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A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical (Studio 54, Broadway) - ★★★★ REVIEW
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Mickey Jo
So I saw this one back in November and I thought to myself, what a wonderful show with a terrible title. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I am a professional theatre critic here on social media and today we will be talking about A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong musical or the Louis Armstrong Musical really, really, it's up to you. This opened late in 2024 at the Broadway Theatre Studio 54 as part of the busy Broadway season and stars Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart as the iconic, beloved jazz musician Louis Armstrong in the story of his life, featuring much of the music with which he is associated as well as a lot of additional music alongside in order to tell his story. A story that takes us from his origins in New Orleans through his time spent in Chicago and Hollywood, eventually culminating in New York, all framed via him getting ready for a concert that will look back over his life and career. And while this is the latest of a great many jukebox bio musicals, it's not even the only new one arriving this season. With Jonathan Groff set to star as Bobby Darren in the upcoming musical Just In Time, this one does a handful of things a little differently which make it notable. And that's what we're going to be talking about today because I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this on Broadway. We will also be talking about things like the staging, the design and the standout performances. And if you enjoy today's review, make sure to subscribe or follow me wherever you are seeing my face or hearing my voice. For many more reviews of Broadway and West End shows coming very soon as well as within the next few months. Much punditry about the upcoming Tony Awards at which A Wonderful World, like many other new shows this season, of course is aspiring to be a significant player. For now though, let us talk about this show and if you have caught this one already on Broadway, let us all know what you thought in the comments section down below. Here is what I thought. Now, like I mentioned, this one took me by surprise. I was surprised how much I enjoyed A Wonderful World, the Louis Armstrong musical, not because it has a small army of producers behind it, and not because there was a late stage decision for James Monroe Iglehart himself to be the show's co director alongside Christina Saju. No, the reason I was reluctant to enjoy this show as much as I did was because we have seen so many jukebox bio Musicals recently, many in this era. And my problem with many of them inherently is they all try and instill tension and suspense by suggesting, you know, as this artist is progressing towards what we already know before we walked into the theater is going to be a successful and accomplished and glittering and financially very rewarding career, that they might not make it. And fair enough. In the fascinating events of many of these artists lives, there are several moments where it seemed like everything could go wrong. But to try and get us to wor about that as an audience when we already know that they're going to be fine is pointless. This one robs itself immediately of the ability to do that because we begin with a framing device where we meet Louis later in life, like I mentioned, getting ready for a concert that will look back on his career. And it's in that moment of reflection that we are transported back to the past. A framing device that we've seen in a handful of other shows. I'm now always going to think of Lempicka and Eden Espinosa sat on that bench. And in general, I could do with fewer Broadway shows opening with the, well, I bet you're wondering how I got here kind of a set up. But there's something about the charm of James's delivery as Louis in that scene in the dialogue between him and the other character on stage that just about makes me not mind this one. It also frames the entire show as a life worth revisiting and worth looking back on and a journey that he is going to take us, the audience, on alongside him. And it is a notable journey, one that covers a lot more ground, I think, than something like a Jersey Boys or a handful of the other jukebox shows that I've seen. Side note, why is it always that they are being deceived financially by their managers? That's always a subplot of all of these shows, including this one. Honestly, the music industry sucks. Anyway, like I said, Lewis's life covers an awful lot of ground, beginning in New Orleans where he is playing the trumpet for King Oliver and he is quite contented in this. And he has fallen in love with a local prostitute. A sentence that may have taken you aback a little. But listen, this is musical theater. He's not the first one we've all seen. Miss Saigon, don't be acting brand new. And this actually is the beginning of a reasonably clever framing device that they use in this show where they compartmentalize the various stages of his career and by extension his life, into the four places in which he lived and the four different women he was married to during those times. We begin with the first wife in New Orleans, after he eventually convinces her to say yes to his proposal. Shortly after this, however, he travels to Chicago to pursue his career as a jazz musician, where he meets the woman who will become his his second wife, who is a musician herself, who is a deal more savvy in the business than he is, a little more experienced and understandably, being geographically apart from her, he accidentally, We've all been there. Forgets that the first wife existed. A red flag that the second wife ought to have been paying more attention to, because a little time