Sammy Davis Jr. was an entertainment icon from the time he burst on the national scene in the 1950s to the time of his death in 1990 at the age of 65. He was “Mr. Entertainment,” and, with deference to James Brown, perhaps the hardest working man in show business.

Sean Blake does a splendid job of embodying the late performer in what is mostly a one-man show, “Why Not Me? A Sammy Davis Jr. Story,” now performing at The Performance Network in Ann Arbor. The show, making its Michigan premiere, is written and directed by Tim Rhoze.

There is little singing in the 1:50 minute show, which was surprising. But there is just enough to set the mood. We find Sammy in a dressing room after a performance by himself. He is soon joined by an un-named (but there are clues that it is Michael Jackson) guest who we don’t see. Blake has a long running story-telling session with his invisible guest.

Sammy Davis Jr.’s life seemed to touch more boundaries, and cross them, than just about any other black performer of his time. He dated white starlets like Kim Novak and Ava Gardner, married one in May Britt, and was more associated with and grouped with white stars like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as part of the Rat Pack than other black performers. Indeed, his character talks about how deeply wounded he was when black patrons booed him and called him an Uncle Tom.

The story takes place a year or so before Davis died of throat cancer, a cruel fate for someone who used his voice to make a living from the time he was four years old. But he lived hard–smoking, drinking and drug use. He was a self-admitted sex addict and his character talks about his wild living, especially in Las Vegas, where the women of all races flocked to him like bees to a picnic fruit salad.

One man shows about famous people can be tricky, and do not always work. “Why Not Me” does work, and benefits from not trying to be a jukebox treatment of Davis’s life. After all, we know what he sounded like. And he was such a one-of-a-kind, and so often imitated by impersonators, that the show benefits from concentrating on his story and story-telling.

Blake looks just enough like Davis to make us think it could be the real star. And he doesn’t overdo things like Davis’s well-known facial contortions or the effects of his glass eye. We do get a detailed account, which I had never heard, of the car accident that caused him to lose his eye, as well as story-telling about his time in the Army and early days of show business when “negroes” and “colored” people were living by Jim Crow.

Bottom Line: Especially for those of us who grew up seeing Sammy Davis Jr. in all his ubiquity from talk shows, variety shows, movies and his own act, “Why Not Me” is an entertaining revelation about the star delivered with great care and craft by Mr. Blake.

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