Shakespeare & Company’s final new production of the summer season is Wall Street Journal theater critic Terry Teachout'sSatchmo at the Waldorf, a one-man play set in 1971 in the dressing room of the jazz great Louis Armstrong, after what would turn out to be his last performance. As many of us might already know, the story, the person, the talent, and the life of Armstrong – who started out penniless on the back streets of Storyville, New Orleans – is amazing, and thus fertile material for dramatic interpretation. Teachout’s play, his first foray into writing for the stage after a lifetime of observing, directed by Gordon Edelstein and starring the powerfully unsentimental John Douglas Thompson in the title role, is a living, moving, thematically complex dramatic evening of theater that satisfies on all fronts. In many ways it is a thing of amazement as well, a fully dimensional personal history that brings Armstrong’s spirit back to life, and also a document of the times in America, both past and present (and perhaps even future.)
The details of Armstrong’s life are revealed during the course of the evening: his complex relationship with his white Jewish gangster-associated manager Joe Glaser; the accusations of Uncle Tom-ism by black musicians such as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. All the roles are played by Thompson, who brilliantly transforms himself, capturing Satchmo's voice, Glaser's rat-a-tat intonations, and Davis’ drug-induced superiority with lightening finesse. Teachout dramatizes not only Armstrong’s spirit but also the cross-pollination of cultures (with its share of unholy elements) that managed, miraculously, to create American popular music. Also included in this precious, only-in-America legacy was the work written for musical theater by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, et al, most of whom were of European Jewish descent but who also owed more than their share to the black musical heritage from which Armstrong sprung like a lotus flower. It's the whiter side of popular culture that ended up very much a part of Armstrong's career, particularly in the 1960s with his recording of Jerry Herman's show tune Hello, Dolly, and his appearance with Barbra Streisand in the overblown white bread movie of the same name; the song, to his surprise, became his biggest money-maker, and ended up almost solely identified with him. It’s all here in this 90-minute show, without the writer ever getting overwhelmed with the detail of his expertise. (Teachout is also the author of the definitive biography Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong.) Satchmo at the Waldorf is fully convincing as a personal portrait, and a riveting history of the nation’s most indigenous artistic contribution to the world at large. The play runs through September 16, plenty of time to ensure that it not be missed. — Scott BaldingerSatchmo at the Waldorf Shakespeare & Company's Tina Packer Playhouse Lenox, MA Written by Terry Teachout Directed by Gordon Edelstein Starring John Douglas Thompson Now through September 16 See related article: With Satchmo, Drama Critic Terry Teachout Takes a New Role
