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Video: It's Lights Up on Daniel J. Watts
Jun 14, 2025
Daniel J. Watts comes now to the iconic NYTW for Lights Out:Nat King Cole now playing until June 29. D is playing the incredible Sammy Davis Jr. and receiving rave reviews while doing it. We had the chance to talk about our mutual love of Sammy, what it is like to do this show with Dule Hill and this incredible cast, and what is next for Daniel Watts on his artistic journey. Watch in this video.
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are you ready it's the round table with me robert bannon it is time for another friday and it's the
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round table here on broadway world welcome to the broadway world home page you know it's amazing that
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we're here on the look we can even do things like this boom there we go broadway world where
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Broadway gets its news. You know, our next guest I've seen on Broadway from The Color Purple to a
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little show called Hamilton to Tina. But what really moved me about Daniel Watts is seeing his
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one person show at Joe's Pub where he raps and does poetry. And, you know, I sat in the corner
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and a little charcuterie board and a little moment and I was blown away. Then I heard that he was
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doing this Nat King Cole show and I'm obsessed with Sammy Davis Jr. growing up. I read all the
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biographies. And then I saw what he did at the Geffen and what he's done. I was, I was such a
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nerd for Sammy. I was that seventh grader that's saying, I've got to be me and my talent show in
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Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. So I'm so excited. Daniel J. Watts is here. Welcome to the show
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This is crazy. I'm back here grinning like all of this talk because I'm such a Sammy nerd. So
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to hear another Sammy nerd, I'm just like, ah, I was, I read the books. I read his biographies
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I read his daughter's autobiography. I read the books because he's the greatest entertainer of all time
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Why? I mean, I don't know personally anyone else who's done that other than myself
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You don't understand, Daniel. When I moved to Detroit eight months ago, I got married. I live in Detroit
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And I said to my husband, I have to go to the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit because there was a pay-per-view of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Liza Minnelli
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And I watched it so much as a kid that I became obsessed with Sammy Davis Jr
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I just love him. Oh, wow. Is this, wait, this is in Japan
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This one is the one that's at the Fox in Detroit. I've seen it. Oh, I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying
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Yes. Oh, wow. I love it, Daniel J. Watts. Oh, that's cool, man
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How long have you loved Sammy? Oh, God, since I was six. Since Sammy was the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland
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Hey. That's my beginning. like i was like who is this guy and i think i'm trying to remember like that was the beginning
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and so i knew who he was and then in fourth grade this uh this substitute teacher named
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jim brunette i'll never forget him older older guy um he came the first day and we gave him the
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business we gave him the substitute teacher business the next day he came in and he bought
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a little cassette tape with him i have it it's on my dresser um he was like i think you might like
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this guy and he gave me this sammy davis jr greatest hits and i i wore that tape out and
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sam is just always he's just always kind of been here for me and then you know as i
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got into the profession and got into the business i just kept i was just always fascinated with him
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i was saying i was reading all the autobiographies the biographies tracy right tracy's book read
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sammy and black and white deconstructing sam like all you know all these books just to like
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try to understand him because his life is so full. And, you know, decade to decade
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it's chock full of just historical relevance as well as, you know, him redefining himself
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and just constantly, you know, while also navigating the guy who realized
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he needed to be him. You know, the best way to be was just to be him. He's, yeah, he's been my North Star
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subconsciously and consciously. since I can't remember. Well, Daniel, I've seen you work. I've seen you on Broadway shows. I've
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seen you play you. I've seen you do your work. You are doing him justice in everything that you do
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because you're an artist, artist. You got this right here, singing, dancing, acting, writing
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This is where it's at right here. I mean, thank you. For you and playing Sammy, Sammy has quite
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the career in terms of singing, dancing, acting. I don't know, his stuff with flipping guns and
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his stuff with like he does impressions playing drums yeah why listen to his live birth of the
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blues where he does impressions of all the greats i mean he's a genius so when you got a role how
