The Milwaukee Repertory Theater is celebrating the music of Fats Waller with an ensemble presentation of over 30 of his songs in the Stackner Cabaret. And if you don’t have fun, it’s your own dang fault.
Yes, indeed, Director E. Faye Butler has put together a solid ensemble of performers and then given them the room to move: sing, vamp, tease, and perform like there is no tomorrow but like they’ve been doing this forever. And Choreographer Kenneth E. Ingram weighs in with on stage moves that delight and allow the cast to swing, jump, jitterbug, waltz, etc in any number of ways that enhance the stories in Waller’s songs.
And it is the stories in the songs that drive this play…so some numbers are full on ensemble pieces but many break down into duets or solo pieces, and Butler and Ingram make those changes and shifts fluid and essentially invisible to the audience, but Lighting Designer Maaz Ahmed, knows just where to light and whom to light and what lights are best for the mood of the piece being performed. That helps draw cleanly the audience along the story lines.
And on to the ensemble/cast: We have five outstanding performers, and again I have to give credit to Butler for pulling together these strong singers and strong personas and making it feel like family on stage. Our cast is Rae Davenport, Amahri Edwards-Jones, Jarran Muse, Brad Raymond, and Katherine Alexis Thomas. And in fact they do feel like family particularly when they are teasing or kidding around with each other. Now you will notice that there aren’t any roles assigned to our five here. That’s because their roles and relationships shift and mutate as they progress through the Waller songbook. So as the stories shift and as we transition from one song to the next, the roles they are playing shift as well. But all of them can move from shy to coy to flirty to sexy to sultry to seductive to suggestive to elegant and back again depending on what they are singing about. And where are they performing? Well, from speakeasy to fancy nightclub to downtown at the Waldorf to a radio station studio (WMKE is back on the air YKIYK) and back with just a bit of vaudeville thrown in.
Our three women, Davenport, Edwards-Jones, and Thomas are fearless and willing to use their entire range. So at times they are in solid aria mode, full throated with vibrato in full display but when the mood calls for it, they aren’t afraid to go high to the point of break up and brittle to make a comedic point! And the men, Muse and Raymond, are willing to go that route too from fill the room to a bit up there from confidence and swagger to vocal eye-rolls and laughter. Raymond and Edward-Jones in particular are our comedic foils, just watching them move is a delight.
But none of this would work without the solid piano work of William Foster McDaniel. This 85 year old musical conductor and keyboard phenom is front and center on a grand (pun intended) sounding upright piano that so perfectly projects McDaniel’s playing . Piano is the only accompaniment and McDaniel is flawless and totally in tune with the music, working without sheet music. The Rep is lucky to have him…he’s been conducting or performing Ain’t Misbehavin’ for quite a while now, all across the country.
Spoiler alert: As we move into the finale, the cast gets to step out of character just a bit and instead of lyrics, gets to scat perform as different jazz musical instruments. It’s a lot of fun.
Now, most of these songs are nearing 100 years old, so the lyrics may seem dated and at times the content is defined by its place and time in America’s musical history…but there is nothing but happy here.
And now for a personal sartorial decision: fedora or bowler. I think the bowler…
Ain’t Misbehavin’ will be presented in the Stackner Cabaret from now through April 26, 2026. Additional information and tickets can be found here.
Extra Credit Reading: The Program