after this, near the beginning of the show's second act, he goes to Hollywood, becomes a big success in the early days of talking pictures alongside his deeply devoted, or should I say briefly devoted third wife. But listen, you don't need to feel bad for Lewis, because by time that he goes to New York for this fourth segment of his career, he meets, you guessed it, his fourth wife. And though he is telling us his story personally, it's also told essentially through his relationships with each of these women. And deplorable as we may find some of this romantic behavior in any other character, there seems to be no limits to the charm of James Monroe Iglehart as Louis Armstrong, because he kind of gets forgiven for all of it. I've heard criticism of the way that his wives are used sort of as a device in the show, but I think in their way, each of them is fleshed out and developed, particularly Wives two and four. They get really decent characters in this show, certainly more so than in the likes of Ain't Too Proud. And not to keep mentioning it, but Jersey Boys in that show, they can be down to two women, and they still find a way to make it work. And this, that would prove challenging, I feel. And that is how the show is structured. Like I said, it uses some of the music with which he has been associated, but also other music of the time, of the eras. Yes, we hear his performance of hello Dolly from the hello Dolly movie musical that he appeared in alongside Barbra Streisand. More on that moment and how it's utilized momentarily. But what affords this a depth, which is very important to me, is an extra dimension that accompanies his story, because in one of his earliest professional jobs as a trumpet player, he is working on a steamship. And what begins as an uncomfortable encounter with some demanding white guests ends with one of the other black musicians, conditions aboard the boat, being chased off of it, and Lynched this is one of many moments of racism and discrimination that Lewis bears witness to throughout his own rise to success, and especially when he then travels to Hollywood and he has to really reckon with the public image of himself which he is curating, and how to make himself palatable to racist white America of the time. The show really explores what it means for him to exist as a black artist at that time, especially with everything that he has has seen and everything that he has been made aware of about what it's like for other black musicians. And that is the area in which I think A Wonderful World has more depth and has more nuance to it than a lot of other jukebox musicals. Because, you know, here was this incredibly important figure who, as a jazz musician, literally played alongside all of these other musicians throughout his career. And to not acknowledge everything happening alongside, to not acknowledge his role within that community, would be foolish, I feel. And while could absolutely make a very commercially viable show. That said, like, how did Louis Armstrong get to where he is and isn't he charming to make a show that says all of that as well as, here's a little more information about all of the women in his life. And here is everything that he had to deal with and the conflict that he felt about it. We go to some moments of real weight and darkness as he refuses not to make some kind of a statement about the nature of racism in the country towards the end and at the height of his success, really. And so there is so much that I enjoy about this show. My one real reservation is the way that it concludes. This is going to be a bit of a spoiler. If you don't want to know about the ending of the show, skip ahead to the next section. But we find Louis essentially readying for death, comforted by the spirit of his four wives around him, ready to guide him into heaven. All of adultery forgiven, it seems. And it's at this moment that we sing A Wonderful World, if I'm recalling this correctly. And I remember thinking, now, this song. This is how we're using this song. And he makes before this a big political speech. And there are so many moments in which he encounters dreadful atrocities happening to members of his own community, to other black musicians, and he sees dreadful realities of prevalent racism. And there are so many opportunities where the song A Wonderful World would be strikingly poignant in its irony. But where it is, it doesn't really. It isn't really forced to contend with all of that. It's just presented in a way that's a Little more honest. And it's a happy and charming ending to the show, but I think. I don't know, I think it robs it a little of some of the weight of the issues that it's been addressing. It's almost like the show itself keen to leave tourists in a good mood and kind of sweeps a lot of that darkness under the rug. And given that that is the context of this song, that is why I have a little bit of an issue with this as a title, because it does just feel unironic, and that's not really the story that it presents. Now, the show was conceived by Andrew delaplaine and Christopher Renshaw. The book was written by Austin Squire. And it is. It is of a decent length. It is very substantial show. It also, on occasion, throughout, because he is constantly going to and from women, we don't necessarily get as much opportunity as we might like to really get to know Louis in isolation. I don't know that you walk away from Studio 54 having found out that much more about him as an individual. He begins as a jazz musician, he ends as a jazz musician. And throughout the show, he is a jazz musician who is briefly in films. And we find out that he is amorous, you know, and has a remarkable strength of character and personal conviction and principles. But I can't help but feel as though we are missing, especially some early moments to really get to grips with his motivations and