The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I Left My Heart’ pays homage to Bennett
Anthony Dominick “Tony” Benedetto earned his stage name from Bob Hope when he opened for the famous comic and crooner. Performing for more than seven decades, he is more popular now than ever, recently headlining with Lady Gaga, singing duets like “Anything Goes” on their new album “Cheek to Cheek.” Sliding gracefully into his 90th year, Bennett has enjoyed a cult of stylish favorites from jazz to pop, probably best known for his hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”
Appropriately, that is the title of a new tribute show featuring many of his greatest tunes now lighting up the Connecticut Cabaret Theatre in Berlin weekends until Saturday, Sept. 5. Created by David Grapes and Todd Olson, with musical arrangements by Vince di Mura and Summerwind Productions, “I Left My Heart” also includes personal anecdotes about the man and his music.
A trio of dapper youngmen, snappily dressed, includes Nick D’Angelo, Jonathan Escobar and Bobby Schultz, who belt out a litany of hits for your listening enjoyment. Grab a top hat, white tie and tails and book a table to hear the best of Bennett, Berlin, the Gershwins, Mercer, Ellington and Arlen, to name drop a few.
Frank Sinatra called him the best singer in the business. Judy Garland proclaimed that the world needed him. Because of his charity work, he’s been renamed “Tony Benefit.” Born in Astoria, Queens, New York, the son of a grocer and a seamstress, he is almost as well known as a painter, using his birth name Benedetto, as he is a famous crooner of tunes.
You’ll be serenaded with all his greatest hits and a few lesser known numbers as well as share stories of the man in anecdotes and personal tales. A four piece jazz combo will guarantee smooth sailing, as the men of the moment go “Steppin’ Out With My Baby,” encourage you to “Come Fly With Me,” croon a “Lullaby of Broadway,” fiddle with “That Old Black Magic,” try to “Make Someone Happy” and promise to be there “As Time Goes By.”
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With polish and pizzazz, they hopscotch across the seven decades of Bennett’s career and touch on more than three dozen hits from his one hundred albums to share the best of this American icon’s songbook. From “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” to “Because of You,” “Stranger in Paradise” to “Crazy Rhythm,” these classy gents help us remember why Tony Bennett has endured and is clearly “a classic.”
In honor of his 85th birthday, in September 2011, he released “Duets II,” debuting at number
Grab a top hat, white tie and tails and book a table tohear the best of Bennett andmore.
one on the Billboard 200, making Bennett the oldest living artist to reach that top spot. New generations are continually discovering him and the music of Cole Porter, Gershwin and Johnny Mercer that he made memorable.
Kris McMurray directs this wonderful musical salute that ends with Bennett’s signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” He first sang it at the Fairmount Hotel in 1961 in that city by the bay and it has been his song ever since.
Bennett said, “That song helped make me a world citizen. It allowed me to live, work and sing in any city on the globe. It changed my whole life.”
The show runs every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. through Sept. 5. There are no performances Aug. 14-15. For tickets ($30), call CT Cabaret, 31-33 Webster Square Road, Berlin, at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Come with goodies to share at your table or plan to buy dessert and drinks at the concession stand. Doors open at 7:15 p.m.