‘A Wonderful World’ Broadway Review: James Monroe Iglehart Brings Louis Armstrong Back To Swingin’ Live

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Well, hello, Louis! Add another talent to the already prodigious roster of Louis Armstrong: Jazz giant, trumpeter par excellence, great American vocal stylist and, now, the rare musical historical figure powerful and charismatic enough to drape a jukebox musical around and come out a victor.

A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, starring a terrific James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton) as the legendary Satchmo, opens on Broadway tonight at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54, and if it doesn’t escape every pitfall of the jukebox musical, it certainly comes closer than most.

Wonderful World is too expansive in chronological scope to delve too deeply into the crucial question of what made Armstrong such an incomparable figure in the history of American music, but with Iglehart and a fine supporting cast of excellent singer-actresses portraying Armstrong’s four wives – Dionne Figgins as Daisy Parker, Jennie Harney-Fleming as Lil Hardin, Kim Exum as Alpha Smith and Darlesia Cearcy as Lucille Wilson – the musical rarely gives us enough time to ponder what’s being left out.

What we’re seeing on stage is too entertaining. The production has assembled a strong creative team that’s up to the challenge presented by the towering figure of the great Armstrong.