For much of the Short North Stage production of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN, Marcus Davis is the silent star of this musical based on the life of jazz pianist Fats Waller.

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ premiered on September 5 and will play through September 22 at the Garden Theater (1187 N. High Street in downtown Columbus).

The spotlight shines its colorful hues on the absurdly talented cast of Sydney Arterbridge (Armelia), Catara Brae (Charlaine), Christian McQueen (Ken), Israeljah Reign (Nell), and Isaac Tobler (Andre). Davis spends his time on a piano stool, his back to the audience, playing over 30 of Waller’s classics.

But it is Davis and the rhythm section of Noah Brown (trombone), Joel Caniff (reeds), Luis Gonzales (double bass), Milo Mannino (trumpet) and William Mayer (drums) that turn the two-act, two-hour performance into a spectacle for the eyes and ears.

Davis’s quiet stage presence stands in stark contrast to the wild Waller. Waller, who died in 1943 at age 39, composed more than 400 songs during his lifetime. (If you’re counting, that’s more than 10 songs a year since he was born.) His impressive catalog includes the jazz standards “The Joint is Jumpin’,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “I’m Gonna Sit Down and Write Myself a Letter,” and “Ain’t Misbehavin.”

The pianist, who was once dragged at gunpoint to play at Al Capone’s birthday party, was known for his wild lifestyle almost as much as his music. Waller also broke the color barrier, from being one of the first African-Americans to buy a home in New York City’s St. Alban neighborhood of Queens to performing at the exclusive Waldorf Hotel.

But Waller’s life is only a side note in AIN’T MISBEHAVIN. The show is not a typical Broadway biopic. No plot connects song to song. It’s more a celebration of his music than the story of his life.

And the five-person cast does a great job of it. About half of the songs in AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ are signature numbers, but each singer gets a moment or two in the spotlight.

As Andre, Tobler uses his voice and stage presence to cast mischievous shadows, particularly on “The Viper Drag.” McQueen’s Ken provides the perfect comic counterpoint, offering some goofy confidence on tracks like “Your Feet’s Too Big.”

The women are powerful as a trio, but Waller’s compositions also give them solo moments. Brae leads on “Yacht Club Swing,” Arterbridge shines on “Squeeze Me,” and Reign shines on “Mean to Me.”

The cast also quickly adjusts the mood of the show, moving seamlessly from the bravura of “Fat and Greasy” to the grim reading of “Black and Blue,” while images of newspaper accounts of lynchings and hate crimes play in the background.

The small brushstrokes of director Lisa Glover and assistant director Darius Fincher complete the picture. Set designer Edward Carignan transforms the main stage of the Garden Theater into a working secret bar. Viewers are invited to grab a drink a half hour before the show starts and soak up the atmosphere as the trio of singers Marshawn Clodfelter, Shauna Davis and Jordan Young warm up the audience with a few jazz standards.

Musical director Tirzah Washington and sound designer/mixer Brandon Doeringer ensure that audiences are treated to a crystal clear presentation of Waller’s sound.

Lighting designer Ryan Shreve uses a color palette to help sell the story, painting the stage blue for the secret bar and “rent party” scenes, then changing it to gold to match the opulence of the Waldorf. During “The Viper Drag,” the set is bathed in green light, and Tobler appears to emerge from downstage to sing, “I’m the king of it all/I gotta get high before I sing/The sky’s high, everybody’s high/If you’re a viper…”

AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’ doesn’t set out to tell the entire story of Waller’s life, but this energetic series gives us a glimpse into the environment in which he grew up.

In the song “A Handful of Keys,” Waller wrote, “I feel so much pleasure/When I’ve got a lot of keys under my fingertips/They’re dripping from my lips/A handful of keys and a song to sing/What more could you want?”

After leaving the show, one wonders, “What more could one ask for?” You can ask, but you probably won’t get it.

Photo Source: Fyrebird Media’

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