(Director Anthony Mark Stockard)
By Jerome Langston
“But ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ is a song I sang a lot, and it used to be my go to audition song,” recalls Anthony Mark Stockard, university professor and NSU Theatre Company’s producing artistic director, during a recent afternoon chat at Norfolk’s historic Wells Theatre. “Honeysuckle Rose” is a Fats Waller classic, and as such, is one of the stand-out songs performed in Ain’t Misbehavin’, the excellent Tony Award-winning musical revue, which pays tribute to Waller’s iconic, early 20th century hits — and celebrates the spirit of the Jazz Age, when Harlem nightlife was celebrated and in vogue. Stockard is directing the musical for Virginia Stage Company, in collaboration with NSU Theatre Company’s new professional series, and the show launches VSC’s 47th season next month.
Stockard has long wanted to direct Ain’t Misbehavin, but this is his first crack at it. It’s also the first show at the Wells that he’s directed since Dreamgirls, which was a stand-out success in season 43. “It’s amazing music. And it requires wonderful entertainers-storytellers, who can sing the notes… but who have that thing, to connect with an audience,” says the director about the Fats Waller musical show. “And I’m so excited about the cast that we’ve assembled for the show,” he continues. “Rehearsals don’t start till next week, but I cannot wait to get into that room.”
In that rehearsal room, will include five established actors whom Stockard have worked with in prior productions. And those five principal performers will be joined on stage with a small ensemble cast, to elevate the storytelling. An Ohio native who studied theater at Alabama State University, and earned an MFA from Brandeis University, Stockard is a huge fan of legendary stage and screen actor, André De Shields, who was an original cast member of Ain’t Misbehavin’s Broadway production. “Well André De Shields is a whole, singular movement in theater,” he says, and so he looked for performers who also bring some kind of unique artistry to their roles. Actor Gary Smith will play the André role, while Darius Nelson will occupy the role made famous by actor Ken Page. The rest of the principal cast includes Starlet Windham, ShaaNi Dent and Corasha Dent. The Dent sisters both starred in that big prior production of Dreamgirls, which Stockard directed.
Ain’t Misbehavin opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on May 9, 1978, and didn’t end its hugely successful run till late February of 1982, following over 1,600 performances. Created and directed by Richard Maltby, Jr., with associate director Murray Horwitz, the musical starred the vivacious Nell Carter, the aforementioned De Shields, Armelia McQueen, Ken Page and Charlaine Woodard. It was greeted with rave reviews, and earned several Tony awards, including for Best Musical and for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, which went to Nell Carter. The musical also won Drama Desk awards and a Grammy award for Best Musical Theater Album. A well-received network TV broadcast followed in 1982, as did a less successful 1988 Broadway revival that featured the original cast, director and choreographer. The musical revue is all music and dance…luxuriating in the sound pioneered by jazz pianist and composer, Fats Waller, and captures the feeling and even humor of Harlem, during its much celebrated renaissance. Over two acts, songs like “Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” “Your Feet’s Too Big,” and “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby,” are given crowd-pleasing interpretations.
Fats Waller and I share the same birthday in May, but he sadly passed away at only 39 years of age, on December 15, 1943. He and his many siblings were born in NYC to parents who came from Virginia. As a piano player, singer and composer, his innovative artistry transformed the American music scenes of the twenties and thirties. And his success and perseverance as a Black American artist of that time, despite the era’s typically ugly racism, has earned high praise and respect from the many artists whom he inspired.
Stockard tells me that this is the third year of his theatre company’s professional series. Productions of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size and the great Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog have both been produced under the NSU Theatre company’s professional series banner. The series allows Stockard to hire fully professional actors, many of whom studied and learned theater at NSU, for NSU theatre productions. It also helps to further expose developing student actors to the work of those successful, working actors who come back to star in productions produced by the company. “In these initial performances, they’ve been alumni who have gone on to some level of professional acclaim,” Stockard explains. For the 10th anniversary of The Brothers Size, he brought the entire original cast back under guest artists equity contracts.
As the first show produced by NSU Theatre company’s professional series in collaboration with Virginia Stage Company, Ain’t Misbehavin is a perfect theatrical start for this partnership, following years of co-productions at the Wells. It’s also a great kick-off to the new season, which looks to be a nice mix of likely crowd-pleasers and a new work. “Let loose a little. Have a little fun…” says Stockard, about the show’s current day appeal to audiences. “It celebrates the more delicate, fragile moments of being a human being.”
WANT TO GO?
Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show
September 3-21
Presented by Virginia Stage Company
In Collaboration with NSU Theatre Company
Wells Theatre
