You’d be forgiven for thinking that A Wonderful World, a biomusical about jazz great Louis Armstrong that opened Monday at Broadway’s Studio 54, was a lushly produced revival of a decades-old show. Why else would a brand-new production, directed by Christopher Renshaw (who co-conceived the show with Andrew Delaplaine), feature not one but two audience singalongs of decades-old numbers like “Hello, Dolly”? Admittedly, that’s a Broadway hit that also became Satchmo’s first No. 1 hit record, dethroning the Beatles. But it also muddles the question of just who is the intended audience for a show about a plus-size figure who’s been dead for half a century.
Renshaw’s approach to the material is stubbornly old-fashioned, which occasionally yields some wonderful moments of showmanship in sprightly all-ensemble dance numbers choreographed by Rickey Tripp. The physical production, with colorful costumes by Toni-Leslie James and flashy if simple sets and projections by Adam Koch and Steven Royal, has the look and feel of one of those well-produced PBS career retrospectives. James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony for playing the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin a decade ago, does an impressive nearly three-hour impression of the title character. He flashes his pearly whites in a broad, ingratiating rictus, mops his brow with an ever-present handkerchief, and (most impressively) drops his baritone to achieve Armstrong’s trademark throaty growl. (It’s no wonder the actor has committed to six shows a week, with understudy James T. Lane on stage at least twice a week.)
But the real standouts are the four remarkable actresses cast as Armstrong’s wives, each representing a different chapter in the musician’s storied decades-long career. There’s the aspiring madam he met as a youth in New Orleans (Dionne Figgins, full of sass); the concert-trained musician and collaborator who lit a fire under his ambition during his days in Chicago (Jennie Harney-Fleming, with a soulful voice); the pretty fan-girl who latched herself to his rising star in Hollywood (Kim Exum, making the most of a gold-digging cliché); and the dancer in Harlem’s Cotton Club who, in this telling, manages to tame a notorious philanderer (Darlesia Cearcy, with a no-nonsense appeal). The quartet serve as a kind of tag-team Greek Chorus narrating the action, while also delivering some of Armstrong’s most memorable love songs. (Harney-Fleming has a lovely vibrato on “A Kiss to Build a Dream On,” while Exum offers a powerful belt on “Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears.”)
All that domestic drama leaves even less time to explore the major signposts in Armstrong’s career, which have been condensed into a whirlwind of throwaway scenes between the big musical numbers. Aurin Squire’s book is serviceable but overstuffed, like one of those school pageants recounting big moments from the 20th century that never lingers long enough to appreciate any particular achievement. More frustratingly, the show also never really explores Armstrong’s complicated legacy. Armstrong’s work — both individual songs as well as whole musical styles, from his vibrato-heavy trumpet playing to his scat singing — were widely adopted by white musicians, and his Hollywood-fueled persona as an ingratiating Black musician palling around with white stars won him fame and fortune — as well as accusations of being an Uncle Tom. The show touches on those issues, but just as quickly speeds to the next chapter in his Wikipedia entry.
If Armstrong had a feeling about his pioneering work as a Black artist in American society, or even his years as a serial philanderer, we never hear them from the man himself, in either dialogue or song. When A Wonderful World does dive below the surface of its song catalog, though, the result can be stunning. Take the first-act number that Armstrong performs for the Memphis Police Department’s benevolent union after his arrest on cannabis charges, where he slyly chooses a cutting number that he delivers with unctuous irony that is no doubt lost on his audience: “I’ll be glad when you’re dead, you rascal you.” It’s one of the few times in the show when the song works on multiple layers to tell the overarching story.
More memorable is a second-act show-stopper featuring Dewitt Fleming Jr. as Lincoln Perry, the former vaudevillian performer best known as the stereotype-laden character Stepin Fetchit. In an all-too-brief scene, Perry mentors Armstrong as he’s breaking into Hollywood, offering sound advice on how to negotiate the best deals in a white-run industry (“Brother, I got so many whites working for me my wife thinks I’m in the KKK”) and find a hustle that works for him. The exchange leads to a full-blown tap extravaganza build around one of Armstrong’s signature tunes, “When You’re Smiling.”
If there were ever tears behind that famous smile, Iglehart’s Armstrong is too reserved to share. (The actor is also weakest when he feigns playing the trumpet, the instrument that made Armstrong a star.) There’s no time for introspection when there’s another career highlight to hit, another song to cram into a show that boasts nearly 30 tunes in all. A Wonderful World doesn’t offer a very deep understanding of Louis Armstrong and what made him a legend, but less can still be Satchmo.
A WONDERFUL WORLD: THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG MUSICAL
Studio 54, Broadway
Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes (with intermission)
Tickets on sale through May 4, 2025