Sammy Davis Jr. Paved the Way for Obba Babatunde to ‘Jam’

If it wasn’t for the late Sammy Davis Jr., Obba Babatunde wouldn’t be where he is today--starring as legendary composer Jelly Roll Morton in George C. Wolfe’s “Jelly’s Last Jam” at the Mark Taper Forum.

“He was the person who was there for me as a child to look at and go, ‘Wow, I have a chance to do something,’ ” Babatunde says.

Babatunde, who is dedicating his performance to Davis, met him a few years back while on a world tour with Liza Minnelli. “We were on the same junket as Sammy,” he recalls. “I got to know him very well. He became a very good friend, and I learned a great deal from him about life and the business. He was the one who carved, at the time when it couldn’t be more difficult, a niche which then turned into a road which opened into a valley which became a highway by which entertainers like myself can pass through.”

Babatunde has been involved with “Jelly’s Last Jam” for several years. “I did a two-week workshop last year and I had done the very first reading many years ago,” he says. “It has changed drastically since then and even since this little two-week workshop.”

He admits he thought he had his fill of workshops after being part of the original workshop and cast of Michael Bennett’s landmark musical, “Dreamgirls,” for which he received a Tony nomination.

“It’s always a joy to be involved in something which you are creating in which you are taking the art form of theater and advancing it and squeezing into a whole other shape,” he explains.

But, Babatunde adds, “workshops are taxing because you don’t know if the production is going to go. We did the workshop for ‘Dreamgirls’ for a year-and-a-half! It was unbelievable! We got $150 per week, my darling, and we were all seasoned performers. The six stars of the show were in the workshop and we played all the roles, too. I should have asked for retroactive pay!”