The Billy Barnes Review
Actress Dee Arlen referred Berry for a role in the show In League with Ivy at the Cabaret Concert Theatre, a nightclub in Los Angeles. This show was where he met famed composer–impresario Billy Barnes who was the play's composer. Barnes would bring Berry into The Billy Barnes Review ensemble, his next break, and he would perform in many of Barnes’ shows in the coming years.
While performing with Barnes, Berry worked with other performers that included Berry's future wife, Jackie Joseph, as well as Joyce Jameson, Bert Convy, Patti Regan, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Lennie Weinrib, and sketch writer/director Bob Rodgers. Several cast albums were made.
In November 1959, the original cast of the Broadway show was replaced two weeks after a legal dispute with the producers over a canceled performance. The cast had missed their flight from Chicago after a promotional appearance on Playboy's Penthouse and refunds had to be made to the ticket holders. Berry was out of work and headed back to Los Angeles to find employment.
He performed in several stage shows in Los Angeles, singing, dancing and delivering a few lines. The press dubbed him "another Fred Astaire" and "the next Gene Kelly". His talent was also compared to that of Flamenco Dancer José Greco, legend Donald O'Connor, Ray Bolger and Jack Donohue.
Read more about this topic: Ken Berry
Famous quotes containing the words billy, barnes and/or review:
“Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And he sang as he watched and waited while his billy boiled:
‘Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?’”
—Andrew Barton Peterson (1864–1941)
“After all, it is not where one washes one’s neck that counts but where one moistens one’s throat.”
—Djuna Barnes (1892–1982)
“You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)