Theater review<\/h2>\n
Fats Waller\u2019s wry, winking catchphrase \u2014 \u201cOne never knows, do one?” \u2014 perfumes any stage with a potent sense of possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That sense permeates \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show,\u201d a musical revue now running at Taproot Theatre starring five fantastic Seattle singers: Alexandria J. Henderson, Sarah Russell, Yusef Seevers, Chandler T. Thomas and Erica Walker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The revue\u2019s book (such as it is), written by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr., strings together some 30 songs either written or recorded by the jazz piano legend throughout the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and \u201930s (adapted, arranged and orchestrated by Luther Henderson). Maltby also conceived of and directed the show\u2019s original 1978 Broadway production that won three Tony Awards, including best musical.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As directed by Bretteney Beverly, Taproot associate artistic director, a joyful first act of \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019,\u201d full of high-energy numbers like the title song, makes way for a more thoughtful Act 2, as Waller\u2019s music hits the mainstream and moves downtown from its Harlem home. The cast, now robed in furs and formal evening attire (costumes by Danielle Nieves), delivers numbers like \u201cLounging at the Waldorf,\u201d about this new locale\u2019s uptight, extractive energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the vocal talent onstage it\u2019s no surprise that this cast sounds phenomenal, though too many lyrics were lost in muddy sound and an uneven balance between the singers and the show\u2019s onstage jazz combo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, Seevers reminds us why he\u2019s one of the best actor-singers currently working in Seattle, because not a lyric or laugh was missed in the number \u201cYour Feet\u2019s Too Big,\u201d from which Seevers wrings every ounce of good-natured derision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Though a couple of cabaret tables in front of the stage give the cast some interplay with the audience, the show is mostly staged and performed like a presentational musical rather than a club performance, and thus the joint never quite gets jumpin\u2019 the way that it could.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s under no obligation to, though without those intoxicating highs the deeper lows lose some resonance: Getting the audience singing along to the goofy call-and-response song \u201cFat and Greasy\u201d felt suddenly grotesque as the cast turned inward, toward one another, to sing \u201cBlack and Blue\u201d \u2014 \u201c’Cause you’re black, folks think you lack\/They laugh at you, and scorn you too\/What did I do to be so black and blue?\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, we\u2019ve got hilariously suggestive songs like \u201cSqueeze Me\u201d and \u201cHoneysuckle Rose,\u201d which barely even bother with euphemism, and \u201cFind Out What They Like\u201d about how to keep a man, which I\u2019m guessing landed a lot differently in 1978 than it does in 2026 (yikes!).\u00a0<\/p>\n
These songs were written 90 to 100 years ago, and \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019\u201d debuted on Broadway nearly 50 years ago. It\u2019s fair to say that the context around them has changed a great deal in the intervening decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that context without laying it on too thick is always a challenge, but these are the chronological and social realities of staging a classic. Beverly and her cast clearly know this, and while powerful ideas lurk in the shadows of \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin\u2019\u201d they don\u2019t quite break through the production\u2019s jazz-hands, Broadway-style lacquer. But don\u2019t sweat it! If you’re looking for a good time, you\u2019ll find it. One never knows, do one?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yakimaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Theater review Fats Waller\u2019s wry, winking catchphrase \u2014 \u201cOne never knows, do one?” \u2014 perfumes any stage with a potent sense of possibility.\u00a0 That sense permeates \u201cAin\u2019t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show,\u201d a musical revue now running at Taproot Theatre starring five fantastic Seattle singers: Alexandria J. Henderson, Sarah Russell, Yusef Seevers, Chandler T. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2345562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21741],"class_list":["post-2345561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Taproot-Theatres-\u2018Aint-Misbehavin-is-a-Fats-Waller-celebration.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2345561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2345563,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2345561\/revisions\/2345563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2345562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2345561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2345561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2345561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}