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did this show and we're talking about lights out nat king cole and and and his relationship with
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sammy david street there's you what what how did this show come to you did you get an audition was
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an agent? What, how? No, I met Patricia and Coleman separately. And I actually didn't know that they
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were close at all. You know, Coleman and I did the whiz together at City Center. He came in to
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replace Orlando, Orlando Jones. And that's when I met Coleman. And we, you know, we just, you know
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show crush, you know, artists love for each other, comrades. And, you know, he kept his eye on me
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He would let me know, hey, I'm watching you, keep an eye on you. And I was like, okay. And Patricia and I had met because she was working on something at the Apollo about James Brown with Brendan Victor Dixon
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And BVD brought me in just to, like, you know, kick it at a rehearsal one day and mostly just, like, check out the dance and stuff
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And that's when me and Patricia met. And we just kind of, you know, everyone stayed in touch
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And then one day they both kind of tapped me and were like, hey, we're working on something
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We've got you in mind for Sammy Davis Jr. You know, and I was like, no
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No, I was terrified. Like nobody has any business playing Sammy Davis Jr
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Just because he's so, he's so multi everything. I just, you know, I was terrified of it
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And people have been saying it for years. Various people like, oh, you need to play Sammy Davis Jr
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And all the time I was just like. No, it's come on
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Thank you. You know no I was I was just I didn want the challenge I didn want to I didn want the challenge And I didn want to fail It more so that I didn want to let him down That the truth So you know by this time I done I done
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so much, you know, he's been living in me in so many various ways. So then when they, we did this
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workshop, they told me I was moving, I moved to LA. I left, I was leaving New York. I just needed
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a break. And, you know, I was like, I'm focusing on TV and film, you know, theater. I'm not really
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doing theater. And Patricia Coleman calls like, Hey, we got this, you know, that thing we were talking about? We're going to do a workshop of it in San Diego. And I was like, I didn't move to LA
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to do no theater. Like, get out of here. And they was like, well, Dulé Hill is going to come in
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and play Nat King Cole. And I was like, let me make a phone call. Because Dulé and I had done
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After Midnight together. So that was like, he became big bro there. So I was like, let me call
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my big brother, see what's going on. And I called him and was like, hey, you doing this? You going
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to San Diego? He's like, yeah, I mean, you know, let's, let's see what it is. I said, I'll go if
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you go. Okay. And that was the beginning of this eight year journey that has finally brought us
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back to New York. And it's, it's been, it's been exhilarating, honestly. I was going to say
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I remember it's 2017 is when this came into your life. Yeah. I was, one of my friends went to acting
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school, works on Julie's management team and said, I, you have to know, and I was just getting in the
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world of theater again. And I went to acting school together. And they said, you have to know a guy named D Watts. And we went and saw you at Joe's Pub because you had started this workshop
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And we went and saw it. And then they said, there's this show that's going to come somewhere
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maybe one day called Lights Out. And it's got Dulé Hill and Daniel J Watts. And now for it to be at
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New York Theater Workshop, for now for it to be back here in New York City, it has to be a quad
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What a ride for you all. Oh, yes. I mean, you know, the pandemic slowed us down, you know
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because we did it just outside of theater, sorry, just outside of Philly at People's Light in
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Melbourne. And that's when we first kind of like really kind of really took it apart and put it on
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its feet for the first time. And then we went to the Geffen a year and a half later and then 2020
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hit and just slowed all the momentum down. And I was kind of, I was honestly a little, I was afraid
8:06
the right word, maybe afraid. I think it was like, I think that might've done it. I think that might've
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might have knocked it out, you know, so then fast forward, you know, when we get the calls that
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hey, and Patricia got, Patricia became the artistic director at New York Theater Workshop
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It's like, oh, there's, hmm, there's, there's possibility on the horizon. And it's actually
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I think it's actually for the best. Dulé and I have both been able to mature in a way and grow
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and like have it live in us still, but be able to bring newer, older life to it. You know, I was 34
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Or when I started, I'm 42 now. You know, Dule is now a father
