A WONDERFUL WORLD Previews — Page 2

"Boomers? My parents are Boomers, in their mid 70's. Their generation loved The Beatles & Bob Dylan. This is a star from their parents generation. "

"A Wonderful World" was released in 1967, same year Beatles released "Penny Lane". Since "Boomers" were born between 1943-1964, it is not totally true that is just the WW II generation that enjoyed Louis Armstrong.

For all the discussion about how no one listens to swing jazz anymore, I am shocked no one has brought up the audience the show is actually going after. This isn't a show going after a crowd of the Silent Generation, this is going after a black audience. Louis Armstrong is a tremendously important cultural icon in the African American community, and this is a joyously black show celebrating one of their musical heroes. That's the audience I would expect them to be courting.



Also, can we talk about how the understudy for Iglehart and James T. Lane is Brandon Louis Armstrong, Louis' great grand nephew? I caught him on the Hamilton tour a few years back as Mulligan/Madison, he's a highly charismatic performer. If/when he goes on, I think this will be the first time a real-like relative has played a leading role in a Broadway BioMusical. (yes, Olivia Valli played her grandmother in Jersey Boys, but that was a small supporting part and it was off-broadway)

EDSOSLO858 said: "Trista Dollison is on for Daisy Parker today."

That was quick.

This was SOOOO long. The women are the stars. Inglehart is overrated - no award praise needed there. It's manipulative, the boomers loved it. The first act is dull the second, when Smagula an Cearcy arrive things pick up. Book problems that like won't resolve. Good set trying to mask a rough musical.

Is the marketing for this just non-existent? I had no idea this was happening until I saw this thread

Who’s seeing James T. Lane’s first performance as Louis today?

EDSOSLO858 said: "Who’s seeing James T. Lane’s first performance as Louis today?"

I am! Full report later but the rush is stingy as hell. In-person is as bad as the TT, and you can only get orch as “upgraded rush” for $79. I love JTL so I splurged.

I’ll post a full report later, but show started at 2:01 and then multiple HUGE groups started showing up at around 2:10-15 and wouldn’t stop getting seated and chattering for about 10 minutes. A complaint to the box office got me nowhere

Okay, here goes.

The Good:

- JAMES T. LANE!!!!!!! While I have no comparison point, his first performance was essentially flawless. This is a man who knows his way around a jazz-age musical (Chicago, After Midnight, Kiss Me Kate, and others) and so he got the vocal growl down as well as the rhythm. I wish he had more choreography (knowing he’s a magnificent dancer), but he’s seldom off stage, so I suppose that’s a fine trade off. Honestly, Lane set a high standard of what this role could be that I don’t have much of an interest in seeing Iglehart’s take since I can’t imagine him topping that.

- Trista Dollison, Darlesia Cearcy, and Jennie Harney-Fleming: All three were fantastic as the wives. Dollison was on again for Dionne Figgins and she was sassy, brassy, and vocally talented. Cearcy was the best choice for the wife to close the show, but Harney-Fleming might be the wife most remembered during awards season. She’s shrewd and tough - like a jazz age Cookie Lyon. (Unfortunately, while Kim Exum has a nice song, her wife character seemed to just be a passing plot device)

- The Orchestrations: Anytime you hand Branford Marsalis a jazz score, you will get magic and then some. I will say nothing else.

The Okay:

- The Choreography: Now, the choreography is fantastic, especially when DeWitt Fleming has a show stopping moment mid show. However, some parts are overchoreographed a bit and could stand some cuts.

- The Set: It kind of reminded me of Lempicka with all the stairs, platforms and catwalks. There are some computerized elements, but it’s otherwise pretty pedestrian.

- The Song Choices: I get they wanted to cover his whole oeuvre as much as they could but we did not need multiple reprises of the Tiger Rag or a scene where he sings “You’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead…” to the Memphis Police Department. Which brings me to…

The Bad:

The Book: It’s both exhaustive and exhausting. It covers a majority of his life from when he met his first wife to his death. However, A LOT of details are crammed in at the expense of fleshing out characters or framing the story in a more interesting way. Honestly, the way the wives were spectrally coming in and out of some scenes, I feel like I would’ve preferred they taken the “Jelly’s Last Jam” route and used them to tell the story, instead of using and disposing of them as quickly and Louis himself did. Also, there are multiple half-assed subplots about mob involvement and the like that could stand to be reduced.

