Based on an idea of Murray Horowitz and Richard Maltby Jr.
Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, March 19 to April 5, 1997
A Stage Door Review by Jim Lingerfelt and Roger Kershaw

The joint's jumpin' with the music of Fats Waller

The mainstage of the du Maurier Ltd Centre bursts into life with the sights, sounds, soul and swing of Fats Waller's Ain't Misbehavin', directed by Aquarius' managing artistic director, Max Reimer.

Thomas "Fats" Waller's appetites and talents were large and inexhaustible. His friend and teacher, James P. Johnson, once said, "Some little people have music in them, but Fats, he was all music, and you know how big he was." Fats was 5'10-1/2" and weighed 285 pounds.

Thomas Wright Waller grew up in the exciting musical atmosphere of New York's Harlem in the teens and '20s. His parents were deeply religious and Fats started out playing the organ in the Abyssinian Baptist Church, studying classical piano technique and working with Harlem stride-piano masters. Soon he was accompanying silent pictures and making his reputation at parties. He began to soar, collaborating with lyricist Andy Razaf, a recording contract, his own band, films, overseas tours and Carnegie Hall. He was as generous as he was overindulging, until the party that was Fats Waller's life ended in 1943.

An outrageously prodigious comic and musical talent, Fats Waller continues to live through a cast that struts, strums and sings the songs he wrote or recorded in a career that ranged from the uptown clubs and downtown Tin Pan Alley to the concert stage in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

For this, the closing production of his first season at Aquarius, Reimer has assembled a talented cast to honour the talent that was Waller. Both Denese Matthews and Jenni Burke return to Aquarius after their 1994 performances in Little Shop of Horrors (Jenni is also a familiar talent for us from Drayton's Big River [1995] and She Loves Me [1996]). Rudy Webb, Denis Simpson and Arlene Duncan make their Aquarian debuts here. They are joined on stage by a musical combo: Joe Sealy (piano), Ernie Porthouse (drums) and Lionel Williams (bass).

Solo numbers are sung, danced and acted with style and panache. Jenni Burke's comedic talent is immediately apparent (Honeysuckle Rose), although her voice did not soar to the greatness we have heard in it before. Perhaps she was feeling a bit under the weather on this, the night after opening. Meanwhile, Arlene Duncan's voice consistently did meet the varying demands of Waller's music (Squeeze Me). Denese Matthews' mezzo voice was better in solo (Keepin' Out of Mischief Now) than in chorus. The two male cast members brought out the comic Harlem mood in several numbers, including Rudy Webb's Your Feet's Too Big and Denis Simpson's audience-participation The Reefer Song. While in chorus the group's tuning was sometimes less than perfect (with Simpson's flat tenor often clashing with Matthews' sharp soprano), this did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the show. Suitably, the finale was the highlight of the performance, as it chained together some of the most popular, and enduring, songs of the day: I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter; Two Sleepy People, I've Got My Fingers Crossed; I Can't Give You Anything But Love, It's a Sin to Tell a Lie; Honeysuckle Rose and the title song, Ain't Misbehavin'.

Douglas Paraschuk creates a 1920's Harlem nightspot on the du Maurier mainstage (although we can't help thinking the audience might have been more responsive had the production utilized the cabaret setting of the Studio stage) and the costumes of the era.

For a toe-tappin' great evening, call Theatre Aquarius today. Tickets are $21 to $46 and the program plays Monday to Saturday evenings till April 5, with matinees on Saturdays. Call 1-800-465-7529.