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You know, so, like, we're just bringing a different kind of weight to it
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that I think had it come in 2020, we wouldn't have had
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You know what I mean? It's one of those, like, happy accidents. Yes. That it took as long as it did
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Now's the time. And congrats to Patricia for a New York theater work. And whatever happened to Coleman
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I guess he never worked again ever since. You know what I mean? That guy. That's, you know, just taking his Oscar nominations and his awards and just living his fabulous great life
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Literally, literally just, you know, and, you know, it helped. You know, I think it all it's the right time, the right pieces, the right moves
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It all, I think, contributed to us being able to be here now. Well, what is the show? What and how is Sammy related to Nat King Cole in the show
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What is the relationship between you and Dulé's character? Got it. So Sammy, the show takes place on December 17th, 1957, which is the final day of Nat King Cole's final performance of his one-man show
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I'm excited. Of his variety show. His variety show, the Nat King Cole show
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And he couldn't get national sponsorship, so he had to close early. And he was funding it himself. Friends were coming in as a favor
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Madison Avenue, the ad agencies, they wouldn't give him a national sponsor because they feared
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they would lose business in the South. So our show takes place then. And instead of showing the actual
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what happened, we go into the mind of Nat and see what he might have been contending with
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as we go through the night. So Sammy shows up kind of as the shadow self, honestly
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to get Nat to really speak his mind, to honor his truth, to really hold and honor and acknowledge
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where he came from, the struggle that he's going through, and what it means to express the cost
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of what it is that we do. And so, you know, Nat and Sammy were great friends. They were really
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close. When Nat passed away, Sammy took it. It was hard for Sam. Like Sam didn't impersonate Nat
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for a while. He just couldn't do it. That was his guy. That was his big brother
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He actually did a, I don't know if you heard it, Sammy Sings the Nat King Cole songbook
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No. I've seen it. Okay. I'm going to listen. Yeah, it's great. It's beautiful. It's just
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Sammy's renditions of all these Nat King Cole classics. You can just hear the heart. You can
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hear the warmth. You can hear the camaraderie that they have for each other. We really just get to
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show that in our show. I'm so excited, everybody. You've got to get your
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Tickets are available, everyone. NYTW.org. Get your tickets. We could follow Daniel Watts, D Watts' word on Instagram
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Words. Words. Yes. He doesn't have a word. He has many words
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Many words. Plural. I've heard him speak a lot of words. He's got a lot of words
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You've got D Watts' words on Instagram. So how do you find, like we had Tommy Davidson here and I made him do Sammy, you know, and
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he did it for like five seconds. but he has such an
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impersonation and personification sometimes is different how did you find your Sammy and make it realistic but not a cartoon He such a character He is Yeah You know my my Sam is Oh there he goes You get here My Sam kind
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of goes, lives, lives more in, you know, cause he was doing his Jerry Lewis for a time, you know
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so there's lots of, you know, he would get into this thing, manic thing, and then he'd come down
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him and get very calm and suave. It's trying to just find that
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he went through so many stages and Sam was, he was such a sponge is the right word. He was such a sponge that I don't
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even know that he realized that he was, Sammy finding Sammy was through a lot of other individuals I found
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That's the main thing. I was like, who was he listening to? Who was he mimicking
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who is he really, really inspired by. I kind of tried to focus on that and lean into that
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for the most part. I'm so excited to see this and for people to check this show out. You need to
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check it out. Do you think he, well, he gets his due a lot now, but I don't know in his lifetime
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if he understood the impact he made on race relations, on entertainment, he was a trailblazer
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I think he won. I don't think he, I know, I don't think he ever personally felt the impact that he
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had. And if he did, it wasn't until that final, that final, final, final performance when they
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realized he was about to pass away and no one had ever acknowledged him for anything. So they did this grand, anybody who was anybody, Eddie Murphy was the host, you know, everybody was there
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There's this Gregory Hines and he do this tap duet at the end where Greg ends up kissing his feet
