WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey.
While you think about that, you and other White Plains theatre-goers beginning with Sunday Matinee at 2 tomorrow, and running through December 21, will watch Andre De Shields, and the strikingly beautiful Stacie Precia (pronounced PRESHAY) in her debut playing quadruple roles, the personalities of Louis Armstrong’s four wives, talking about the jazz icon, interacting with him in key incidents of his life, and playing to the legend portrayed by Mr. De Shields.
Andre De Shields leads you down his “Musical Memory Lane on Main Street” entitled Ambassador Satch. First Matinee-ers Sunday at 2, will discover and hear a live quintet (“new all stars”) demonstrate Louis Armstrong jazz, the original stuff that turned a century on its ear. They will hear the music that made Armstrong the inspiration of the jazz greats of the twentieth century: Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, Artie Shaw and countless musicians. Photo of Mr. De Shields by WPCNR StageCam.
Ambassador Satch opens with a Sunday Matinee tomorrow at 2 PM at The Little Ingenue on City Place, recreating the four epochs of the jazz impresario’s musical and personal life, and it is “through the lens of Mr. Armstrong’s wives, that we see (him),” Mr. Armstrong’s alter ego, Andre De Shields told WPCNR Friday backstage at the
Mr. De Shields took the time before Friday afternoon dress rehearsal, script open on his coffee table, bananas (a food Armstrong was forced to eat, unloading banana boats in New Orleans in the 19-teens), black pearl cufflinks on his mirror table, tuxedo hung on a hangar nearby, to talk to WPCNR about the jazz memoire of Armstrong he wrote with James Mirrione. Photo by WPCNR StageCam
When theatergoers settle into the posh upholstery of the Little Ingenue on
As the audience sits in to watch the jazz great put together one more show, Mr. De Shields playing Mr. Armstrong, begins to reminisce. Theatergoers, Mr. De Shields hopes, will reminisce along with him through the prism of Ms. Precia who plays each of Mr. Armstrong’s spouses.
They will hear the Armstrong music that give birth to jazz played by a 5-sideman combo recreating the timeless riffs and turns that bring Mr. Armstrong’s one-and-only personality to life, covering the four periods of creativity in his life: His time in New Orleans in the 19-teens, his taking Chicago by storm in the 20s at the Savoy Ballroom, when he recorded West End Blues; his New York period, to the time when he became America’s “Ambassador to the World,” as De Shields calls him, in the 1960s.
I Heard Him on the Radio.
De Shields, of course has been a lifelong admirer of Armstrong, “because his stature has had an influence on all who have heard him.” Andre said. “Mom and Dad listened to him on the radio, which is how I got influenced by it.”
De Shields said, “It was pretty obvious how he had influenced the world in his own way.” He recalled how the show Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing was struggling in the early 1960s when Louis recorded the title song in 1964. This reporter recalls how his gravelly delivery and trumpet made it a tune everybody was singing along with. Louis’ version became a hit record topping The Beatles’ She Loves You, Do You Want to Know A Secret?, and Please, Please Me on the on the Top 40 Charts. His recording made Hello, Dolly! “The Producers” of its day because Louis Armstrong recorded the title song.
“There were endless generations of musicians who were influenced by him, De Shields related, “There wasn’t any jazz musician who did not envy his introduction on West End Blues (his legendary 1928 recording on OKEH records).” This is what lead De Shields and his Co-Writer, James Mirrione to create the show, which started as a 55-minute teaching seminar in 1993, and has now grown, then been trimmed again (since last Spring) to a two-act, slightly more than 2 hour production.
The Man Who Got Along.
Besides “Satchmo’s” (for his nickname from New Orleans days, “OId Satchelmouth”) obvious musical legacy as the creator of jazz, De Shields pointed out that what made Armstrong’s life so interesting to him to write about, was “he seemed to be everybody’s personal friend, how do you distill his style?”
Ms. Precia’s Roles, Reactions, Actions Reveal Anxieties of “Mr. Jazz.”
“We all know the sweat-beaded face, the rolling eyes, the gold trumpet, the hankerchief, but who knows the demons behind that grin?” De Shields mused, his eyes distant and sensitive. “We know his image: Simple. Happy go lucky, almost an idiot savant. His trumpet playing was not learned. What we see in the show through the lens of his four wives, played by Stacie, is what conflict in this man’s life made him, shaped him and prepared him for this heroic destiny (of America’s Ambassador to the world).”
DEBUTING IN QUADRUPLE ROLE: “To know a man, you go to the people who knew him, and who better to know Louis than his four wives,” De Shields explained, “Stacie interacts with me, she narrates, (in each of her wife roles) in the four epochs. You get a vision of how he evolved in each of his four eras through the lenses of his wives.” According to De Shields, she is terrific.Photo by WPCNR StageCam.
Following the Man Who Created Jazz.
De Shields notes the show combines a revealing look at “an icon,” with the musical styles he created, from Armstrong’s “formative” years in
The show will not have scenery. “The device of Ambassador Satch is Louis,” De Shields explains, “Through his comments. His wives’ comments. Through seeing him in the present, to flashbacks and flashforwards, you get to know the man.”
A Visit to Corona. A Walk-off and a Walk-on and “Satch” Was Born.
De Shields created the present show with Mr. Mirrione, after conducting extensive personal research at the Louis Armstrong house in
De Shields had not originally planned to make Ambassador Satch his signature role, but when the show was being performed in Carnegie Hall in 1993, when it was just 55 minutes long and cast for only one actor. The actor cast in the part suddenly acquired “a big time gig” as Mr. De Shields described it, and Andre had to go on stage the next day with it, and he said the role galvanized him, and lead him and Mr. Mirrione to expand the show to two actors and a band.
De Shields learned firsthand what Louis was like to work with from Arvell Shaw, Mr. Armstrong’s former bass player qirh Louie’s All Stars in the early 60s. Andre worked with Shaw in Ain’t Misbehavin’ on Broadway in 1978. De Shields worked with Phoebe Jacobs, Vice President of the Louis Armstrong Foundation, and Michael Cogswell, Curator of the Louis Armstrong Archives at
Ambassador Satch debuts in White Plains Performing Arts Center Sunday afternoon. Tickets are available for Sunday’s performance and all other performances through December 21. Curtain is at 2 PM on Sunday. For information on tickets call 1-888-977-2250, or WPPAC direct at 328-1600. Tickets are $32.50 to $45. At the December 18 staging, Mr. De Shields will conduct a post-performance Meet-the-Artist program for youth.
As for the Ambassador Satch “message,” De Shields said, “My co-writer and I are happy to reveal Louis Armstrong, and to remember him as a prophet of peace.” Photo by WPCNR StageCam.