Review: John McWhorter Showcased His Reconstruction of EARLY TO BED at The Triad

On Friday January 9, 2026, New York Times columnist John McWhorter invited a lucky 70 or so people at the intimate Triad Theatre in the Upper West Side to explore his efforts to reconstruct Fats Waller’s 1943 Early to Bed. The show was a success, running on Broadway in 1943 alongside the original production of Oklahoma!, but much of its score and orchestrations were lost – and with it, an early contribution of Black Americans to musical theater history. McWhorter is a self-proclaimed obsessive, and it shows. Throughout the sold-out show, he told stories about the paths that his dedication to reviving this forgotten musical led him to – including ending up in strangers’ basements searching through trunks for hints to what this musical might have looked like in its original production – in between performances of the songs by an all-female cast. Almost none of the male songs for the show survived, so McWhorter himself filled in on the few male roles when necessary.

The show was a treat for other musical theater obsessives to get a peek at a moment of musical theater history that, without McWhorter’s efforts, might have stayed lost to history. There have been other efforts to reconstruct the work, but McWhorter uncovered even more pieces of Early to Bed, including a lyric with the melody lost which he composed a tune for in the style of Fats Waller, and a tune without a lyric that he wrote one for in the style of the show’s lyricist, George Marion Jr. McWhorter has a charming stage presence. He's obviously a little uncomfortable being in front of a crowd, but that made him all the more likable, and the audience was clearly packed with fans of his work. He led us through his reconstruction efforts and presented all of the songs he was able to (not the book, though, because according to McWhorter, the book doesn’t make any sense). He poked fun at how little the story and continuity tracked – even though it takes place in a brothel in Martinique, there’s still a random number about “Hi-De-Ho-High in Harlem” (a rousing number sung by Eve Fundicelli). The most well-known number from the show is “This Is So Nice,” which was incorporated into the Broadway production of Ain’t Misbehaving. The cast included Katie Granville and Diana Bertollini.

The surprising stand out singer of the show was McWhorter’s 14-year-old daughter, who boasts a powerful voice and relaxed stage presence. She was there to occasionally turn pages for McWhorter as he played. He originally planned to have her sing “Get Away Young Man” so she’d have a little more to do, but he wryly said that when he gave her the song to try, he immediately realized there was no way he could have a 14-year-old girl stand on stage and sing it, so he gamely replaced her on that number. That number drew laughs from the crowd as they listened to the quite child-inappropriate lyrics. (He also said in his introduction to the number that he talked to one of the other singers before the show lamenting that if he sang it, everyone would think he was gay, and she pointed out that everyone already thinks that.) McWhorter instead had his daughter sing the framing number, “The Ladies Who Sing with the Band,” a number he constructed to give the same feel of another framing number that was in the original Early to Bed, using other Fats Waller songs from different projects. His daughter’s voice is really outstanding.

McWhorter put this production together in part because he’s looking for a producer who might be willing to help fund recording a truly proper album of Early to Bed with full orchestrations and a full band, so that the public can once again hear the show in all its glory, as it was intended to be heard. If the three sold-out performances McWhorter has put on at the Triad so far are any indication, there is interest in hearing Early to Bed once more. The numbers are bouncy, fun, and original – here’s hoping that someone is available to bring Waller’s glorious score back to life on a larger scale. In the meantime, sign up for John McWhorter’s newsletter to find out if he puts the show on again. If he does, you’ll want to grab your ticket as soon as you can.