aspirations as a character. Beyond. I like playing the trumpet and I want to marry this whore. Anyway, let's continue talking about the production and the creative elements that bring it all together. Now, the show has been principally directed by Christopher Renshaw, with Christina Saju and James Monroe Iglehart listed as co directors, and Ricky Tripp credited with choreography and musical staging, and DeWitt Fleming Jr. Responsible for additional tap choreography, which he performs himself. Listen, sometimes it takes a village. And I love a Broadway musical that is a Broadway musical. And the sets and the dance numbers and the. All of the magic of this, I find really enchanting. I love Studio 54 as a venue to begin with, with. But you walk in through this gorgeous mirrored entranceway, these beautiful chandeliers above you, and I don't know if they're doing this at every performance or if this was just the press preview that I was at, but there is a marching band playing instruments, walking around the back of the orchestra section, transporting you immediately to New Orleans. You hear that sound. And as we go through the show, no matter where it's taking place, they do this really remarkable thing which is so appropriate to the character of Louis Armstrong, is they find a way to put joy on the stage and radiate joy from this show. And like I said, we experience some real moments of despair and darkness with some of the themes and some of the historical realities that we touch on within this material. But at so many turns, they just evoke joy. They find a way to theatricalize joy. And that's really remarkable, I think, about this show. One of the ways in which they do that is towards the end, as he is talking about his experience on film, he recalls his role in hello Dolly, where, contrary to the way that it's performed, in the stage version, he sang the titular song, hello Dolly, as a solo alongside Barbra Streisand. And so in the stage version, he sings it as a solo. But because we're on Broadway and because, you know, enough people know it, it becomes a sing along moment. And so we're at A Wonderful World, this jukebox musical about Louis Armstrong, and we are all, as an audience singing hello Dolly. What is that if not joyous? You can't even sing hello Dolly at hello Dolly. I mean, you can, but you probably shouldn't. You may be asked to leave here. It's encouraged. And there are plenty of other songs that you won't be able to sing along to even if you wanted to, because your jaw will be on the floor. Because the level of choreography and the execution of it and the electricity of the staging, it is high octane, broad, Broadway brilliance. Numbers like I double dare you in the second act performed by his fourth wife, Lucille. Numbers like when you're Smiling, it's so winningly staged. They make excellent use of a revolve that goes in and out of certain doorways on this gorgeous set. Adam Cock and Stephen Royal are credited with scenic and video design. I love the way that this set incorporates video elements. I think it's done very cleverly while still feeling lush and expensive and full. And situating him within all of these different jazz clubs, but then taking us to Hollywood. And what I love about this set, the character of it, is that it transports us to all of these completely different cities. To go from New Orleans to New York by way of the west coast and Chicago is quite a feat. But like Louis himself, he's kind of captured within that set because it looks like each individual place and we understand that that's where we are, but it retains the character of New Orleans and the circumstances of his birth the entire time. So it's. It personifies him, really. Tony Leslie James's costumes are gorgeous. I love to see period costumes like this. Really all of the creative elements on this show are to be celebrated. It is so creatively rich and it's a treat to be able to bask in these historic jazz eras and to be able to feel immersed in that world. It offers you, I think, the same nostalgia as watching music documentaries, except the whole thing is vivid and live and inglorious. Technica of course, we have to talk about the musical team now. Daryl Walters is credited with music supervision, vocal and incidental music arrangements and additional orchestrations, with Branford Marsalis responsible for orchestrations and arrangements. There is also Daryl G. Ivey, music director, dance music arranger Zayn Mark, music coordinator David Lai and all of it would be pointless if it weren't for Kai Harada's sound design. And it sounds great. The music is fantastic. There is a lot of music in the show and I like the idea of a jukebox musical that incorporates not only the artists own best remembered songs but also the music around them. Because there is something always a little bit not only anachronistic but kind of jarring when they sing in the early part of their life or someone near to them sings a song that wouldn't be written and conceived until much later. And so the idea of using these different jazz standards makes it all feel a little bit more historically sound. That being said, I am not a jazz history scholar so it could be completely inaccurate and I would not have any idea. I had a nice time, but it looks great, it sounds great, it's thrilling to watch, it's incredibly satisfying. A big part of that is also the fantastic performances. Let me tell you about this cast. Now we obviously have to offer our principal praise to James Monroe Iglehart, who is playing Louis Armstrong. I have to assume that he is going to be looking at a Tony Award nomination for this role, if only because that so often happens to the leads of these bio musicals. But like I said, Jonathan Groff also doing it this season. But I do hope that James is nominated because I think what he does with this character is brilliant and charming and