Word: misbehavin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...never easy to compete with the memory of a legend, yet the revivers of Ain't Misbehavin' have set themselves that task twice over. Not only do they seek to match the exuberant spirit of Pianist-Songwriter Thomas Wright ("Fats") Waller, whose 1920s and '30s Harlem jazz inspired the pell-mell 31-tune revue, but they also contend with the joyous memory of the 1978 debut staging, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical, made a star of Nell Carter, and ran almost four years before becoming an Emmy-winning NBC special. Of course, the producers of this daring...
...success of Ain't Misbehavin' (and, more modestly, of Side by Side by Sondheim a season before) prompted a string of songbook shows. None has matched the verve or style of Ain't Misbehavin', and none has come close to the rowdy, raunchy yet infectious humor of its songs. Waller's connection with them varies from authorship to merely having recorded them, but they coherently reflect his view of life as meant for play and pleasure...
...MISBEHAVIN'. The joint is jumpin', again: the jubilant Fats Waller songbook that won three 1978 Tony awards returns to Broadway with the original staging and cast, including Nell Carter...
...contrast, Saint Misbehavin' resorts to tradition: a plot whose sole purpose is to stay out of the way of the all-important puns, lyrics and can-can lines. From the audience level, there's no question that this is what Pudding shows are supposed to be about...
From 14 Plympton St., just a few blocks from audience level, only a long hour and a half after the final curtain and last champagne, Saint Misbehavin's confidence in the Pudding's tried formula is a little troubling. After all, in what does the show place its confidence? Not the entertainment value of men whose lacy underwear peeks out from under their slinky dresses. That would make for a show that wouldn't bomb in Poughkeepsie-it never would have gotten there in the first place...