Ain’t Misbehavin’, Ahmanson Theatre, At the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m.; Sundays at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; No performances on Mondays. Exceptions: No performance on Thursday, April 30; no 6:30 p.m. performance on Sunday, May 24 and 31; added mat. at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 21 and 28. Tickets: $20 – $100. Call (213) 628-2772 or visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.
Has it really been over 30 years since lyricist, director, screenwriter Richard Maltby, Jr. introduced Broadway to a new format for musical comedy success? Ain’t Misbehavin’ opened in a small cabaret at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1978 to rave reviews. “We had no idea it would be a Broadway production.” Maltby is still amazed at the meteoric rise of the little show he conceived and directed.
“The small cabaret room seated 100 people and had a 6×12 foot stage. We rehearsed four weeks, played four weeks, closed four weeks and went back into rehearsal for four weeks prior to opening on Broadway. Four weeks later, at the Tony Awards we won three.” Ain’t Misbehavin’ received the Tony for Best Musical, Nell Carter won best featured actress and Maltby as Best Director. Add the New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk Award and Obie for this seemingly simple, but innovative musical with 30 Fats Waller songs, five performers and no dialogue.
Richard Maltby
Ain’t Misbehavin’ brought a new concept to Broadway. “Yes, I sort of invented the format with Starting Here, Starting Now (musical revue written with composer David Shire in 1977). Until that time revues always had a narrator of some sort or skits with dialogue between the songs. I don’t like revues and because of that I was determined not to do one. I basically changed the rules, took away the connective material and said you can connect it because this song connects to that song. It was astonishing back then and has since been done many times but,” Maltby adds with a laugh, “I always feel people who do it never steal the right things.”
Maltby helmed the show again as a way to remind future directors it is not a simple musical revue. “In the last 10 years I’ve seen it done by directors and choreographers who seem to have just listened to the album. The show became less and less Ain’t Misbehavin’. I had the feeling if I didn’t restore what was originally in the show, it would cease to exist. It’s wildly entertaining but it’s also about values and how you convert the songs into stories, which give you the personality of Fats Waller. This is what separates Ain’t Misbehavin’ from other revues.”
Choreographer Arthur Faria was always Maltby’s first choice to provide the perfect Harlem feel and he returns to the fold along with Armelia McQueen (original Broadway cast), Roz Ryan (Broadway replacement), Eugene Barry-Hill and Doug Eskew (both appeared in national tours). The only new cast member is Debra Walton. “On the first day of rehearsal she announced vividly to the company, ‘I’m now officially terrified’. ”
Maltby recently directed the American Idol tour of AM starring Ruben Studdard. “The Idol company is interesting because when we originally did the show all our cast members were in their 20s but had much older personas. When I watched Idol, I thought these talented kids, particularly Ruben, remind me of the original cast. So I called one of our alumni, Debra Byrd, who trains all the singers on Idol, to ask if these kids could do it. A lot of young people don’t want to sing in a ’30s style. They’re too busy gospelling all over the place. But, she said yes and it was the beginning of the process of reclaiming the show. Then, when Michael Ritchie called me to mount it for the Ahmanson, I thought that is definitive. I want to reconstitute the show. It’s funny, the American Idol cast is much younger and looks older and the Ahmanson cast is older and looks younger.”
The decision to move from lyricist to director grew out of Maltby’s need to be in the room with the action. “You know being a lyricist is very lonely. You sit in the hotel room while everyone else is having fun in the rehearsal room as you try to solve those three bad lines, which if you had been able to write them well, you would have written well in the first place. To me the creation of a musical is a whole thing and once I put a name to that, which was directing, I realized I wanted to not only write but to create the show. Directing a musical is not the same as directing. It has the same name attached to it but it’s a different process.”
What part of AM makes Maltby the proudest? “The fact we included ‘Black and Blue.’ The five-part vocal arrangement is extraordinary. There are secrets in the show. It’s really all about prejudice; living and enduring in an unfair world. Any sensitive audience understands that despite one musical number after another, there is more going on than meets the eye.” This wildly exciting show celebrating the music of Fats Waller tells its unspoken and poignant story at the Ahmanson April 24 through May 21.
Richard Maltby at rehearsal for Ain’t Misbehavin
Photo by Craig Schwartz