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you know, and then Sam died a few weeks later, you know, and I think that was, that was when he
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found out, I think he spent a lot of time wondering or, you know, fearing that he hadn't
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made an impact while knowing who was the greatest. I do know he knows that. Yes, the greatest
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He knows that. So for you now, eight shows a week, I mean, I'm assuming, I can't assume
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but I mean, you have an incredible cast in the show, a lot of Broadway babies, a lot of people
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who have, if it's Crystal Joy Brown, if it's Kenya, you know, like you all have, people are
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out here to sing and dance and you have a beautiful cast, but y'all are singing and dance
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You tap dancing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you are tap dancing. And not only are you tap dancing
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but Jared Grimes came out with the one to shuffle off to Buffalo moment for you
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You understand what we're talking about. Jared Grimes, if you don't know who Jared Grimes is, you should shame on you. Jared Grimes was, got a Tony nomination for Funny Girl for his work as
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Eddie. But he's an incredible choreographer. We call each other cuz. We're both from North Carolina
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We've known each other for two decades now. He popped in, set a piece on us while he was
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filming his film in Korea, popped into Malvern, three days, beat us up, and then went back to
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Korea. And, you know, it was great. We talk about it all the time. Jared and I, we did a show called
15:01
Stormy Weather, which was about, which started Leslie Uggams as Lena Horne, as the Lena Horne
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story. And we used to, this is in 2007 in Philly. And we used to watch footage together all the time
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and talk about how, yo, man, we want a career like Dulé Hill. Like he, he really figured it out. He
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figured out how to cross over, you know, so for us to then have this opportunity to be with Dulé
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who's original bringing the noise, bringing the funk, you know, original tap dance, not original, but tap dance kid, you know, black and blue. This is, it's a, it's a legacy thing that's happening
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simultaneously. So to be able to do Jared's choreography with Dulé every night is
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dreams, goals. Yeah, it's great. And he's not holding back. He's not taking it easy on me
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He is giving me the business. As he should. He's giving me the business and I love it
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I love it. If you don't know about Dulé, he's way more than just a TV star. He could dance
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he's gonna dance and sing and act his face off what is i know john mcd is running over uh did a
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lot of the music is working with this john mcdaniels is a part of this team and all this
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stuff what is the music is it songs we know it's songs we know it's all it's all the net king cole
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song book but you know these beautiful reimagined orchestrations you know like we're not going to
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hear it exactly how you know you might have an album recording no no john john mcd did his thing
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we get ethereal at times you know because we're going into the mind it's they're beautiful i
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I literally thought that the other day. I was like, these are beautiful orchestrations
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The arrangements, everything is gorgeous. The band is, you know, we had been with a four-piece band up until now
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and now we have horns and a horn section. So it just, it really rounds out that 50s sound
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It's beautiful. It's really, we're really, we're really being really blessed. When you look back at your career, I mean, we could talk about Broadway
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and starting off, you know, back in 2006, maybe, Color Purple. Was that your Broadway debut
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That's my debut. And that's original Color Purple. Original Color Purple. I'm not an original company member, but it's original Color Purple
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Yes. Original Color Purple. And then the Sean's Color Purple. Correct. Broadway Theater Color Purple
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When you go on and you see, I don't know, what is it? A dozen, maybe more shows
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Broadway shows? Who? Be? Ten. Ten. Ten. Sensible Ten
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A sensible 10. And then you see if it's Motown, if it's After Midnight, if it's In the Heights, if it's Ghost, if it's Hamilton, if it's Tina
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I mean, Tina is a moment, y'all. You were not nice, Daniel and Tina, but that's okay
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We forgive you. It's not nice. Oh, that was so hard. It was complicated
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That was so hard. That was a hard time for me. Leave Adrienne alone, Daniel
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Leave her alone. I know. I love her with all my soul and my being
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I love Adrienne Warren. So they have to do that every night. I hated it, I hated it
17:57
But you did that brilliantly and then you have your own television and film career plus the written things that you done I mean if you look at your television credits you done a ton of television and film work now And I know that there more film work and television and Broadway shows and all this stuff
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How do you departmentalize D Watts, the writer who does his thing and the Broadway performer