you know, to see him go from this naivety and this foolishness at the beginning of his career and grow both wise and weary, but retain that youthfulness as we see him encounter for the first time each of the women who would become his wife, we see rekindled in him this passion of a much younger man. If Armstrong is meant to be motivated by his love not only for these women but, you know, place just as high. Alongside that, his love for his music. James puts that across effortlessly by exuding a love for what he is doing on stage. There is also the conversation to be had of the particular vocal affectation that he has to do in order to impersonate Louis Armstrong's iconic voice. Now, we hear this right at the beginning, and then as we flashback to the past, it fades a little bit, but it very quickly comes back. I think it's almost as early as. As soon as he goes to Chicago, he says that he has a cold when he's asked about his voice. It's not something that happens gradually throughout the show. It's like he has it, then he doesn't have it, and then he has it again, which, you know, it seemed like it was going to make it real easy for us to be able to tell the difference between younger and older Louis. But reasonably quickly, that went away. And this is probably the only shortcoming that I could really put my finger on within his performance is that we could get a little more clarity around his aging and a little more sense of the progression of this throughout his time on stage. It doesn't feel like quite as many years as it is as it was, I should say. But the fact that he can manipulate his voice that way and do the signature kind of raspy, husky quality, I think because he was in Spamalot with Alex Brightman, I think he attributes his understanding of how to do that to him. Alex Brightman, who obviously learned how to do that for Beetlejuice, it's very impressive. And for an audience that may recognize Iglehart as King Arthur from Spamalot, or more of them as the genie from Aladdin, it plays a big role in this complete transformation that happens to turn him into Louis Armstrong. Strong. FYI, I keep saying the name different ways. He says it different ways, and characters say it different ways throughout the show. There is no consensus about how to pronounce this man's name. The world seems to say Louis. He said Louis in the hello Dolly film. This show gives you both. There's also something quite magical just about James's smile. And he, like the show itself, can exude this joy so effortlessly. And so when we see him brought to whoa, it's hugely upsetting because we've been so entranced by this extraordinary grin and the warmth that came with that. Now, Dion Figgins plays Daisy Parker, wife number one. She's a real spitfire when we meet her in the first act, and then when she unexpectedly returns, she delivers A lot of sass and a lot of passion. She's fantastic. His next wife is Lil Harden, played by Jenny Harney Fleming. One of the two strongest supporting performances in the show. I thought she was remarkable. I mean, Wives two and get the best material in no uncertain terms, but she arrives into his life with this immediate directness and this force. Kim Exum plays Alpha Smith, wife number three, and Dalisha Kersey plays Lucille, his final wife. It's like six, but four. Lucille probably has the showiest material. She gets to not only be this extraordinary performer in her own right, but then also, you know, she really grapples with the relationship with him and makes concessions and demands and, you know, comes to terms with the realities of being this man's wife with her very modern but also uncompromising approach to it and her performance through all of that, like, like all of the women really has this force and this determination and they're all just a joy to watch on stage. But her in particular, she's really a star. Now there are a handful more brilliant supporting cast members in this show. In particular Gavin Gregory, who plays a musical mentor to Louis King, Joe Oliver. Now this character also plays a role in Louis understanding of the plight of the black artist in, you know, historic America. Because even though it's on the back of his success that Louis finds his first few professional opportunities, he later encounters him basically living in squalor. The scene and song which make up that encounter are incredible, incredibly powerful. One of the most impactful moments of the show, There is also DeWitt Fleming Jr. And his unforgettable toe tapping appearance as Lincoln Perry, the actor who helps Lewis understand how he is going to navigate Hollywood finally. And though I didn't have the joy of seeing him at this performance because he is an alternate for the leading role, there is also James T. Lane whose work I have enjoyed on stages for years. So if you're seeing performance where James Monroe Iglehart is not performing and James T. Lane is, do not be too sad. I would love to hear what he's like in the role. If anyone has seen James T. Lane, let me know in the comments section down below because honestly, I'd go back and see this show again to enjoy him in the role. Anyway, those have been many of my thoughts about A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong musical currently running at Studio 54. If you've seen the show already, let me know what you thought in the comments down below. Whether you agreed with me or not. And if you haven't seen it yet and it sounds like something you might be interested in. Consider it if you're in New York right now or anytime soon. Thank you for listening to this review. I hope that you've enjoyed if you did. Make sure to subscribe or follow me for many more theatre reviews coming very soon. Soon. In the meantime, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a Stagey Day. For 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day subscriber.