It’s not “Louis Armstrong the Musical”. In fact the one-man, three character show is
called Satchmo at the Waldorf and the actor never plays the horn. John Douglas Thompson portrays jazz great
Louis Armstrong as it takes place in March of 1971 in his dressing room of the
Waldorf-Astoria hotel just after a performance.
He enters the dressing room in an obvious state of
exhaustion and heads straight to his oxygen tank. We know that his health is not good. The truth of it is that Armstrong died a few
months later in July in his home located in Corona, Queens.
The entire production has him talking to the
audience about his career and the two people who helped form it: Fletcher
Henderson and Joe Glaser the two others that he portrays.
Armstrong’s dressing room is equipped with a tape
recorder as at times, he records some of his experiences. That’s when you will hear bits of his music
as well.
Before you get shocked, it’s important to know that
Armstrong is using quite amount of the “f” word as well as the infamous “n”
word. It does add for the effect of his
emotions.
Thompson is totally outstanding with the acting
especially when he goes back and forth from Armstrong to another character. Do expect humor in this production based on
Terry Teachout’s book entitled, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, who wrote this
play as well.
If you are not a history buff on Louis’ life, the
Broadway Playbill cites a Louis Armstrong Timeline as well as “This is a work
of fiction, freely based on fact”.
Satchmo at the Waldorf is being performed at the
Westside Theatre/Upstairs. The theatre
itself is wheelchair accessible.
However, there is no elevator to the second floor.
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