A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL Reviews

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 12:43pm

It doesn't look like this has been started yet. Hopefully that doesn't say something about the amount of interest (though the last post in the Previews thread is a week old).

"Join Tony Award® winner James Monroe Iglehart and a talented ensemble cast as they bring Louis Armstrong’s incredible journey to life, from New Orleans to worldwide fame. This full-scale musical features a rich tapestry of characters, including the extraordinary women who helped shape his remarkable life and career.

Be captivated by Armstrong’s timeless hits like “What a Wonderful World” and “When You’re Smiling,” performed by a large, dynamic cast. Don’t miss this spectacular celebration of music, filled with vibrant dance numbers, stunning sets, and unforgettable performances. Get your tickets now for an unforgettable night that honors the iconic man who defined an era."

Opening Monday, November 11, 2024

[smidge]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 12:59pm

Does anyone know the current running time now that the show is frozen.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 1:47pm

Around 2:35. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 3:28pm

I’m predicting a mix. The cast is uniformly excellent (though I did not see Iglehart - I preferred to see Lane and chosen know who saw both preferred Lane) and the choreo and orchestrations are stellar, but I can’t imagine the book, set design, and some of the song choices are going to get much love at all. 

It really doesn’t go much into his life except through his relationships, and some of the wives (namely Kim Exum) get the short end of the stick. Even with major money reviews, I can’t see this going past the holidays

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 3:33pm

We've seen both Inglehart and Lane. inglehart first.  Our group preferred Lane.  His movement, acting and performance was stronger as a whole.  Check him out.

[ACL2006]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 7:35pm

CoffeeBreak said: "We've seen both Inglehart and Lane. inglehart first. Our group preferred Lane. His movement, acting and performance was stronger as a whole. Check him out."

I'll be checking out James on December 5.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 8:06pm

ACL2006 said: "CoffeeBreak said: "We've seen both Inglehart and Lane. inglehart first. Our group preferred Lane. His movement, acting and performance was stronger as a whole. Check him out."

I'll be checking out James on December 5."

 

From reading this board to friends that have seen the show, everyone favors James T. Lane but unfortunately he won't be reviewed as the star!

Updated On: 11/11/24 at 08:06 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 8:57pm

NY Stage Review

A WONDERFUL WORLD: LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S WONDERFUL NOTEWORTHY WORLD

By David Finkle

★★★★☆ James Monroe Inglehart stars in a tribute to one of the true 20th-century jazz greats

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/11/a-wonderful-world-louis-armstrongs-wonderful-noteworthy-world/

 

A WONDERFUL WORLD: YOU’RE LOOKIN’ SWELL, SATCHMO

By Roma Torre

★★★★☆ Bio-musical about the late great jazzman hits the right notes

https://nystagereview.com/2024/11/11/a-wonderful-world-youre-lookin-swell-satchmo/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:02pm

The Wrap

‘A Wonderful World’ Broadway Review: Or, the Singing Wives of Louis Armstrong

A new bio musical gets lost in the many marriages of the jazz great

https://www.thewrap.com/a-wonderful-world-broadway-musical-review-louis-armstrong/

"As presented here, Armstrong is a talented and very amiable man whose only real direction in life is collecting a lot of wives, each of whom gets about 30 minutes on stage. That doesn’t give much time for character development, because there are also a lot of standard songs to be sung, from “Kiss of Fire” and “Avalon” to “When You Are Smiling” and, of course, “Hello, Dolly!”"

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:03pm

Theatremania is negative: "A Potato Sack"

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:03pm

Theatermania

Review: A Wonderful World Asks, "What If Six Was About Louis Armstrong's Wives?"

Meet the four women behind Satchmo in this new musical at Studio 54.

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-a-wonderful-world-asks-what-if-six-was-about-louis-armstrongs-wives_1755256/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:04pm

Variety

‘A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical’ Review: This Dazzling Broadway Production Has Never Been More Timely

https://variety.com/2024/legit/reviews/a-wonderful-world-the-louis-armstrong-musical-review-broadway-1236206674/

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:05pm

Chicago Tribune is mixed

Review: ‘A Wonderful World’ on Broadway tries to sum up the whole of Louis Armstrong

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/11/11/review-a-wonderful-world-on-broadway-tries-its-best-to-sum-up-the-whole-of-louis-armstrong/

"To showcase and to dissect always are tricky, twin ambitions for any jukebox show, and I think the main problem with “Wonderful World” is that it worries too much about the latter, which gets in the way of fully delivering the former. The show, which organizes itself around Armstrong’s career-defining travels from New Orleans to Chicago to Hollywood to New York, has a whole lot of biographical information to deliver and it’s a very heavy load, especially in Act 2, which becomes a bit of a slog when audiences at such shows long have been conditioned mostly to expect a concert-style finale. In the Wikipedia age, information is not what audiences want so much as a point of view and, well, lots of songs and music.  We still could do with less history and more time with Louis and his band."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:06pm

Green in NYT is mixed

Review: Blowing Louis Armstrong’s Horn Isn’t Enough in ‘A Wonderful World’

The great jazz trumpeter and sandpaper vocalist gets the old jukebox treatment in a new Broadway musical starring James Monroe Iglehart.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/theater/a-wonderful-world-review-louis-armstrong.html

"with such a major figure we want something deeper. And though subtitled “The Louis Armstrong Musical,” the show, with a book by Aurin Squire, spends too little time exploring its subject’s interior life while plumping for his greatness as if the point were in doubt. The score, drawn from songs he performed but (with two exceptions) did not write, makes the case irrefutably already, encompassing the astonishing range of a man who grew up with the blues, changed the course of jazz, excelled at swing, perfected scat and won a Grammy for “Hello, Dolly!”

