By Kharisma McIlwaine
Darius de Haas is an award-winning American singer and stage performer, celebrated for his astonishing vocal range and a multifaceted career spanning Broadway, jazz, and television. Born into a distinguished musical family in Chicago, his artistry is rooted in the jazz traditions of his father, bassist Eddie de Haas, and his mother, singer Geraldine Bey, of the trio Andy and The Bey Sisters. His acclaimed Broadway credits include original casts of “Rent,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and Lincoln Center’s revival of Carousel. He won an Obie Award for his title role in the jazz opera “Running Man.” Beyond the stage, de Haas is widely recognized as the singing voice of crooner Shy Baldwin on Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” He recently spoke with the SUN about bringing his cabaret “Timeless” to Philadelphia.
Reflecting on his career path, de Haas traced his lifelong passion for music directly back to his family.
“Music is something that I knew I always wanted,” he said. “My mother was a singer, my father was a jazz bassist, my uncle, a singer and pianist, my aunt… a lot of people were performing so I was exposed to it from a very young age and exposed to it from different angles. “My father was in the jazz clubs, my mother, very early in my childhood, was doing a lot of theater before she became more of a producer but always sang in clubs. She sang with my aunt and uncle as a trio, Andy and The Bey Sisters. So, they had recordings from the late fifties, early sixties that I was raised on as well. I was always exposed to so many different aspects of the arts at the same time. Basically, it was not even a question for me, you know, and really just loving it to love it, even with the hills and valleys.”
“It is work,” de Haas said.“ “Yes, we love it, and it’s our passion but you do have to work at it and recalibrate. If you are fortunate to be able to do it for many years, I mean, the beauty of it also is the discovery and rediscovery — looking at things from a different angle and working with new people and all of that.”
Looking back, de Haas remembered that even as a kid in Chicago, he had a clear sense of his future.
“I grew up on the south side of Chicago and at that time there were, fortunately, some avenues in which I could take classes and things like that,” he said. “I knew I always wanted to sing. I would see my mother in shows, and I could sort of reproduce what I heard the night before of seeing her sing and the people that she was seeing if she was doing a theater show. So, I always knew I wanted to be on Broadway.
“I took a lot of theater classes at the ETA Creative Arts Foundation on Chicago’s South Side, as well as being very involved in acting classes, choir and dance classes at my high school at Whitney Young Magnet High School,” de Haas continued. “So, I was very focused. I was also kind of a nerd, and I was kind of awkward and all those things. In high school, I found my people — in the theater classes and in the choir as well. One of my choir friends included Craig Robinson (not former first lady Michelle Obama’s brother)… [whose mother], dear Flora Robinson, was our choir teacher and I just loved her.”
The decision to expand into concerts began with deHaas’ Lincoln Center Billy Strayhorn tribute, which also served as the start of embracing a multi-faceted career that defied early industry pressure to stick to one medium.
“When I graduated high school, I went to Columbia College and then eventually made my way to New York on a scholarship to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy,” de Haas said. “I was very concentrated on theater. I’ve toured nationally with shows, I did Broadway shows and continue to do Broadway shows and off Broadway shows to this day.”
“In February, I said, ‘I really wanna do concerts as well. I wanna expand because that was always part of my growing up as well.’ I had the opportunity to perform here in New York at the Lincoln for a songbook series doing the music of Billy Strayhorn,” he continued. “Of course, picking one of the most difficult composers to sing, but someone who really needed to have a light shone on him because people didn’t really know who he was, except for certain cloistered groups of people. That opened up a whole other aspect of my career, and I knew I wanted to do concerts and recordings… it was just what my passion led me to.”
Incorporating a combination of talents, de Haas described his cabaret as a show that directly draws from the iconic vocal influences he channeled for his role on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
“This is a show that I specifically created that continues to evolve because I’ve actually done it now a few times,” De Haas said. “This year I did it in Florida, Nebraska — I premiered it in Bucks County a couple years ago. The crux of it really came out of my experience of working on the TV show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in which I provided the voice of the singer, Shy Baldwin.”
“Shy Baldwin is inspired by the greatest singers who ever lived — Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke — but also because of my background growing up in a musical family, [and] also inspired by people like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne,” he continued. “So, I poured all of that into the world of Shy Baldwin, vocally. I was thinking, well, let me create a show where people can hear at length the influences that went into creating the vocals of that character because Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, all of them are very different singers. For some reason, I understood, chemically how I could make that all work.”
“This show is an exploration of that and my tip of the hat, my tribute, my “thank you” to all those wonderful singers of the golden age, also with a strong family contingent as well, because I put my uncle Andy Bey — who just passed away in April — right up there,” de Haas said. “He’s a great influence on me as well. That is what the crux of the show is. It’s still the golden age, but also kinda goes into more contemporary stuff as well. I grew up in the seventies and eighties, in the ages of Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway… I’m trying to fit it all in there!”
Darius de Haas will perform his cabaret show “Timeless” at the Broadway Cabaret at the Rittenhouse Grill, located in the Warwick Hotel in Rittenhouse Square on October 20. The evening will offer an elegant dinner-and-show experience, with seating for dinner at 5:30 PM followed by the performance at 8:00 PM. This event is part of the Broadway Cabaret series, which is Philadelphia’s only Broadway cabaret venue. The series was founded by producer Randy Swartz in partnership with Garth Weldon, the owner of the Rittenhouse Grill. During the performance, de Haas will also be performing original songs from his upcoming holiday album set to be released digitally on October 24.
“I’m going to be singing a couple of things from the holiday album as well, which also figures into the theme of the show because the original song that I’ll be singing is the title track of the album. “Let Me Carry You This Christmas” was written by the writers that I worked with at “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” So, if there’s all these connections, all these nice threads.” he said.
“With Mrs. Maisel, I knew there were certain songs that I sang,” de Haas continued.
“So, I said, well, let me start with those standards, “They Say It’s Wonderful” and “Younger Than Springtime.” Let me pull from the catalogs of those different singers that those songs were inspired by and see if I [want to] do something else. If he’s inspired by Nat King [Cole] what are the songs that people will immediately know?So I said, well, let me pull out “Nature Boy.” Not only was it a great song, it’s also a very unique song. It also, for my particular sensibility, has something that I can really relate to, pour into it.” From paying homage to legends like Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis, “Timeless” is sure to take audiences on a beautifully guided musical journey. Expressing his deep appreciation for the culture of Philadelphia, de Haas shared his personal connection to this city and the healing power of music.
“My first time visiting Philadelphia was many years ago as a little boy, when my aunt was doing the out-of-town tryout of a show called “Your Arms Too Short to Box with God.” She was in the original company of that,” he said. “That was my very first trip to Philadelphia, so it’s wonderful to come back. What a great town musically, culturally, [and] that has done so many wonderful things for the arts. It’s no accident that you all are called the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection. I think we need a lot of love. During this time, we need music and the arts — it illuminates our humanity, but it also is a salve for our spirit. Particularly in this time, we need a lot of that. A lot of the show is about that ,and my “thank you” and my gratitude to all these artists — my uncle Andy included — who so inspired me, and exploring the question of why these songs still resonate.”
Reservations for “Timeless” are required and can be made online at: rittenhousegrill.com/cabaret-series or by phone at: (215) 772-1701. A brief post-show meet and greet with Darius de Haas is open to all guests.
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