Reviews of 1941

Column: “The Voice Of Broadway”
The Miami News – Feb. 7, 1941
By: Dororthy Kilgallen

Danny Kaye, who is unquestionably this year’s Broadway sensation, hasn’t begun to act like a star yet. When he opened at La Martinique last week, such notables as Moss Hart, Bert Lytell, Grace and Helen Menken, Jack Benny and Victor Mature turned up to congratulate him.
            But, after his performance, Danny vanished. They finally found him—in the kitchen, talking to the waiters and bus boys he knew last year, before he had met any celebrities.

 

This Is Broadway Now
Lowell Sun – Apr. 10, 1941
By: Dorothy Kilgallen

           Every night after the curtain goes down on “Lady in the Dark” the young man called Danny Kaye leaves his dressing room and rides up Broadway to 57th street, to the place called La Martinique.
            There, some time after midnight, the rhumba music stops and the curly haired musicians put down their maracas and guitars.
            Danny Kaye comes into the spotlight and performs then. He has a mane of blond hair and hands like Stokowski and eyes that look very blue from a ringside table; when he sings fast songs he has diction like a machine gun.
            He croons, and he congos, and does comedy falls; he sneezes like a Russian concert singer and preens like a Russian ballet dancer, and he closes his eyes and wails a soft Irish folksong.
            In all the town there is no other hour’s entertainment like the one Danny Kaye tosses his customers, and they make him work.
            They make him sing and clown until his voice is hoarse and there are drops of perspiration spraying from his face when he moves.
            This is the place to hear loud applause, this is the place to laugh.
            You don’t get this in Cedar Rapids.

 “Best Bets Of The Week”
The Sunday Morning Star – Dec. 14, 1941

            Odds and Ends in the Entertainment World: Best musical on Broadway today is “Let’s Face It.” Finest new talent I’ve seen in many years is Danny Kaye in the same “Let’s Face It.” I don’t know when the Kaye lad will hit the screen; certainly he won’t be able to get out of “Let’s Face It” for another year or so. But when he does face the cameras, Danny Kaye cannot miss immediate stardom. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a performer more—and if you get near Broadway at any time, you owe it to yourself to make “Let’s Face It” your first stop…

- Home -