Jeffry Denman @ Birdland

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 2/19/07 at 8:08pm

I know this is a long shot, but is anyone going to see him tonight? If you are, please post a review! :)

[Horton]

Posted: 2/19/07 at 10:09pm

yeah, i want to know how he did too, he has to get back on broadway. Fast!

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 12:15am

Just for kicks...bump?

Posted: 2/20/07 at 8:19am

Well, if you ask me, I think he did awesome.

Seriously, it was an amazing evening. The place was packed full of some of the most supportive and loving people I have ever had the opportunity to perform for. Brian, Dennis and Nancy were just outstanding. Joshua and the band were stellar. But of course I'm biased.

I thank you for wondering how it all went. Next time we'll have to get you out to see the show. I am hoping that we'll be doing it again.

All the best,

Jeffry

[Horton]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 8:32am

Wow, thanks Mr. Denman. Are there any of your events comming up besides:
My First Time concert
Broadway By The Year 1928
and Face the Music

Also you talked at one point about a sequel to your book (which I loved). Is that still in the works?
Updated On: 2/20/07 at 08:32 AM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 9:49am

I was there. To quote Merman's comment about Mary Martin: It was Okay, if you like talent.

Lots and Lots of talent.

(I will post more about it when I get back from the gym and the shrink)

[rose_pearl]

Posted: 2/20/07 at 11:53am

^^ Haha, thanks Jeffry! If I weren't in Florida, you know I would have been there.

And MasterLcZ, I look forward to the review. :)

Posted: 2/21/07 at 2:02am

Actually I think you've hit them all. Oh, except a benefit for American Musicals Project I'm doing on March 5th. Evening of Gershwin. Should be fun.

Re: the sequel - I did a draft and passed it by the publisher, but they didn't bite. Mainly, I think, because the first third of the manuscript dealt with 9-11 and my experience working at Ground Zero. I think they felt it was less a book about The Producers and more a book about 9-11. They were partially right, but that's what I wrote 'cause that's what happened.

All the best,

Jeffry

[justme2]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 2:57am

Congrats on the show, Jeffry! I wish I could have seen it, but west coast living prohibits.

Any word yet regarding White Christmas and an SF re-appearance, by the way? Please tell me you'll be headlining this show again!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 3:00pm

(Sorry guys...was swamped yesterday and can only post this now)

Lots of performers have talent to burn, but there are relatively few that possess charm. I like to think of it of an innate endearing-ness, a likeability and a gentle quality that can glimmer forth even when the performer is portraying an unsympathetic role. One doesn’t often associate charm with male actors, but I can think of few that posses it to the degree of Jeffry Denman, who made an impressive cabaret debut “JAZZ TURNS” at Birdland on Monday night. He jokes, he sings and if you don’t already know, he taps a little.

A bit of background: I first saw Denman break out of the ensemble of THE PRODUCERS a few years ago when he went on for Matthew Broderick (during the second Broadway installment of N&M). Just his ‘Mutt n’ Jeff’ appearance standing next to Nathan made him even funnier than Broderick without moving a muscle, but Denman possessed a befuddled sweetness mixed with Bolgerian goofiness I have not seen in any subsequent Bloom. And without question, his was the best danced Bloom ever. A bit later, I saw him in the excellent YANK!, at the New York Musical Festival (or was it the Fringe? Not sure), where he played a slimy closeted gay reporter for the soldiers newspaper YANK and he executed a dangerously exciting tap-seduction of the male lead (forgot his name…hopefully someone will credit him here) that was one of the most thrilling bits of dance I saw onstage anywhere that year – but his cool menace in the role was equally memorable and signaled to me that Denman was an actor to watch, with or without tap shoes. Since then, I’ve mostly seen in him tap dance in several BROADWAY BY THE YEAR concerts, but he’s been mostly out of town for long stretches, notably in WHITE CHRISTMAS (the show that seems to play everywhere but Manhattan). But recently, he’s been back in PVT. WARS, a just-closed three-actor play about traumatized Vietnam Vets in a mental hospital, next Mondays’ BROADWAY MUSICALS of 1928 and last Monday’s “JAZZ TURNS”.

Something of a live action Vitaphone two-reeler, Denman’s show, featuring the Joshua Pearl Classic Jazz Trio, consisted of fresh, jazzy takes on Broadway songs (often complimented by some dazzling tapping on a portable tap floor). This Bossa-fan especially liked the Jobim-influnced “Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True” to the extent that I actually can’t imagine the song with any other arrangement, the lovely “Rememb’ring You” by Joseph and David Zellnik from YANK!, a ferocious “Life of the Party” (from the Lippa WILD PARTY) and “Love Song” (Weill/Lerner from LOVE LIFE). Lots of Sondheim was featured, among them: “Love I Hear”, “Not While I’m Around” (dedicated to his parents, who, accompanied by Denman’s long-time girlfriend, were seated ringside), medleys of “Who Could Be Blue/Little White House” (a delightfully sung duet with the vivacious Nancy Anderson - they make a nifty duo) and “Pretty Women/Agony”, a killer duet with Denman’s WHITE CHRISTMAS co-star and friend Brian d’Arcy James.

Noting that the Broadway tapper was becoming something of an endangered species, as so few new Broadway musicals call for this particular talent, Denman called on Dennis Stowe, his third guest of the evening, to make a case for every Broadway musical to include at least one tap number: duetting in song and dance to Jason Robert Brown’s “Moving Too Fast” from THE LAST FIVE YEARS - stopping the show and making the audience roar with delight.

“Hominy Grits”? “The Bitch of Living”? The charming and insanely talented Jeffry Denman could do it.

[justme2]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 3:19pm

Thanks so much for the review masterlcz, I hate that I couldn't see this show. Ever since White Christmas, I'm a die-hard Denman fan, as he dances in the style that seems to have been thrown out by most of the modern broadway musicals.

I hope you get to see the WC show, as it is a prime example of what a tap and romantic dancing musical should be.

[EponineAmneris]

Posted: 2/21/07 at 4:44pm

First of all, welcome to the board, Jeffry! How cool is this?! I still treasure my personally autographed copy of your book and the picture we got to take togther at the book signing in Theatre Circle. I wish I could have the chance to see your show at Birdland But alas... I don't live in NYC.