To balance such a rich and varied artistic life, let alone a chaotic personal one, Armstrong deserves more than the standard jukebox bullet-point biography he gets here. Offering little you would not learn from a good obituary, or from a visit to the terrific museum at his home in Queens, “A Wonderful Life” compresses 60 years, from youth to death and even beyond, into four discrete chapters defined cleverly but overneatly by decade, locale and wife."

Updated On: 11/11/24 at 09:06 PM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:08pm

Two stars from NY Post

‘A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical’ review: A lifeless Satchmo show on Broadway

https://nypost.com/2024/11/11/entertainment/a-wonderful-world-the-louis-armstrong-musical-review/

"The trouble is that Satchmo is not only second trumpet, but he’s reduced to being second fiddle. In his own show!

We’re left with the impression that the creators did not find Armstrong, emptily impersonated by James Monroe Iglehart, to be a particularly interesting guy. So, they made his significant others more significant."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:10pm

McHenry in Vulture is mixed. Positive on Iglehart, less so on everything else.

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-a-wonderful-world-louis-armstrong-broadway-musical.html

"You can see why A Wonderful World’s structure might sound compelling in a pitch meeting. It has multiple acts and story arcs, and it nominally shifts some focus to the women in this story about a man. But in practice, that four-part structure makes the action both rush and stall — oh no, you may tense up twice over, another breakup scene? — and constricts those supporting players to brief character sketches.

In the midst of all that, there’s James Monroe Iglehart as Louis himself, leaning hard on the man’s ebullience while shading where he can with bits of self-doubt and repressed anger. Iglehart’s both starring in the role and co-directing — he and Christina Sajous were elevated to receive that credit, alongside director Christopher Renshaw, when the show moved to Broadway — and he attacks the part with the visible enthusiasm of someone getting to lay into a dream gig. "

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:11pm

Deadline is positive

‘A Wonderful World’ Broadway Review: James Monroe Iglehart Brings Louis Armstrong Back To Swingin’ Live

https://deadline.com/2024/11/wonderful-world-louis-armstrong-musical-broadway-review-1236171156/

"A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, starring a terrific James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton) as the legendary Satchmo, opens on Broadway tonight at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54, and if it doesn’t escape every pitfall of the jukebox musical, it certainly comes closer than most. Wonderful World is too expansive in chronological scope to delve too deeply into the crucial question of what made Armstrong such an incomparable figure in the history of American music, but with Iglehart and a fine supporting cast of excellent singer-actresses portraying Armstrong’s four wives – Dionne Figgins as Daisy Parker, Jennie Harney-Fleming as Lil Hardin, Kim Exum as Alpha Smith and Darlesia Cearcy as Lucille Wilson – the musical rarely gives us enough time to ponder what’s being left out. What we’re seeing on stage is too entertaining."

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:14pm

NY Sun

In ‘A Wonderful World,’ a Jazz Giant, Louis Armstrong, Comes Across as Smaller Than Life

James Monroe Iglehart, whose sunny charisma would seem naturally suited to portraying Armstrong, is not to blame; the main fault lies, as it often does in jukebox hagiographies, with the book.

https://www.nysun.com/article/in-a-wonderful-world-a-jazz-giant-louis-armstrong-comes-across-as-smaller-than-life

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:19pm

Daily Beast

Broadway Review: ‘A Wonderful World: the Louis Armstrong Musical’ Goes Too Easy

Louis Armstrong’s famous songs sound great in a new Broadway show, even if the story of his life and illustration of his personality feel scrambled.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/broadway-review-a-wonderful-world-the-louis-armstrong-musical-goes-too-easy/

"Iglehart is an assured Louis in song and speech—his distinctive voice is perfectly modulated—but an inner world, a sense of journey, are both missing. The musical, which he co-directs alongside Christopher Renshaw and Christina Sajous, piles incident upon incident to jam in songs, and progresses jerkily forward—why did he choose to relax in jail so much, as the musical presents? Too often big songs abruptly end, or bump bizarrely into the next setup."

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 9:23pm

3/5 stars from Adam Feldman in TimeOut, praising the performances and musical techs while criticizing the book

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 10:34pm

DTLI Consensus: And we think to ourselves, what a mystifying (if thrillingly performed) tribute to Satchmo’s life. 

6 positive, 5 negative (including the NYT), 2 mixed.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/a-wonderful-world/

Updated On: 11/11/24 at 10:34 PM

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 11/11/24 at 10:58pm

So has Christopher Renshaw been actively involved in the Broadway iteration? Or is he director in credit only?

[Producer2]

Posted: 11/12/24 at 4:26pm

Great show for Louis fans!!!  The showstopper never came.

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/12/24 at 4:36pm

The two showstoppers were the Act I closer with Dionne Figgins and Jennie Harney-Fleming, and the DeWitt Fleming’s stunning solo and group tap routine.

That’s a problem when neither of them features the star of the show 

[ACL2006]

Posted: 12/5/24 at 8:39pm

I saw the matinee today. I'm a big fan of James T. Lane and he was outstanding in the role. Overall, the show gets off to a slow start, but by middle of Act 1 it settles in. Act 2 is very solid with a solid opener, the big tap numbers, "Smiling", and the finale featuring the title number. This might slowly find an audience if A Beautiful Noise could as well. I'd assume it's also cheaper to run than A Beautiful Noise as it has a smaller cast and orchestra. 

They also had all swings on with the female swing splitting two tracks. This show might try and stick it out through the Winter. The matinee today appeared nearly soldout.