'You're the franchise': 'A Wonderful World' star honored to play jazz great Louis Armstrong
"You're the franchise," the actress/singer told Iglehart, who plays the jazz legend in the bio-tuner. "You know what you have to do."
"No pressure with that," Iglehart laughed recalling the conversation, "not at all."
"To have her say that - her of all people - I felt honored that a person who knows what it takes to put it all together has faith in me," Iglehart said. "I'm glad I'm here, and I'm glad she's here."
"He's just stellar in terms of a performance that embodies Louis' sound and joy and emotion," said Williams, of Iglehart, who earned a 2014 Tony Award for playing The Genie in the Disney tuner "Aladdin."
The Broadway veteran said he knew Armstrong as a jazz icon and charismatic presence on film and TV. But as a young person, Iglehart preferred gospel and RB to jazz. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he and his wife Dawn watched Ken Burns' documentary "Jazz" that he realized Armstrong's profound impact.
"I had no idea how important this man was to American culture and American music," said Iglehart, who recalled thinking to himself that someone should produce a musical about the man.
Contacting his representatives, he told them if a musical were in the works, he'd like to be involved, thinking he could do justice to Armstrong. When he learned about "A Wonderful World," he jumped at the chance to play the legend.
Conceived by director Christopher Renshaw and writer Andrew Delaplaine, the show chronicles Armstrong's life through his four wives. Following a workshop in Miami, the bio-musical played New Orleans before opening in Chicago. Producers hope the next stop is Broadway, but the show needs fine-tuning before then, says Williams, who hopes to secure the rights to more of Armstrong's music before the show reaches New York.
"(Armstrong) was doing things nobody ever heard of before. He was creating a new art form," said Williams, who describes the singer/trumpeter/band leader as the Mozart of his era.
"Between his scatting, which he developed, and his solos, his sound there is so distinct," she said. "You hear three notes of his singing, playing and you know exactly who it is."
According to Iglehart, for sheer magnetism, there was nobody like Armstrong.
"He could play with anybody from Leonard Bernstein to Dizzy Gillespie," he said, and "he helped break down barriers of how African Americans were seen."
"It wasn't easy what he did," said Iglehart, who intends to honor Armstrong with his performance, insisting without him "there would be no me."
"Being an African American performer, I'm standing on the shoulders of legendary Louis Armstrong," Iglehart said. "He broke through the barriers so I wouldn't have to."
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"A Wonderful World"
When: 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, through Oct. 29
Where: The Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St., Chicago, broadwayinchicago.com
Tickets: $31.50-$101.50