Can we please have an AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' revival...?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 9:58am

Audra McDonald
Phillip Boykin
Josh Henry
Patina Miller
Capathia Jenkins


Maybe.

[castlestreet]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:32am

I know our favorite guy over at the NY Post has been reporting off and on for the last year that Maltby has got a revival in the works and is just waiting for the right time, I'll have to find the last article, but I think he was talking about doing it at MTC again.

Great show and I would love to see it on Broadway again, but Audra is a stretch I think, Capathia would be pretty great, and add Lillias to the list.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:39am

If we're aging up, I'd say replace Audra with Tonya.

Hell, bring back Andre. There still ain't no fiercer cat.

[castlestreet]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:43am

I'll second that- I would love to see his new one man show right now- I heard him on Sirius the other day with Seth and he was so funny- and can still sing like its just effortless!

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:45am

Signing on with the "bring back Andre" crew -- the man is a genius. Like all great geniuses, a little cuckoo, but that just gives him something in common with the rest of this business called show.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 10:48am

Why does the whole cast have to be black? Huh?

[tazber]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:00am

Fats Waller is perhaps one of the most influential composers in my life. I can never hear his music enough, and I could never see Ain't Misbehavin' too many times.


I think that "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now" may very well be all time favorite song. It's at the least in my top 5.

Also consider Kecia Lewis-Evans.
Can't you just see her tearing into "That Ain't Right" with Andre?

"Ahhh speak to me Daddy, because I don't pork no-how!"

Updated On: 5/19/12 at 11:00 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:08am

Why does the whole cast have to be black? Huh?

Sign me up for "I Am Not Misbehaving!"

[tazber]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:11am

Suffer! Suffer excess baggage, suffer!

[Jon]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:19am

I read about a regional production a couple of years ago that changed the setting from the generic nightclub/revue look of the original to an apartment in Harlem, where they are having a rent party (for you youngsters, during The Dpression in the 1930's, folks would throw parties and charge admission , to get enough cash to pay the rent).

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 11:26am

Jon, is that really for the "youngsters"? In 2012, having that information is much more likely a function of having acquired the knowledge rather than having it through first-hand experience. I think most posters on this board are under 80-90 years old. (Not including After Eight, who is 107.)

That production was here in Pittsburgh, at the Public Theatre. It was a silly and unnecessary framing device that added nothing to the show and only even really made sense in brief moments.

EDIT: Sorry. I realized upon re-reading that how negative it sounded. The production, aside from that misguided directorial choice, was very respectable, and I was excited just to hear that music sung live.


Also, Jordan, okay. Replace Phillip Boykin with Stephen Spinella.

Updated On: 5/19/12 at 11:26 AM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 4:10pm

I assume we're kidding about casting white people, yes?

Even African Americans who grew up as late as the 70s and 80s tell me they were raised with a strong sense that they were to behave differently when they were around white people.

One of the joys of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' has always been that it seems to be a show by and about black people (even though we all know the original director is white); even when performed for largely white audiences it appeared to offer a glimpse into an exclusively African American society. (Compare it to EUBIE, also a Broadway hit at about the same time; EUBIE had some wonderful numbers, but it very much had a feel of black people performing for white people. In AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' the performers seemed to be singing and dancing for themselves. Quite a contrast.)

Add a white performer to the cast and you'll end up with a very different show, I suspect. (To be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with performers of one ethnicity performing for others; it's just a different feeling and I think something important would be lost with AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'.)

[morosco]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 4:18pm

The original production contained one of the most moving moments I have ever experienced on Broadway. The way "Black and Blue" was staged was chilling. Completely motionless.

The show is the best of the jukebox musicals.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 4:28pm

The show is the best of the jukebox musicals.

Worth repeating. So far the best, in fact, that with the original cast, at least, it felt more like watching a great book musical.

[tazber]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 5:24pm

I always considered it more of a revue than a jukebox musical.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought that jukebox musicals try to shoehorn some sort of plot/story into a artist's catalog whereas a revue simply presents an artist's work either loosely organized thematically or as a mini-concert.

Revues:

Sophisticated Ladies
And The World Goes Round
Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer To Heaven
Black and Blue
Five Guys Named Moe
Swinging On A Star
Leader of the Pack
Smokey Joe's
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Marry Me a Little/Side by Side by Sondheim/Putting it Together/Sondheim on Sondheim
Jerry's Girls
The Show Goes On


Jukebox Musicals:

LoveMusik
Mamma Mia
Jersey Boys
Movin' Out
That Bob Dylan piece whose name escapes me
Play On!
Rock of Ages
Good Vibrations
Jelly's Last Jam

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 5:30pm

For the record, I WAS joking about casting non-African Americans in this show.

I even mentioned "Black and Blue" in another recent thread as a reason it could never work without "traditional" casting.

And cut that song, and you might as well not do the show. In fact, you definitely should not do the show.

[morosco]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 5:46pm

I always considered it more of a revue than a jukebox musical.

Now that i think about it I 100% agree tazber.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/19/12 at 5:58pm

I wasn't referring to your post, best12. THAT one I knew to be a joke. And I think the others were as well, but I don't know those posters' views as well as I know yours.

And I agree that cutting "Black and Blue" would be a tragedy,