Tony Danza talks about his cabaret show, boxing on LI

As a boxer, Tony Danza never won championship belts. But as a singer, he belts out tunes like a regular Fightin’ Frankie Sinatra or Tony "The Tiger" Bennett. A former star of TV series including "Taxi" and "Who’s the Boss?," he brings his third cabaret show, "More Standards & Stories," to Manhattan’s Café Carlyle from Tuesday through Sept. 19.

Born Anthony Iadanza, the 75-year-old Danza was raised in East New York, Brooklyn, and then in Malverne beginning in 10th grade. Graduating from Malverne High School in 1968 and Iowa’s University of Dubuque in 1972, he began boxing professionally five years later — even fighting once on Long Island.

In addition to his classic sitcoms and the current crime drama series, Starz's "Power Book III: Raising Kanan," Danza has starred in films and on Broadway, chronicled a Philadelphia public-school teaching stint in his book "I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had" (2012) and, since 2015, has toured three iterations of his Great American Songbook show. ("Standards & Stories" and "Tony Danza: Sinatra & Stories," were the two earlier shows.)

Danza spoke with Newsday contributor Frank Lovece about his career, including the one in the boxing ring.

In your show, in addition to songs, tap dancing and playing the ukulele, you tell anecdotes about your life and career. What do you have left in stories this third time 'round?

Well, I never talked about my father. I've talked about my mother, but this show happens to have a lot about my father. So I was trying to think of a title. ... And the best I could come up with was "More Standards & Stories." I know, clever. (joking) But it does have a subtitle: "How Did the Garbage Man’s Son From Brooklyn Make It to the Café Carlyle?" And hopefully at the end of the night we'll answer that question.

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Crystal, in their one-man Broadway shows, each talked about their father’s impact on their careers — Springsteen in trying to connect with his father, Crystal in his father's influence on him. Is it something like that with you?

No, no. My father was a garbage man for the city, so he gave you a break on that. You didn't have to live up to anything. But he was such a big part of my life and he's quite a character — a World War II hero, an immigrant. And I have some stories about him and my interactions with him, especially after I got on TV. So I wanted to tell some of those. And then it's all new music.

You’ve credited a Malverne High teacher, Charles "Chick" Messinger, who died in 2020, as a big influence in your pursuing acting. He even directed you in high school productions of "South Pacific," "Kiss Me, Kate" and "Bye Bye Birdie."

He was the drama teacher and my English teacher, and he used to go to the Café Carlyle and he'd come back and be so excited to tell us about his evening. He'd tell us about cafe society, whatever the heck that was, and what [artist in residence] Bobby Short played and didn't play and who was there and who wasn't and how great the food was. I'd be sitting at my desk thinking, "Gee, that's a million miles from where I am." ... He got to see me do a lot of stuff. He saw [me in Broadway’s] "Honeymoon in Vegas," he was around for a lot of it. He was the catalyst as far as any kind of thinking I could do that.

Let me throw out another name: Thomas E. Molloy.

Irish Tommy Molloy! Let me tell you — where was that fight on Long Island? Was it the Commack Arena [as the Long Island Arena was colloquially known]?

Yep. May 6, 1977. Your first pro bout. You won on a TKO, third round.

Right! So it's Irish Night. And I'm [the Italian] Tony Danza — I was the villain! It was unbelievable! ... Because a lot of times I was, like, a crowd favorite — but they were booing me! (laughs). By the way, he came down the aisle with a bagpipe band! I thought, ... "What have I got myself into here?"