Thompson won the 2013-14 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle "Outstanding Solo Performance" awards for Satchmo at the Waldorf, and has been described by The New York Times as one of the most compelling classical stage actors of his generation. Teachout is the author of Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong and the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal.
It's March 1971 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and Louis Armstrong has just played one of the final performances of his extraordinary career. Unwinding backstage, he recounts events that transformed him into the world-famous "Satchmo."
Teachout was inspired to write the play, his first, after completing Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong. There were aspects of the musician's life that evoked more questions, particularly his career-long dealings with his mob-connected manager Joe Glaser, also played by John Douglas Thompson in Satchmo at The Waldorf. Unsure how Armstrong really felt about the man who steered his career, Teachout felt there was a dramatic truth to be explored that was absent from the unembellished biographical record.
Armstrong's legacy is a very rich one. He changed the sound of jazz, creating the language of jazz that we all know and recognize today. He was one of the two or three most influential and important jazz artists, and many critics claim his 1920s recordings with the Hot Fives and Sevens as the single most important recordings in jazz history - a kind of Declaration of Independence of jazz.
"For many white people in America," Teachout says, "he was very likely the first black person they loved. He was someone they saw in movies, on television, and before that heard on the radio - someone who came into their homes. And that was an immensely important thing for a black man to have done.
"He was the joyous entertainer who sang 'Hello, Dolly!' and 'What a Wonderful World' and made millions of people feel warm inside-but Satchmo at the Waldorf is also about the private Armstrong, who swore like a trooper and knew how to hold a grudge. The fact that Satchmo (as he loved to call himself) had two sides to his personality doesn't mean that the public man was somehow less real than the private one. Like all geniuses, Armstrong was complicated, and that complexity was part of what made his music so beautiful and profound."
The New York Times said, "Thompson impressively renders Armstrong's manager of 40 years, Joe Glaser, a white, hard-talking Chicago pitchman who left Armstrong little when he died. Glaser acknowledged Armstrong's gifts (while blithely exploiting him), but like Bing Crosby, who brought Armstrong to radio and movies, he never once invited him to his own home. Thompson offers dazzling arias, at one point toggling between Armstrong and Glaser in a bravura pyrotechnical display."
The New Yorker said, "Teachout, Thompson, and the director, Gordon Edelstein, together create an extraordinarily rich and complex characterization. The show centers on the trumpeter's relationship with his Mob-connected Jewish manager of more than thirty-five years, Joe Glaser. Thompson forcefully inhabits both men-and throws in a chilling Miles Davis-delivering an altogether riveting performance.
Satchmo at the Waldorf was premiered at Orlando Shakespeare Theatre's Mandell Theatre in Orlando, Fla., on September 15, 2011, in a production starring Dennis Neal and directed by Rus Blackwell. An extensively revised version of Satchmo at the Waldorf was produced by Shakespeare & Company of Lenox, Mass., in August 2012, with John Douglas Thompson playing Armstrong, Glaser, and Davis. The production then went to Long Wharf Theatre of New Haven, Conn., in October 2012, and to Philadelphia's Wilma Theater in November 2012, and was directed by Gordon Edelstein.
Satchmo at the Waldorf transferred to New York's off-Broadway Westside Theatre on March 4, 2014. Following The Wallis engagement, Satchmo at the Waldorf travels to Chicago's Court Theatre, Palm Beach Dramaworks, and San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre during the 2015-16 season.
Tickets are available at www.thewallis.org, by calling 310-746-4000, or in person at The Wallis Ticket Services located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210.
