.

Sun: You have been very successful in everything you've tried. Did you always want to be in show business?

TD: I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was a Brooklyn kid, a street fighter. I was always getting into street fights. I got beat up a lot, but it was a challenge. It was kind of weird.

I got a wrestling scholarship (from the University of Dubuque in Iowa), but the scholarship wasn't a full ride. It was a partial scholarship. I studied to be a history teacher, but I didn't have a real good time student teaching. I had this really wacky class, and I felt uncomfortable. So I went back to New York, looking for that thing, you know -- what are you doing? What are you going to do with your life?

Sun: What did you do?

TD: I bought a car wash. I didn't know what I was going to do. I was trying to find out. But I knew what it would be when it came along. Actually, I owned a couple of little businesses. I was an entrepreneur. One of the businesses was a bar.

Sun: How did you become a boxer?

TD: One day, as a joke, a friend of mine entered me into a Golden Gloves (boxing tournament). I got this notice for a physical and I went to the bar that night that I owned and they started teasing me. They were going, "Come on, tough guy."

So I said all right. I made it to the semifinals. Then I started training. I got knocked out of the tournament, but I decided to enter again the next year. I didn't fair as well, but I was hooked on boxing and I decided to turn pro. I had 15 professional fights, and I won 12 of them.

Sun: Boxing led to your acting career?

TD: Yeah. This guy Stu Sheslow, who was a TV producer, came into the gym where I was training. He was looking for a fighter to play a role in a proposed TV series. I read for him and then I had a screen test. The pilot didn't make it, but then (television producer) James Brooks was looking for someone to play a boxer in "Taxi" and he saw me (in the screen test) and hired me.

Sun: What was it like going from "Taxi" to the series "Who's the Boss?"

TD: I'm sort of a puritan. I want to uplift with the comedy. What was good about "Who's the Boss" was that you could watch it with your 9-year-old. Maybe one minute, one second, one joke in all of the 199 shows I thought was off-putting. I was very careful with the tone of the show.

Sun: You have done so many things in show business. Would you like to go back to Broadway, or would that be too much of a trap?

TD: Please. Trap me in a Broadway musical. It's hard work, and it becomes your whole live. But when you're doing a play in New York City, it's as close to heaven as you can get.

When I recovered I decided I was being given a second chance and I was going to make the most of it. Being a performer was a longtime dream. I love entertainers and show business.

archive