| A WONDERFUL WORLD Today | |
| Last Edit: sergius 10:38 pm EST 11/17/24 | |
| Posted by: sergius 10:33 pm EST 11/17/24 | |
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| Black and (Red, White and) Blue. Among other things, A WONDERFUL WORLD depicts Louis Armstrong’s white crowd pleasing antics as necessary for success in pre-civil rights America. From this perspective, it’s a pointed criticism of a soul crushing cultural imperative. The problem here is that the show panders even as it derides pandering; it’s often minstrelsy adjacent. Armstrong had a complex identity; his was by no means a musical comedy life. But here he leads us in an unironic, cringe Hello Dolly! singalong (one of two!), and we can rest assured that, despite his suffering and to say little of his musical genius, Armstrong was an amiable, sentimental man. In the end, he’s in heaven, or somewhere really starry, soothing us. Before he gets there, he’s been through four scene stealing wives very quickly, and we’ve learned nearly nothing about his extraordinary gifts. A WONDERFUL WORLD has no point of view; it lacks edge, it seems for fear of alienating a large portion of its audience. The choreography and Inglehart are quite good, but this is a real missed opportunity to celebrate, let alone broaden our appreciation of, a great American original. | |
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