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and the musical theater performer and the television and film performer? There's many facets to you as an artist
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just like Sammy Davis Jr. Yeah, I think it's, I think, I know it
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I know it's also why Sammy is probably so, you know, I resonated with him so much because I was like, oh, you
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you get me in the multi of it all. And, you know, I'm learning
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I'm learning. This is the ogy I use. I've, I was, I was out in the field behind my apartment, kicking a soccer ball
18:47
I've been working on this piece about Pele and the soccer player for a while that's stay tuned with the ball of wax. But, you know, there was a guy out
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I went to go juggle about trying to go kick, just kind of just, you know, just kicking the ball by itself
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There was another guy out there who was juggling pins. He was just a juggler, just practicing
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And I was I watched him and I said, I don't I need to not do that anymore
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I need to figure out how to make all of this feel like one thing that I'm just like a single ball that Daniel needs to literally no longer compartmentalize and put it all together
19:19
So that's been the journey the last two years to not cut myself off
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It's like I'm a this and a this and a this and a this and a this and a this. It's like this is me. And, you know, they come and go
19:32
It was really interesting. The last six months I was working on a musical with Joe DiPietro and Crystal Money Hall and Christopher Ashley about called Three Summers of Lincoln
19:41
That premiered in La Jolla. And it's a musical about Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass's relationship during the last three years of Lincoln's life
19:49
That was the top of the year. And then I left there to go to Brazil to work on this pellet project for a little bit
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And then I jumped right into Lights Out right after that. And then The Chi premiered three weeks ago
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And it was like, OK, all right. OK, this is this is me. This is this is me. And just hold it
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And it's it's beautiful. And sometimes a little bit I get a look. I confuse myself sometimes
20:14
And it's just, you know, breathe and just they're all they're all working together in tandem
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them. But yeah, I learned to breathe. I do stretch. I meditate. That's the long way to
20:25
answer the question. It's a lot of... They're doing it. They don't give you more than you
20:31
can handle and you're doing it. Yeah, I guess. I guess so. So The Chi is out. If you're a Penguin fan, you can see Daniel J. Watts there
20:41
All of the different stuff that's out here from all of the work that you do. And then definitely
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before the end of the month, you need to go to New York Theater Workshop. It's a legendary place. Some of the greatest theater in the world has been created right there at New York Theater Workshop
20:52
And there's not a bad seat in the house, but you got to try to get a seat. So make sure you get a
20:56
ticket to go see the show. I'm just thinking, I was so excited to talk. Now you're going to make
21:00
me listen to Sammy Davis Jr. live albums. I grew up listening to the, all right, I'm going to
21:06
that's it. I'm going to build a mountain. I'm ready. Let's go. This time around, this is the first time I've not listened to anything
21:15
I've like, I haven't watched anything. Like normally I'm just so deep in everything
21:20
And this time I was like, let me just, let me just bring what I, what I know so far
21:24
But opening night, I pulled up his, one of his greatest hits live albums and I listened to Birth of the Blues
21:30
right before I went on. I just, I needed it. I needed just a little, and don't you know that they nursed it
21:35
That's needed. That's, that is the greatest. That is one of the greatest recordings of all time
21:41
We're talking about range. Range. And then screaming. It's screaming. Wow. Sammy
21:51
Rehearsed. And that's it. Robert, we friends' friends now. I'm trying to bring receipts
21:58
Because, you know, you could do an interview and people say, oh, I listened to Sammy Davis. No, I'm going to show you, Dee Watts, I got receipts
22:04
We friends' friends. We're friends' friends. Yep. Yep. Well, I'm excited. I have to be back in New York this month. I'll be back in New York
22:13
this month and I'm going to find my way over to New York Theater Workshop because I gotta see this. I gotta see this. We're all going to get our tickets and we're all going to follow you. I
22:19
hope you're still writing. I hope you're still, okay. Cause he's so good. And when we went through
22:25
all the crazy stuff of COVID and we went through the years before that, what you say about race
22:29
and relationship and humanity and what the world is, is so important and so needed. And this is a
22:34
brilliant artist right here that you need to be up on. So go to DWATS, words with an S
22:38
and get it. Go get it. Thank you so much. I'm going to think of more Sammy songs. I'm going to send
22:45
you a message with my other favorite hits. Hit me. Okay, I'm going to hit you up
22:50
Hit me. Hit me. It's so interesting because Sammy didn't write any music, but
22:56
he interpreted songs so beautifully. He loved theater. What's Phantom? That's the big song
23:03
Oh, Music of the Night. His version. Music of the Night. He used to mimic the Harold Hill from Music Man
23:16
Music Man Trouble. He would just do the whole thing. He just loved theater so much
23:21
And I loved, as a kid, I used to dream about putting on a concert
23:25
and I wanted my opening song to always be, Just once in a lifetime, a man has a moment
23:31
One wonderful moment When fate takes his hand See? Okay, all right, okay
23:39
You better sing! Let's go! That's my guy! Let's do it! All right
23:46
We have a Sammy listening party. You and me. Let's go. Put it on
23:52
Play the music. Let's do it. Anytime. You pick the day and place. I'm there
23:56
You let me know when you're here. It's happening. Let's go. That's it. It's such a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for the honor
24:00
and congratulations. Break all the legs. Enjoy every second. All mine, all mine
24:04
Thank you very much
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