A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

“Jazz is about the choices you make between the notes.” Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong (1901 –1971) was likely nicknamed “Satchmo”/”Satch” by the Karnofsky family who took in his sister, mother, and him in New Orleans. It means “big cheeks” in Yiddish. When he sang and danced for pennies, he’d deposit coins in his mouth to keep older boys from snatching them. As a boy he helped collect “rags and bones” and deliver coal and may have played his first tin horn to draw attention to the family’s junk wagon.

Life was poor and unsettled, often moving residences and changing caregivers. His own father left early on. Having fired his stepfather’s gun, Armstrong was incarcerated in the Colored Waif’s Home where he began to practice cornet. He eventually found a job at a dance hall and credits early musicianship to Joseph Nathan “King” Oliver, who excelled at the instrument. (None of this is indicated in the play.)

James Monroe Inglehart (Louis Armstrong)

We meet the hero (James Monroe Iglehart) looking back from the 1970s. Women (four wives, all of whom he cuckolded, three of whom he unceremoniously left), gangsters (in this book, avoided by running away), and discrimination connect the dots. The first woman is known prostitute Daisy Parker (Dionne Figgins) to whom he’s married four years. According to the show, he abandons her to earn a living on a riverboat.

Surprised the rest of the band is only pretending not to be able to read music to fit White profiling, he learns. During the job, Armstrong encounters the first of several intermittent thugs who want a command performance (and then indentured servitude). He runs – to Oliver in Chicago. (Gavin Gregory – good except with the instrument at his lips no breath, no key work.)

James Monroe Iglehart (Louis Armstrong) and Gavin Gregory (Joe “King” Oliver)

His mentor tells Armstrong that he needs two things in life, women and a White man to represent and get him out of scrapes. Only the former advice is adhered to. The artist was becoming known for his “intense rhythmic ‘swing,’ a complex conception involving accented upbeats, upbeat to downbeat slurring, and complementary relations among rhythmic patterns.” (Brian Cameron Harker) He re-composed pop tunes with variations that made them more compelling to jazz listeners. Playing technique extended the range, tone, and capabilities of the trumpet. There’s no mention of his writing more than 50 songs.

Oliver’s band features Lil Hardin (Jennie Harney-Fleming) on piano. Classically trained, she’s more elegant than anyone the young man’s met. His charisma and talent win over lack of education and backwater roots, but she’s no pushover. They marry and, at her insistence, leave the furious Oliver who’s been taking financial advantage. Lil dresses her husband and runs his career. Against his wishes, she bills him as “The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player.” Success arrives. The marriage lasts seven years.

Dionne Figgins (Daisy Parker) and Iglehart; Jennie Harney-Fleming (Lil Harden) and Iglehart

Next is Alpha Smith (Kim Exum, a solid voice, but no acting skill and plays to the audience) written as a frivolous former house cleaner whose high spirits are welcome but has no substance. At this point, the performer gives in and hires a tough White manager (Jimmy Smagula, excellent) who’d approached him years ago. Armstrong’s last bride is Lucille Wilson (Darlesia Clearcy) known at The Cotton Club by the name Brown Sugar. She’s a caring, stabilizing force.

We see and hear bigotry on Hollywood film sets as well as several clubs along the way, but it’s not until major Civil Rights issues explode that Armstrong takes a stand, refusing to be cultural ambassador for a government that segregates. Voicing his anger gets the artist ostracized until 1964, according to this simplified script, when the recording of “Hello, Dolly” knocks The Beatles off the top of Billboard’s 100 List. He never marches or shares a political platform. Why?

Lucille Wilson and Louis Armstrong (Public Domain)

Three of the wives are fine vocalists and good actresses, giving their roles sass and polish. Solo tap dances are atmospheric, though pairing two men with Brown Sugar misses the opportunity of channeling the Nicholas Brothers. In fact, a mishmash of other performers could easily have portrayed specific stars. A movie duet with a White vocalist could’ve portrayed Bing Crosby in High Society. (Jason Forbach is not up to it.) Faux instrumentalists sloppily take no pains with instruments merely holding them up.

James Monroe Iglehart’s performance is uneven. A flicker of contentious recognition when dismissed for his color is deft. He skillfully recreates Armstrong’s gravelly voice and distinctive scat. We observe the voice change after a cold and are asked to accept it. In truth, the artist later had a series of (unmentioned) surgeries to try to fix this, only exacerbating sound. He also suffered from lip damage over most of his life due to forceful playing.

James Monroe Iglehart (Louis Armstrong) and the Company

Iglehart is credibly charming with incipient wives who fall in too much in the same manner. He shows neither anger nor resolution in departure. Relationships come off as one note. Armstrong’s signature white handkerchief is unrealistically waved rather than used to mop. His cheeks don’t puff while blowing and the familiar popped eyes are all but absent.

Aurin Squire’s book never draws us to the man. We get a sketched lifeline, but little personality. He’s colorful, stubborn, selfish, and seemingly skates through life. Where are iconoclastic details, perhaps quotes? The wives don’t fare much better. Shoehorning in familiar songs, grand as they are, doesn’t work 50 percent of the time. Too many numbers come out of nowhere. These two factors keep something with great promise from realizing potential. It’s entertaining but we don’t care.

Choreography/musical staging by Rickey Tripp is vivacious, imaginative, and accurate to the era.

The piece looks terrific. In their Broadway debuts, Scenic and video designers Adam Koch and Steven Royal offer evocative sets that morph from New Orleans streets (shutters, moss, and lanterns), to a riverboat (enormous lacy paddle), to clubs, a movie set (love the stylized lights) to New York skyline…
Toni-Leslie James creates period appropriate, mostly flattering costumes. (Great hats.)  Matthew Armentrout’s Wigs and hair design are pitch perfect.

Performance Photos by Jeremy Daniel

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
Orchestrations and Arrangements – Branford Marsalis