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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

Face to face

May 28, 2015 by Terry Teachout

6a00e008dca1f0883401630514acb0970d-500wiWhenever you write a book or play in which a famous person of the relatively recent past is portrayed, it’s more than likely that you’ll sooner or later meet somebody who knew the person in question and is eager to tell you what they thought of what you wrote. I’m used to that by now, but I admit to having been a bit unnerved—more than a little bit, truth to tell—by the West Coast premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf, my play about the relationship between Louis Armstrong and Joe Glaser, his manager. No sooner did I take my seat last night at Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts than I realized that I was sitting in the midst of people who had known Armstrong and Glaser. What’s more, I was introduced after the show to Van Alexander, a composer, arranger, and big-band leader who, like Armstrong, was managed by Glaser and thus had known him extremely well.

I’m relieved to say that all of these people (including Alexander, who is one hundred years old and as sharp as a stiletto) hastened to assure me that I portrayed Armstrong and Glaser accurately. And I’m downright delighted by something that happened at Tuesday night’s preview performance, when Gordon Edelstein, John Douglas Thompson, and I did a post-show “talkback” with members of the audience. After we were through, a black man came up to me and said, “I was really surprised when you came out on stage at the end of the show. I figured the guy who wrote that play had to be black!” I was reminded (though I didn’t have the nerve to say so) of something that Count Basie is supposed to have asked Peggy Lee: “Are you sure there’s not some spade in you?”

tn-500_satchmoatwaldorf069With two performances of Satchmo under our belts, I can report that Gordon’s staging of the play is in excellent shape after the eleven-month layoff that followed the end of the off-Broadway run. If anything, John’s interpretation of the triple role of Armstrong, Glaser, and Miles Davis has actually grown in richness and subtlety since then. It’s strange to think that he’s appeared in highly acclaimed revivals of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh and Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine in between productions of Satchmo. I’m keeping fast company these days.

The Wallis, as it’s known in these parts, is a brand-new theatrical complex (it opened less than two years ago) situated in the heart of Beverly Hills. The staff there has been wonderfully helpful, and the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater, in which we’re performing, couldn’t be better suited to an intimate one-man show like ours. I wish I could stick around a little longer and enjoy the fun, but I have to cover a Broadway matinee on Saturday afternoon, so I’ll be flying back to New York first thing tomorrow morning. I can’t even take this afternoon off—I’ve got to write a piece!

Satchmo closes on June 7, and tickets, I’m told, are selling briskly. If you live in the Los Angeles area, do come. I think you’ll like what you see.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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