Broadway Reviews Theatre Review by Howard Miller - November 11, 2024 A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical. Book by Aurin Squire. Conceived by Andrew Delaplaine and Christopher Renshaw Directed by Christopher Renshaw. Co-directed by James Monroe Iglehart and Christina Sajous. Music supervision, vocal and incidental music arrangements, and additional orchestrations by Daryl Waters. Orchestrations and arrangements by Branford Marsalis. Choreography and musical staging by Rickey Tripp. Scenic and video design by Adam Koch and Steven Royal. Costume design by Toni-Leslie James. Lighting design by Cory Pattak. Sound design by Kai Harada. Wig and hair design by Matthew Armentrout. Makeup design by Kali Taylor. Prop design by Lilian Sun. Tap choreography by Dewitt Fleming Jr.. Music director Darryl G. Ivey. Dance music arranger Zane Mark. Music coordinator David Lai. Fight director Lee Soroko. Dialect coach Jerome Butler. Dramaturg Faye Price. Associate choreographer Aurelia Michael. Assistant choreographer Nasha Harris Santiago.
There are a million ways in which Armstrong's story could be brought to the stage. It is as monumental a task as relating the story of this country during the first seven decades of the 20th century. In 2014, for instance, Terry Teachout, then the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal and an Armstrong biographer, gave us an Off-Broadway play called Satchmo at the Waldorf. In it, actor John Douglas Thompson gave a sharp-as-a-tack performance as Armstrong near the end of his life, backstage and alone, out of sight of his adoring fans and quite smileless as he chewed on grudges and regrets following one of his final shows at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Now it's playwright Aurin Squire's turn at the wheel, tasked with creating another version of the Armstrong story by wrestling a plethora of biographical and musical material into a Broadway show running just over two-and-a-half hours and boasting a cast of more than two dozen, with lots of hands on board to guide the production. This includes its star, James Monroe Iglehart, who is credited as one of two co-directors (alongside Christina Sajous), while British opera and theatre director Christopher Renshaw is listed as the show's director. And it was Renshaw, along with novelist Andrew Delaplaine, who conceived the project in the first place. So, yes, lots of hands on the tiller. Who knows whose voice came through the loudest here, but the end result is a jumble of ideas that fail to coalesce into a single approach, resulting in an awkward hybrid of bioplay and jukebox musical. The overarching concept is this: The story of the four-time married Armstrong is related through the eyes of his wives, conveniently allowing for two wives for each of the two acts. In Act I, we've got Daisy Parker (Dionne Figgins), a prostitute with whom Armstrong hooks up in his native New Orleans; and Lil Hardin (Jennie Harney-Fleming), a jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader in her own right who meets Armstrong in Chicago. Then in Act II, there is Wife #3, Alpha Smith (Kim Exum), who joins him during his early Hollywood years, and then, finally, there is Lucille Wilson, the Cotton Club singer from New York who remains married to Armstrong the longest, from 1942 until his death in 1971.
And there's the rub. No question but that James Monroe Iglehart is giving us a solidly recognizable Armstrong. It is a most credible and audience-grabbing performance, down to that gravelly voice and patented smile. The show is at its strongest when Iglehart-as-Armstrong is singing, occasionally even inviting us to join in on one of the familiar numbers. And Branford Marsalis's orchestrations and arrangements, performed by a top-notch band, keep us dancing in our seats. If only the entire evening focused primarily on the music, which seemingly is what kept Armstrong going through thick and thin for the decades of his public life, that would be well worth the visit. But a story that zigzags through the racial history of America and its impact on Black musicians (the rise and the fall of King Oliver, played by Gavin Gregory), and Hollywood actors who learned to turn negative stereotypes into lucrative careers (Lincoln Perry, aka "Stepin Fetchit," played by talented tap artist Dewitt Fleming Jr.) loses so much of its significance in the shorthand version of biography. A narrow focus explored in greater depth would make such a difference in conveying Armstrong's story. Instead, we get an onrush of information amid a passage of time that zooms by too quickly. Songs without context. Context without adequate explanation. And because of it, Iglehart is forced to portray Armstrong as a man who is buffeted by others, almost as a witness to his own life who only comes into his own when he is singing for an audience. And smiling that welcoming smile that simultaneously invites us in and keeps us out. There are other problems, including a dark and dreary set design and shadowy lighting, a sound design that too often blasts at us, and too many frenetic dance numbers. Armstrong was a virtuoso trumpet and cornet player, and a singer who was able to convey a personal meaning to song lyrics so that late-career hits like "Hello, Dolly!" and "Wonderful World" captured listeners everywhere. When Terry Teachout gave us his Louis Armstrong play, he made the decision to leave out the music altogether in order to focus on the man. With A Wonderful World, we are asked to absorb it all. Maybe that's too much for one show to bear.
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