The Broadway Theatre Review: A Wonderful World – The Louis Armstrong Musical
By Ross
It’s no surprise how this new musical celebrating the artistry of Louis Armstrong gets the jazz going. A lone trumpet elegantly introduces the show, surrounded by old-fashioned traveling trunks and boxes piled high to the ceiling, with Louis, himself, played to absolute perfection by James Monroe Iglehart (Broadway’s Spamalot) engages directly with us, speaking of the unique choices made by those who play Jazz, New Orleans style. It’s the heartbeat of his musical soul, as A Wonderful World – The Louis Armstrong Musical dives in, clapping and dancing the energy out to the audience packed in tight at Studio 54 Theatre. He takes us down Bourbon Street in stereotypical form, where the good times roll in under the shade of some black parasols. The formula is not as unique as his brand of music is, and unfortunately for this biographical musical, the only excitement that exists is in the supreme talent displayed on stage, singing and dancing up a storm, in a structural story that never finds its inner emotional need, its complicated heart, nor its illogical impulsive soul.
Structured around the four women who married this smooth-talking man and the four locale periods of his career; New Orleans, Chicago, Hollywood, and New York City, Wonderful World tries hard to pull us into the man’s inner impulses and musical genius; a man and musician that many refer to as one of the true greats of American Jazz, and I must add, that my father would fully agree with that sentiment. I grew up listening to Louis Armstrong records playing forever in the background of my youth. If it wasn’t Louis, it was Ella, and that was what music sounded like in my Canadian suburban home, and in a way I wish I could have left it as such. As played out in this musical, with a strict timelined book by Aurin Squire (“This Is Us“) and conceived by Andrew DeLaPlaine (“Santopia“) and director Christopher Renshaw (Broadway’s Taboo) – with directing credits also shared by Iglehart (CSUEB’s Ain’t Misbehavin’) and Christina Sajous (Weathervane’s American Idiot) (a complicated unpacking to begin with) – Louis, a musician and singer born to travel and perform on the road, playing music up a lazy river, from train station to train station stops, is beyond talented, wowing everyone who pays attention. Yet, as a romantic partner, he is not really a good man, nor a man you can trust your heart with. Regardless of that big grin he pastes on his face for survival. At least that’s the message I was left with when I left the theatre.
The musical spins out in a pretty straightforward chronological train ride way from beginning to end, with not a lot of time for any introspection or investigation as to why he is the way he is, with the women in his life and with his music. It’s very pointillist in style, where you can almost track the trip through the show by the timely stops along the tracks to pick up and drop off the next wife in each of the four destinations on this journey. it’s calculated, but never deep, sharp, or sexy, like the way he plays his music and sings those legendary songs, even with Iglehartt delivering a near-perfect Armstrong imitation.
I will say that this musical does sound great, and dances like nobody’s business, thanks to some epic work by choreographer Rickey Tripp (Public’s A Raisin in the Sun; “Legs“) and tap choreographer Dewitt Felming Jr. (“Boardwalk Empire“), alongside and assisted by the music supervision/arrangements/orchestrations of Daryl Waters (Broadway’s Water for Elephants), orchestrations & arrangements of Branford Marsalis (Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God), and the musical direction of Darryl G. Ivey (Broadway’s Shuffle Along…). The cast and their singing and dancing light up the stage when the music, pulled from the great American songbook and jazz standards, comes roaring to the forefront of that stage, designed in brashy, functional brass by Adam Koch (Seoul’s Dream Girls) and Steven Royal (Harry Potter: The Exhibition) with strong effective lighting by Cory Pattak (Broadway’s The Great Gatsby) and an off-balanced wobbly sound design by Kai Harada (Broadway’s Kimberly Akimbo). It’s all fine and good but doesn’t carry with it the same level of unique genius, leaving us with a pedestrian walkthrough of a musician’s rise to fame, without a deeper curiosity at its core.
But there is magic on that stage, and it charges out within those dancers and singers, particularly the four wives; Dionne Figgins (Studio 42’s Smokey Joe’s Cafe) as Daisy Parker, Jennie Harney-Fleming (Broadway’s Hamilton) as Lil Hardin, Kim Exum (Broadway’s The Book of Mormon) as Alpha Smith, and Darlesia Cearcy (Broadway’s How to Dance in Ohio) as Lucille Wilson, who together as a force keep this train ride going strong, along with Dewitt Fleming Jr. (MCC’s The Lonely Few) and Gavin Gregory (Broadway’s The Color Purple) showcasing everything that we love about the music and the embodiment of that sound.
It’s filled to the brim with talent of the highest order, delivering the songs of those times with care and power, including: “Basin Street Blues”, “It’s Tight Like That”, “It Don’t Mean a Thing”, “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”, “Cheek to Cheek”, and, of course, the classics “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In”, “Hello, Dolly!”, and, the wonderful title track, “What a Wonderful World.” I just wish I figured out why I should care about this man beyond his music. That deeper framing was never really unpacked for me in this “stupid & happy” musical biographical train ride to nowhere all that meaningful. The A Wonderful World – The Louis Armstrong Musical views from the train window sound spectacular, and dances with an impeccable style, but without a reason or curiosity to understand the man, this musical just left me feeling somewhat numb and slightly bored, when it wasn’t entertaining us with all that delicious singing and dancing.
