PARK PLAYHOUSE’S ‘AIN'T MISB REFLECTIVE OF ITS TIME, AND
Big tunes, small cast brings right balance, tone to first park produ
Jean-remy Monnay thought the email invitation he received to direct "Ain't Misbehavin'" for Park Playhouse had been sent to the wrong person. "I've directed a million shows, but I've never done a musical," said Monnay, founder and artistic director of the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York, which was recently named a resident company of Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany.
Referring to Owen Smith, producing artistic director of Park Playhouse's parent organization, Playhouse Stage Company, Monnay said, "I called him up and said, 'Owen, are you sure you're asking the right guy?' He said, 'I'm asking exactly the right guy.' I read the script and listened to the music, and I said, 'Yes, I am the right guy.'"
Created in 1978 as a cabaret that grew into a revue that ran on Broadway for four years, "Ain't Misbehavin'" is a celebration of the life and work of 1920s and '30s composer Thomas "Fats" Waller, whose famous songs include the title number as well as "Honeysuckle Rose," "Handful of Keys," "After You've Gone," "Basin Street Blues" and "I Can't Give You Anything but Love." Waller is said to have copyrighted more than 400 songs under his own name and written scores more, mostly ditties and novelties that he sold and were attributed to others.
The choice of "Ain't Misbehavin'" for this summer was both practical and principled, according to Smith, who is in his 12th summer running Playhouse Stage. After the substantial financial losses endured the pandemic and the fact that federal relief from the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program has yet to arrive, a show with a smaller cast and set than usual was mandatory, Smith said.
Though "Ain't Misbehavin'" has only
five actors — Park Playhouse's "Ragtime," in 2017, had 32 — it offers the spectacle and grand musicality audiences expect of a Washington Park show, Smith said.
Equally if not more important was the message sent by mounting a production focused on a Black composer, with a Black director and a cast of four Black actors and one Latina, Smith said.
"After the murder of George Floyd and the biggest movement for civil rights in more than a generation and the real moment of reckoning our country has been going through, the time felt right," said Smith, adding, "We also want our Black neighbors and audiences, especially kids, to see themselves reflected on our stage, in a public park, for free."
Said Monnay, "This is a show that tells
about the Black experience in the 1920s and '30s, the discrimination and racism. Those (Black) performers, after they were done at the Waldorf, they couldn't even leave through the lobby. They had to go out through the back door."
Brian Axford, who has been music director and pianist for every Playhouse Stage show since 2013, is steeped in the stride-piano style championed by Waller. Originally trained in classical piano, Axford learned to play jazz and blues from local legend Lee Shaw and studied music at the undergraduate and graduate levels with teachers who were proteges of jazz piano greats including Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. He's long advocated that the company choose the Waller musical.
"I've been whispering 'Ain't Misbehavin''
in (Smith's) ear for almost 10 years," Axford said. Though he initially thought the nature of the show made it better suited for the intimacy and historic look of Playhouse Stage's fall-to-spring home at Cohoes Music Hall, Axford said he's delighted by the physically and metaphorically larger environment of the lakehouse stage.
"The music is infectiously fun, and I'm glad we're able to give it a bigger treatment in the park," he said.
Brandon Jones, who has been a Park Playhouse performer for 25 years, was the music director and pianist for an "Ain't Misbehavin'" production at Albany Civic Theatre five years ago. He said he's thrilled by the opportunity to finally perform in a a show that he's cherished for most of his life.
"It's one of my favorite musicals of all time," Jones said. "You can't help but tap your toes and be a part of its great energy."
Though most of the more than 30 songs in "Ain't Misbehavin'" are up-tempo and have high-spirited messages that are by turns celebratory, humorous and saucy, the cast and creative team said they are
especially fond of the song "Black and Blue," a slow, contemplative number that comes immediately before the finale.
The final verse goes, "I'm white inside,/ But that don't help my case./'cause I can't hide/what is on my face."
A note in the script, by "Ain't Misbehavin'" creators Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr., explains why "Black and Blue" appears when it does, immediately after a rowdy songs called "Fat and Greasy," which encourages the audience to shout the title at the performers.
"Having fun at the expense of someone who is different is an all-too-common impulse — but it is also an act of intolerance," the note says. "By getting the audience to join en masse in yelling something degrading, in laughing at the way someone looks, the show, in effect, seduces the audience into an overt act of prejudice."
Speaking of "Black and Blue," cast member Mariah Lyttle said, "It's really a moment to be reflective about everything that's transpired in the last year." A Connecticut resident, Lyttle is returning to the Park Playhouse stage for the first time since "Ragtime" four summers ago.
"Most of the show is so much fun," Lyttle said, "but in this time of attention on social injustice, it's important that we get the message across about the things that are being touched upon, even if it's for only three minutes at a time."
A word about seating at Park Playhouse for this summer’s show
When "Ain't Misbehavin'" was announced for live performances this summer, Park Playhouse followed state guidelines then in effect and planned to seat 100 people in paid, reserved, socially distanced seats in front of the stage; hillside seating, also capped at 100, would continue to be free, but a lottery system would be used to allocate seating in socially distanced pods holding four or six people.
When pandemic-related state regulations about capacity and social distancing were removed for most public settings starting June 15, Park Playhouse was allowed to expand seating. It now has about
430 paid, reserved seats, in chairs and at four-person tables, with a capacity of approximately 1,500 free spaces on the hillside, according to Owen Smith, the company's producing artistic director. This capacity is the same as in past years. Hillside seating is available on a firstcome, first-served basis. Blankets and chairs may be placed on hillside spaces to reserve seating at noon the day of each performance. Anyone wishing for the most socially distanced viewing option is encouraged to buy a full table for four, as there is the potential to be seated immediately next to others if the whole table is not sold to one party, Smith said.
Masks are encouraged but not required for all when not seated, Smith said, and signs will indicate that people are welcome to wear a face covering throughout the show if it makes them more comfortable. Sanitizing stations will be available and increased cleaning regimens maintained in public areas and surfaces including box office, concession stand, restrooms and tables, Smith said.