Shelly Goldstein's not the only friend of this blog who had a memorable encounter with Davy Jones. Will Harris writes about his, also focusing on the late Mr. Jones's role on Broadway in Oliver! Will even links to a video of Davy as The Artful Dodger way back when. Well worth clicking to read and view.
In the piece, Davy says that the New York producer of Oliver!, David Merrick, advertised the show by quoting rave reviews by folks who happened to have the same names as prominent Broadway critics. I'm wondering if this is so. Merrick had famously done that a year or so earlier when another show of his, Subways Are For Sleeping, opened to negative reviews. He found people in New York with the same names as the critics, invited them to the show and when they liked it, advertised their opinions with their names and also photos attached. Only one newspaper ran the ad for one edition until someone at that paper noticed something. Richard Watts, the critic at The New York Post, was white but "his" quote did not mention the Post and the photo of him was of a black guy. The ad was pulled after the one printing, Merrick was condemned up and down Broadway for his trickery…and he loved the publicity. Did Merrick try something of the sort again with the well-respected Oliver!? Or was Davy, as I suspect, conflating separate incidents?
Also in the piece Jones says…
…I remember going to the Tony Awards, and they said, "And the winner for Best Supporting Actor, David…" And I leaned forward in my seat…and they said somebody else's name. But I'm glad it wasn't me that won, 'cause that guy died six months later. It could've been me!
The category was actually Best Featured Actor in a Musical and the other David was David Burns for his work in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. But David Burns didn't die six months later. It was more like eight years. Just a minor point.