Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – James Monroe Iglehart shines as Satchmo in the by-the-books jukebox bio-musical A WONDERFUL WORLD

• By drediman
• November 12, 2024
• No Comments

Last night, the new musical A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical opened on Broadway at Studio 54, a fitting venue for a show centered largely around music and the nightlife scene. If you hadn’t already gathered, the new jukebox musical chronicles the life of the singular Louis Armstrong — the legendary twentieth century jazz musician whose career impressively spanned New Orleans blues, the hot jazz of Chicago, notable appearances in Hollywood films, and the glittering nightclubs of New York — weaving a good chunk of his iconic songbook to tell his story and animate the show’s narrative.

In an interesting storytelling device, Armstrong’s life and career is told through the lens of his four wives. As such, the musical’s quadrant-like structure is reminiscent of Jersey Boys, and there’s more than a passing whiff of Six with the added perspectives of Satchmo’s four wives. However, if you’ve seen other bio-musicals like the aforementioned Jersey Boys, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, or Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, you’ll get the gist of it all and the overarching trajectory of the show. Ultimately, Aurin Squires’s script is a by-the-books treatment of Armstrong’s life and times, one that often retreats from deep-diving characterization — Armstrong, after all, was a flawed man — in favor of predictable musical theater storytelling and spectacle. Indeed, a part of me yearned for a little more dangerous and adventurous theatricality (I’m thinking of shows like Jelly’s Last Jam, a superior musical about another jazz musician, Jelly Roll Morton).

The production has been efficiently staged by Christopher Renshaw (whose glorious revival of The King and I in the mid-1990s I remember fondly), featuring elegant if somewhat drab sets and projections by Adam Koch and Steven Royal. Kudos also to the the evocative costumes by veteran designer Toni-Leslie James, which expertly evokes time and place, as well as Cory Pattak’s lighting, which occasionally pops when it needs to. Best of all is the wonderfully lucid sound design by Kai Harada, which allows audiences to fully appreciate the swinging live band and their excellent playing of the terrific orchestrations by Branford Marsalis and Daryl Waters (be forewarned, Armstrong’s jazz sound is often transmuted into the Broadway vernacular, which may dismay some purists).

Despite my misgivings of the musical at large, there’s, no denying the star wattage that fuels James Monroe Iglehart’s performance as Armstrong (the Tony-winner shares the role with James T. Lane, another fantastic performer). Suffice to say, his mannerisms are spot on and he oozes charisma whenever he’s onstage, which is unsurprisingly most of the show (Iglehart is also credited for co-directing the production, along with Christin Sajous). And although they’re somewhat under-written, the roles of Satchmo’s four wives are nonetheless forcefully played by Dionne Figgins, Jennie Harney-Fleming, Kim Exum, and Darlesia Cearcy, each of whom bring down the house with their respective showstopping numbers.

SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED

A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL
Broadway, Musical
Studio 54
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Open run