James Iglehart (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical

By Julia Polinsky

When you drop a coin into a jukebox, you pays your money and you hardly ever takes your chances. With A Wonderful World, The Louis Armstrong Musical, your chances are really good to hear some great music (arrangements by Branford Marsalis and Daryl Waters), enjoy some splendid choreography (Rickey Tripp) danced by splendid dancers, and catch a couple of enchanting performances.

Chances are also good you'll also get a story that's a bit superficial. If you know little about Armstrong (James Monroe Iglehart) before the lights come up, you won't know much more at final curtain - that's what Wikipedia is for. Aurin Squire, who wrote the book for A Wonderful World, has chosen to gloss over, or barely refer to, many important moments in Armstrong's life. The New Orleans Jewish family that cared for him in childhood: tossed off in a couple of incongruous sentences. Running from the Mob? Almost turned into a comedy routine. Accused of being an Uncle Tom, enraged at Little Rock and angry with Eisenhower: at least these moments had a powerful-enough emotional kick.

Instead, the show features Armstrong's life with his wives. We get New Orleans Louis and the prostitute, Daisy (Dionne Figgins), then Chicago Louis and the brilliant musician, Lil (Jennie Harney-Fleming), then Hollywood Louis and the sweet bimbo, Alpha ((Kim Exum), then New York Louis and strong, grown-up Lucille (Darlesia Cearcy).

The Wives have the greater character, and the show, for better or worse, is built around them. Of the 30 songs in A Wonderful World, about half are sung, in whole or in part, by a Wife. Each is a powerhouse singer, absolutely killing her songs, in modern jazz styling, not period-appropriate style, which may be jarring but makes good business sense. You won't put people in expensive Broadway seats with 1920s vocal styling, so this jukebox plays the songs as if they were being sung today.

America changed so much over the 5 decades of Armstrong's life; he, in some ways, was its soundtrack, from the Hot Five in the 20s to the hugely popular titular song from late in his life. Lots of grim incidents thread through the show, from lynching (in a too-subtle staging) to pursuit by the Mob, to bigotry and prejudice in Hollywood even as his film career takes off, to being unable to get a gig. Then, for no clear reason, comes the unexpected hit of "Hello, Dolly," (prepare to sing along) and then "What A Wonderful World" itself, as Louis ascends into heaven, attended by singing wives.

Jennie Harney-Fleming, Darlesia Cearcy, James Iglehart, Dionne Figgins, Kim Exum (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

It's a good thing Iglehart is so damn good, because he doesn't have a lot to work with; his Louis doesn't develop. He starts great and stays great, a performance that could easily be called "one note." He does break out from time to time: his reaction to lynching, or his revulsion at the events in Little Rock.

James Iglehart, DeWitt Fleming Jr.  (Photo: Jeremy Daniel)

Better yet, he beams his delight at his meeting with Lincoln Perry, the actor who played Stepin Fetchit - that scene, and that dance number to "When You're Smiling", are the high point of the show. Many truths are spoken in that scene. For a show nominally about Armstrong, he's curiously shadowy, yet here, he talks with Perry about hustle, and his concerns about Black people accusing him of being a "bootlicking race traitor." At one point, he talks about that great big memorable smile being his armor. That Louis Armstrong needed armor is a sorrow and a pity, but the show is relentlessly cheerful, even into the big finish as he's translated into heaven, complete with wispy smoke effects and Wives in black dresses, singing him home.

Production values for this big-ticket Broadway musical also come up a little off. Adam Koch and Steven Royal's scenic and video design has a curiously road-show vibe to it, as if A Wonderful World were destined to play out of town forever. It also doesn't do much to evoke time and place. Kai Harada's sound design is splendid. Toni-Leslie James contributes super costumes for the women, slightly less so for the men. Direction was pulled in several directions by contributing directors, (Christopher Renshaw, James Monroe Iglehart, Christina Sajous). Clearly, a single vision would have made for a more coherent show; there were points where it seemed as though the creative team abandoned ship and just said, "Hey, let's put in a song!"

And oh, those songs! Worth it to see the show just for the pleasure of hearing the butt-kicking band working it out on "Avalon", or "When You're Smiling," "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," and on and on... For that glorious music, and Iglehart's delight in channelling America's ambassador of jazz, A Wonderful World, The Louis Armstrong Musical, no matter its eccentricities, fulfills Armstrong's love of this wonderful world.

A Wonderful World, The Louis Armstrong Musical

At Studio 54, 254 W 54^th St

Information and tickets: https://louisarmstrongmusical.com/

Running time: 2:30