Arts & Entertainment

Song

Danc e
Mn
a

Ben Vereen pays
tribute to Jewish
entertainer
Sammy Davis Jr.
at Music Hall.

Ben Vereen: "I try to keep

the memory of this man

alive because he was one of

the African American pio-

neers in the entertainment

Suzanne Chessler
I Special to the Jewish News

eteran performer Ben
Vereen knows Hebrew
lyrics, uses "Shalom"
when saying farewell and has won
an Israel Culture Award, but none
of this will be part of his show
when he appears Friday evening,
Jan. 27, at the Music Hall Center
for the Performing Arts in Detroit.
There is, however, a Jewish
connection.

V

N

Ben Vereen Sings Sammy Davis

Jr. pays tribute to the late enter-

taMer who converted to Judaism
after suffering severe injuries in a
car accident. Although the show
will have anecdotes about the
friendship shared by Davis and
Vereen, there will be no reference
to religion.
"I'm not 'doing' Sammy Davis
Jr. — because nobody could do '
Sammy Davis Jr., but I can keep
his spirit alive through the music
that he sang',' says Vereen, 59,

who also will perform songs
that moved along his own
career. "I'm going to perform
`Hey There, 'I've Gotta Be Me'
and 'If I Ruled the World:
"I try to keep the memory of
this man alive because he was
one of the African American
pioneers in the entertainment
field. We have to give homage,
thanks and praise because he
blazed a trail for us so that we
could be where we are today."
Vereen, who also recovered
from severe injuries sustained in
a traffic accident, brings stage,
screen and TV experiences to his
show.
The performer's most recent
Broadway hit was Wicked, in
which he played the Wizard of Oz
last year. Other credits include

Jelly's Last Jam, Sweet Charity,
Hair and Pippin, for which he

won a Tony and Drama Desk

Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Film appearances were in All
That Jazz and Funny Lady, while
television cast him in Star Trek,
Touched by an Angel and Roots
among other programs.

Special Mentor
"I put together the idea for the
Sammy Davis show because he
was one of my mentors:' explains
Vereen, who also calls attention
to Davis' work in the civil rights
movement. "I watched him when

I was a kid, and we met in Las
Vegas. Altovise Davis, Sammy's
widow, put out a compilation CD
of his songs, and I was listening
to it and thinking we don't hear a
lot of this anymore."
Like .Davis,Vereen has enter-
tained in Detroit. In 2000,
Altovise Davis was in the city to
accept the Ford Freedom Award
conferred on her late husband by
the Charles H. Wright Museum of
African American History. At that
time, she spoke with the Jewish

News about her late husband's
*religious practices.
"Sammy always wanted to have
a base for his family, and I think
observing Judaism was that fam-
ily base she recalled about the
man who worshipped at Temple
Israel of Hollywood. "Sammy and
I were both in Israel, but we did
not go together. He went during a
time of war [in the country], and
I went with a group of 40
women.

Song & Dance on page 54

January 26 • 2006

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