By Bill Hirschman
(Once again, Florida Theater On Stage is personally reviewing current shows playing on and off-Broadway. Today, we start with the bio-musical about Louis Armstrong, A Wonderful World. A few days ago, we reviewed The Hills of California, a superb drama about ambition, dreams and family relationships. Coming later in the month, the surprising Sunset Blvd., which bears little resemblance to any production you have seen of this musical, then The Notebook which is closing but will be touring locally soon, then the reimagining of Our Town starring Jim Parsons.)
To begin with, yes, A Wonderful World is an exuberant trumpet call of a musical tracking the life of the legendary Louis Armstrong that will entertains tens of thousands of people as it remains a welcome option for Broadway audiences likely for years.
That said, if you are looking for an in-depth incisive inquiry into the complex artist, this is not it. So it’s a matter of having the right expectations when you go. For anything deeper, search out the book and the drama Satchmo at the Waldorf both written by the late critic Terry Teachout, or the 1976 TV film with Ben Vereen.
A Wonderful World is so carefully designed to be a traditional musical that “Pop” eagerly encourages the Broadway audience to energetically sing along with “Oh, When The Saints Go Marching In” and “Hello, Dolly!”
Or when Armstrong, who from research we discover did not tap dance, engages in a memorable tap dance duet with King Joe Oliver. Scat and the evolution of jazz is seemingly discovered in a single impromptu run-in with a band.
And the genuinely show-stopping number occurs when Armstrong joins “Stepin Fetchit” in a dance number. (His real name was Lincoln Perry and is shown here in his true ultra-suave off-stage persona). Then after the audience applauds and Armstrong retreats to the background, Perry comes downstage and a line of chorines magically appears from the wings to parade across the footlights to join him in a sustained kick classic – which has zero to do with Armstrong or Perry and plenty to do with well-crafted Broadway tropes.
The musical was originally created pre-COVID by the Miami New Drama with a stated intent to go to Broadway. COVID put it on hold until late 2021 when it opened there. The promising show was a solid piece of work starring Juson Williams, with a book by sometime Miamian Aurin Squire, directed by Brit/Miamian Christopher Renshaw, conceived by Renshaw and the late Andrew Delaplaine, choreographed by Rickey Tripp, music arranged and overseen by Annastasia Victory and Michael O. Mitchell, plus 35 Armstrong numbers.
It was developed during runs through Chicago and New Orleans before bowing in New York last month. Eighty percent of entire effort reportedly was overhauled including replacing many, many songs newly orchestrated and arranged by saxophonist Branford Marsalis. Igelhart co-directed post-Miami productions.
And, of course, the major change was pulling out the wonderful Juson Williams and hiring a big-Broadway name, James Monroe Iglehart, best known as the Genie in Aladdin and from Hamilton.
Throughout, Squire does not shy from touching on the social ills of the age, especially institutional and violent racism including lynchings, segregation in Hollywood, drug use. But also the failings of Armstrong himself such as his persistent infidelity across four wives, the growing alcoholism and a never satisfied ambition among other items. But Renshaw and company tick these off a list and then move on to the next big number. There are few, if any, true moments of musical introspection.
Squire divides the play into four sections, each corresponding to a passage in Armstrong’s life – and one of the four women. Some of the songs sung in each section don’t actually originate in the time they are set, but only Armstrong fanatics will recognize that.
But again, you sort of feel like a visitor at a red-hot party.
Iglehart certainly justifies his hiring as the infectious sparkplug – if not a driving diesel engine. He seems a bit taller and wider-shouldered than Armstrong, but he does not shy from having a bit of his girth. Energy infuses everything he does. Of course, he has dutifully studied Armstrong’s oft-imitated gestures, facial expressions and surface persona – not just the joy that the public is familiar with, but the slow sadness his colleagues knew. His voice echoes the gold pouring out of the brass, yet intentionally charts the roughening over time to his later trademarked sandpaper conundrum voice.
The problem with Iglehart’s creation mirrors 85 percent of theater resurrections of figures whom middle-age to senior audience members have etched in their memories: Yes, he is doing an unassailable Rich Little impersonation with head shakes, hanky clasped to the trumpet, broad grins and tossing his head back to laugh, but he lacks that indefinable God-given quality that makes an icon an icon.
(Note: Armstrong is portrayed Mondays and Wednesdays by James T. Lane.)
And, of course, there are now 29 musical numbers sung by, danced by, and energized by a large cast let alone Inglehart plus actresses portraying the four women. They catapult off the stage and into the auditorium as songs melt into bluesy solos, as seductive single notes soar multiple beats. A first-rate band – on view some of the time –includes two trumpeter players who actually produce the clarion passages while Inglehart skillfully (most of the time) mimes tapping the trumpet keys.
However you may feel about this as far as being a gold-spangled biography, there is no doubt that the razzamatazz and joy in this foot-tapping highly polished production is nearly impossible to resist as an evening’s entertainment.
A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong Musical is playing at Studio 54. For tickets: https://louisarmstrongmusical.com/
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