Get ready to swing, bop & croon with Idaho Shakespeare’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ musical revue

Welcome to the club! Idaho Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” offers a celebratory time-travel trip to the days of swing and jazz, when ladies wore hats, gentlemen dressed in suits for a night on the town, and the piano of Fats Waller kept things lively.

This production — with a cast of knockout performers — opens this weekend. It is certain to get toes tappin’ and hearts engaged, director Gerry McIntyre said over Zoom from his apartment in Boise.

“It’s really the best revue ever,” he said. “There is just the thinnest of books (script) to tie the songs together, and people just lose their minds because it’s just song after song after song, and they just keep getting better. I think there’s a snowball effect.”

This is the second show of the 2022 season. Because of Actor’s Equity COVID restrictions, shows still are not running in repertory this season. “Much Ado About Nothing” closed and moved on to Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and now “Ain’t Misbehavin’” takes its turn.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’” broke theatrical ground when it opened on Broadway in 1978. The show started as a cabaret and was so successful it was quickly retooled into what became a musical theater blockbuster. It won multiple Tony Awards and ran for four years before becoming an Emmy-winning NBC TV special in 1982.

Not only did it revive Waller as an icon of theater, music and Black culture, but it created an audience for tuneful music-driven shows that eventually gave birth to jukebox musicals like ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” and “MJ,” which celebrates the life and creativity of Michael Jackson.

It also propelled the first cast into Broadway and TV stardom, including Nell Carter (“Gimme a Break!”) and Andre DeShields, who won an Emmy for that 1982 special.

In fact, the original actors’ names still used are the character names. Big shoes to fill but this cast will do it handily, McIntyre says. Terita Redd (Nell), Jessie Cope Miller (Armelia), LaTrisa Harper (Charlaine), Tyrick Wiltez Jones (Andre), David Robbins (Ken) and pianist William Knowles (Waller) hit the stage this weekend and will play through July 9.

And McIntyre knows the show inside and out.

“It really set the standard for a modern musical revue,” he said.

McIntyre was a fan of the original production — often getting standing-room-only tickets and dancing in the back, he remembered. As a performer, he’s been in it as both Ken and Andre. As a director, he has directed and choreographed a multitude of productions over the years. And it still is one of his favorite things to do.

The musical’s effervescent score celebrates the life and times of irrepressible Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller, a larger-than-life persona who was a master of the stride piano style. He appeared in movies with Lena Horne and The Nicholas Brothers, such as “Stormy Weather.” Today, largely because of this show, Waller’s music and performances are heard on film and television soundtracks of every genre.

The show puts Waller front and center by putting the piano player

on stage with the performers. William Knowles sits in for Waller and is the music director for the show. He and McIntyre have worked on it before. “I had to have William because I know he can run that ship. It’s a lot of music,” McIntyre said.

For McIntyre, the show is “just pure joy,” and it has heart.

It starts by taking the audience on a journey through a celebration of life, “filled with fun and energy,” McIntyre said.

Act I features songs like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “The Jitterbug Waltz,” the rip-roaring opening title song “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “This Joint is Jumpin’.”

“Then there’s a number in the second act called ‘Black and Blue,’” he said. “And because of what’s gone on before, people think it might be a joke, but then it hits you and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is not a joke.’ You know, it’s not preachy. This is what life is like as a Black person. We’re not doing like a ‘Shecky’ — a joke, joke, joke. This is real and it catches people by surprise.”

It’s a show that can communicate deeply about the Black experience, and the universal human experience, because it does it through music, McIntyre said.

“Music can express cultural differences that can hit you in the heart, without criticizing,” he said. “We are all united on that front. It’s not red or blue or Black or white. It’s universal. Music is our unifier. I think we should have it at the U.N. Listen to some music and then talk about the world’s problems.”

Tickets

What: “Ain’t Misbehavin’” at Idaho Shakespeare Festival

When: June 17-July 9

Where: Idaho Shakespeare Festival Amphitheater, 5657 Warm Springs Ave., Boise.

Show times: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. (Mini-concert series starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays.)

Tickets: $36 for previews, $46 weekdays, $56 weekends for chairs and terraces, $26, $32, $40 for hillside, $25 for students. For musicals they are $39, $49, $61 general; $28, $34, $40 for hillside. Family night (First Sunday night in a run) is $14 for everyone.

Box office: 208-336-9221 or IdahoShakespeare.org.