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Armelia McQueen: Misbehavin' Again
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Armelia McQueen in rehearsal for "Ain't Misbehavin'" Photos by Craig Schwartz.
According to Armelia McQueen, this is just the right time to do a show about Fats Waller. "People are depressed and this show makes people happy," she said in a recent phone interview, moments before she had to dash out the door to go to the Ahmanson for a rehearsal of "Ain't Misbehavin.'" McQueen brings a special touch of the past to the show: She was one of the original cast members in what started as a cabaret act and eventually went to Broadway. That was 30 years ago and the show won a1978 Tony for Best Musical, Best Featured Actress (Nell Carter) and Best Direction of a Musical (Richard Maltby, Jr.).
McQueen won a Theatre World Award (along with Carter). Besides Carter and McQueen, the original cast featured Dandre DeShields, Ken Page and Charlayne Woodard. Luther Henderson adapted the music and was the original pianist.
Although she was born in North Carolina, McQueen was raised in Brooklyn. You might have seen her as a night club singer in James Ivory's 1981 "Quartet," as Dee the hair stylist in the 1988 "Action Jackson" or as Clara Brown in the 1990 "Ghost." She was also in "Bulworth." She's currently living in Los Angeles and this isn't her first time revisiting "Ain't Misbehavin.'" McQueen was a member of the 1988 revival and was on the Emmy Award-winning NBC special of the musical.
No one to talk with, all by myself
No one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf
Ain't misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.
I know for certain the one you love
I'm through with flirtin', it's just you I'm thinkin' of
Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.
Like Jack Horner in the corner
don't go nowhere, what do I care
Your kisses are worth waitin' for . . . Believe me.
I don't stay out late, don't care to go
I'm home about 8, just me and my radio
Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.
The musical gets its name from a 1929 song written by Harry Brooks and Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller with lyrics by Andy Razaf. At the time of the 1978 Broadway show, McQueen recalled, many people still knew the songs, including "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter," "Fat and Greasy" and "The Joint is Jumpin.'"
"There was a time when we would start singing and the audience would start singing with us," she said. "A lot of those people have gone on" just as some of the original cast members like Nell Carter. People might not join in to sing now, but a lot has changed in three decades. In the beginning, the show as not a musical. It opened in Manhattan Theatre Club's East 73rd Street cabaret in February.
Yet this was a cabaret act that acted like no other. "We were sold out before we even opened," McQueen recalled with pride. "Jackie Onaissis came to one of the performances."
As McQueen remembered it, "We opened in January for three weekends; that was the equity rule. We closed down and opened back up again so the producers could see the show February. By then, people were coming out of the woodwork wanting to produce the show. By March we were in rehearsals and we opened on Broadway in April. I used to get dressed in the car. You'd have clothes in the limo going to different press functions or to the recording. That's how crazy it was."
According to McQueen, "It usually takes shows five years to get all the sets together and get the money to be on Broadway. Did she know it was something special at the time? McQueen asserted that she did, "I have one particular memory of the first run through. We finished running the show and we ran to different corners of the room and just stood there and knew it was going to be a big hit. It was an incredible moment of my life."
And did they think it would make it to Broadway? "I did," she exclaimed, "but the others said, "No no no. Don't say that. It was bad luck. But I said, yes, we are. Yes, we are." Not only did it go to Broadway, but it was nominated for Tony Awards. "When we won the Tony," she said, "We just screamed."
Yet how will a new generation respond? "Today's audiences might not even know who Fats Waller was, so now they can be educated about who this person was, back in the heyday of the 1930s and 40s up in Harlem," she added. When she went in to audition, she also became educated, "I just went in to audition for a new cabaret show that was only going to have five people. I didn't know anything about Fats Waller," she said.
"I just knew a few of his songs and seen a little bit of him in the old, old movies," she recalled. "Once we started rehearsals, we saw little some movie shorts."
As one of the returning original cast members, McQueen can see the historical perspective clearly, saying, "Fats Waller, like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, was a man who was asked to perform anywhere, at the biggest affairs, and yet would have to go in the side door. Now we have a black president. Times have certainly changed and all the spirits and ghosts (from those times) are happy." Each song has a little story that the cast relates to the audience. Thinking of how hard it must have been in the 1930s and 1940s for African Americans in Harlem and yet listening to the music you can see there was still exuberant joy to be found, the kind of joy that reach out and attracted people from all races and classes to come to Harlem and the music left with these people and spread throughout the world. The show a lot of new teach a new generation about life up in Harlem, all the fun and camaraderie. McQueen is proud to still be able to stand up to educate this new, younger audience.
And with such a small cast, she's also found a new family. Of the original cast, she says, "It's hard to have good friends in this day and time and we have all remained friends for over 30 years. We became very good friends, like sisters and brothers because they taught me a lot." And with the new cast, "It's fun to recreate with them what was done 30 years ago and we are friends. We already knew each other. " McQueen has worked with most of the new cast (Eugene Barry-Hill, Doug Eskew, Roz Ryan and Debra Walton) before over the years and they are even better friends now.
McQueen worked with Ryan in the TV shows “Good News” and in “Jag” (they guest-starred as sisters) as well as on the 1984 movie "The Cotton Club" (as the Peter Sisters). Ryan replaced Carter in "Ain't Misbehavin'" on Broadway. McQueen worked with Debra Walton in a National Tour of “South Pacific” in 2004.
If you want to see an expert at "Ain't Misbehavin,'" don't miss this special production at the Ahmanson because McQueen will be standing up and showing us just how it was and is done along with her new family in this special 30th anniversary production of the musical.
"Ain't Misbehavin'" opened for previews April 18 and runs until May 31, 2009. 135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown Los Angeles. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays 2 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
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