Later this month, Coachella Valley Repertory’s summer series will bring The Doris Day Project, by Scott Dreier, to the desert.
Any millennials reading this may ask: Who is Doris Day? My answer: She is the definition of class and respect.
Day, still alive and kicking at the age of 96, recorded more than 650 songs for Columbia Records from 1947 to 1967. She is one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century; one of the biggest box-office stars of all time; and an icon of radio and television.
“She was a mother, sister and Hollywood—all wrapped up,” said Dreier, the creator and star of The Doris Day Project. The cabaret show—Dreier has made an album with the same name—came about because of the actor’s obsession with Day. He has also created a “lyrical documentary” of Day’s life, titled Doris and Me.
“This has been a full circle for me. I originally workshopped my show Doris and Me here at CV Rep in 2011,” Dreier said. “I really started to make the connection with Doris and her music when I started performing. She showed me that I could do more than one thing as a performer. I was raised in a very conservative household with no music or television. My exposure to popular culture was very limited. Luckily for me, my mother was an old movie buff.”
Dreier said he was in a production of Little Shop of Horrors in San Diego a while back when the musical’s artistic director learned about his obsession with Day.
“The artistic director there said to me, ‘You need to make this into a show; you could talk about Doris Day’s life and your really quirky obsession with her,’” he said. “And it’s quirky. I wanted to singer her song book—as a guy would sing the songs. I called up Ron (Celona) at CV Rep, who knows of my quirky obsession, and he said for me come to Palm Springs to workshop the show. I really created the show as a love letter to her. I want her to be celebrated.”
This all leads to one obvious question: Has Dreier ever met Doris Day?
“Yes,” he said. “The first time, I was too young to really articulate the importance she’s had on my life. I left her thinking, ‘Why did I say that?’ or, ‘Why didn’t I say that?’”
Well, he obviously did something right: Dreier’s gone on to perform for Day at three of her birthday celebrations.
How does he select what to use in The Doris Day Project, from a catalog of more than 650 songs? He said he began picking the songs during performances of Doris and Me.
“People would come up to me after the show and tell me about their memories with certain titles of her songs, so I started to write them down,” he said. “Then I put all the songs in a bowl and would pick out a song before the show and do what we call ‘the pick of the day,’ and add it to the show that night.”
That is impressive. How many of those 650 songs does Dreier know?
“All of them,” he said. “I have an iPod that is set on shuffle with all of her songs, and I listen to it whenever I am working, walking the dog, or exercising.”
Speaking of dogs: Dreier and Day share a love of animals. Since Day retired from acting, she has spent much of her time working as an animal-welfare advocate. In addition to rescuing many animals herself, she co-founded Actors and Others for Animals, and created a nonprofit rescue organization now called the Doris Day Animal Foundation. Her 96th birthday celebration benefited the Doris Day Animal foundation in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Dreier followed her lead and currently has a rescued Chihuahua mix.
The Doris Day Project, by Scott Dreier, will be performed at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, June 22 and 23; and 2 p.m., Sunday, June 24, at the Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, located at 69930 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. Tickets are $30. For tickets or more information, call 760-296-2966, or visit cvrep.org.
As a young girl growing up in the Netherlands , I enjoyed Doris Day singing on the radio and her movies ,,,,, Saw many of her shows Regards ,, Elisabeth Culp
Doris Day is underappreciated. I remember when Roger Ebert ate crow on “Siskel & Ebert” about her career. Ebert had been a vocal, sometimes even cruel, critic of Day for years and considered most of her movies schlock. At some point, he changed his tune and recognized her talent. As he later admitted, Doris Day was a gifted entertainer with a singing voice as clear as a bell.