“Danny Kaye Holds Self In Check In Role Of Noah”
Herald-
NEW YORK (AP) – Danny Kaye isn’t himself these nights on Broadway, but he doesn’t mind at all.
“I was scared at first,” notes the famous redhead. “Then I realized all it meant was a refocusing on my own attitudes.”
As the Fates, or maybe his own high-
Even those Walter Mitty and Hans C. Andersen movies couldn’t really suppress the
git-
“There are 30 spots where I could do a typical Danny Kaye bit,” he says, “but I’m proud that I’ve never felt the slightest temptation to ever ‘lead’ the character, which might get applause, but would hurt the show.”
Kaye had been away from Broadway, with the exception of some limited one-
His other favorite talent outlets, night clubs and movies, held no current lure. “I’d had enough Tahoe and Vegas for a while and the whole film business is shaken up like never before.” There had been talk of a Don Quixote picture that evaporated. As for TV, after four years of steady programming, Kaye had no encore yen.
During “Two by Two,” the rangy star indulges in strenuous portrayal shifts, as Jehovah of the Old Testament shuttles Noah’s age from 602 to 900 and back again. He also participates in a half dozen songs.
“It only occurs to me that there’s a big vocal demand in the part when people tell me there is,” he dismisses that consideration. “I’ve never had a voice lesson in my life, so apparently I just naturally use it properly.
“I guess you’d call me an instinctive rather than intuitive performer. And all the energy people talk about—well, I do have a log, but I don’t use it indiscriminately, so when I need it I can draw on it.”
The important technique is being able to adjust to audiences—“NO TWO ARE ALIKE AND THEY VARY ENORMOUSLY. So this creates a problem. In a solo show you can adjust to the crowd, try different material and shift the tempo.
“That sort of thing is impossible here because I’m dealing with other actors and you can’t do things that would only throw them off. All you can really do is try to generate excitement in the players themselves so that that feeling can infect the audience.”
When away from the spotlights, Kaye functions with equal intensity in multiple avocational pursuits, any or all of which are subject to instant change.
“I’m an overenthusiast. I start something, go at it with everything until I lose interest,” he says.
Among his diversified hobbies now dropped were 5-
“I’ve had to give up cooking and jet flying for this show. I’ve sold the plane, but I can keep up my license by going back to school every six months.”
One of his abiding interests is keeping healthy, and there’s no likelihood of a drop-
A favorite haunt during daylight hours is a downtown Manhattan restaurant that specializes
in organic greenery, hand-
“I’ve got to find a new hobby that’s exciting and challenging,” he insisted. “I’ve got an idea all this kind of food may be it.”
The Kaye way of getting involved is not to be lightly regarded. Collateral accomplishments
include an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball lore, an ability at self-
Such multiplicity of interests, those surges of vast excitement and occasional quick disenchantments, might they suggest a personality ambivalence? Kaye nods assent.
“I’m not frightened of that any more,” says the 57-