- The Pace: The show started at 2:01 and ended at 4:50. That’s a LONG show for a musical. Obviously, there is an intermission and I have the attention span and capacity, but quite a few times, I was like “speed it up - why do I care about this”.

The Upside is that the cast at the Stage Door said they are making quite a few cuts and changes and to come back once it’s frozen. I’m going back in two weeks so we shall see.

While not the greatest offering currently out there, it’s damn entertaining, James T. Lane has a star turn, and it’s comparatively better to a lot of other things I’ve seen open this season so far.

quizking101 said: "Okay, here goes.

The Good:

- JAMES T. LANE!!!!!!! While I have no comparison point, his first performance was essentially flawless. This is a man who knows his way around a jazz-age musical (Chicago, After Midnight, Kiss Me Kate, and others) and so he got the vocal growl down as well as the rhythm. I wish he had more choreography (knowing he’s a magnificent dancer), but he’s seldom off stage, so I suppose that’s a fine trade off. Honestly, Lane set a high standard of what this role could be that I don’t have much of an interest in seeing Iglehart’s take since I can’t imagine him topping

- The Set: It kind of reminded me of Lempicka with all the stairs, platforms and catwalks. There are some computerized elements, but it’s otherwise pretty pedestrian.

- The Song Choices: I get they wanted to cover his whole oeuvre as much as they could but we did not need multiple reprises of the Tiger Rag or a scene where he sings “You’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead…” to the Memphis Police Department. Which brings me to…

While not the greatest offering currently out there, it’s damn entertaining, James T. Lane has a star turn, and it’s comparatively better to a lot of other things I’ve seen open this season so far."

Thanks for this write-up. I am curious…I am 73 and I don’t like jazz; when I think of Louis Armstrong, who I always enjoyed seeing on TV, I think mostly of Hello Dolly and What a Wonderful World. Were those numbers given any special treatment?

I was there tonight for what I guess what James T Lane's second performance. You'd never know he isnt the full time lead--he nails the voice, and aside from maybe one or two word stumbles, he was pretty flawless, both in terms of the singing (which seems like a tall order) and the overall charm/persona.

But this horrid book gives him nothing to work with. They open in the 70s at a band rehearsal, and then we are transported back to the 1910s in New Orleans. Apparently, Armstrong grew up in a Jewish household with his mother, and then ends up in some reform school where he is told to "make a choice" and handed a trumpet. The show spends no more than 30 seconds on this (rather interesting) back story, or how it impacts his journey/decisions/career. Instead, everything revolves around four women in four cities, and very little insight is offered into how or why one man goes from a brassy prostitute to a prissy business-minded artist to a ditsy hollywood wannabe... and since this show was nearly three hours long (!) its criminal that we learn so little about the characters.

Still, there are some fun production numbers and some real impressive dancing in between the yikes moments. Darlesia Cearcy's voice is butter, and she shows up to be The Adult at just the right time, but is undermined rather quickly by comically underwritten scenes about race in America and then a sudden illness. I agree that Jennie Harney does the best and the most- her character made the most sense, had the most to say, and she sings the hell out of the second half of the first act.

I do not know what they were thinking bringing this so underbaked to such a large house. Studio 54 was no more than 70% full, and the audience was clearly half-tourists who seem to have wandered into That Show About Louis Armstrong The Hotel Front Desk Recommended, and half theater folk there to cheer on popular stage actors. The joy/excitement for Lane and Harney was infectious, and it was hard not to feel some feels when the four women join Louis for A Wonderful World.

Shrug.

JSquared2 said: "quizking101 said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "Who’s seeing James T. Lane’s first performance as Louis today?"

I am! Full report later but the rush is stingy as hell. In-person is as bad as the TT, and you can only get orch as “upgraded rush” for $79. I love JTL so I splurged.

I’ll post a full report later, but show started at 2:01 and then multiple HUGE groups started showing up at around 2:10-15and wouldn’t stop getting seated and chattering for about 10 minutes. A complaint to the box office got me nowhere"



What did you expect the box office to do??"

I honestly don’t know - it was my friend’s idea because he was raging mad and I’m the more composed/articulate of us, so I figured lodging a complaint was worth a shot, but the guy was so dismissive

theatergoer3 said: "James T. Lane back on tonight. I believe I also overheard that the runtime is currently 2hr 50min with intermission."

So JMI already can't handle the role? Once he won his Tony for Aladdin, he missed many shows and was out frequently in Hamilton, too.