MORE THAN MUSES: The Wives of A Wonderful World
L-R Dionne Figgins, Jennie Harney-Fleming, James Monroe Iglehart, Kim Exum, Darlesia Cearcy in A Wonderful World The Louis Armstrong Musical. ©Jeremy Daniel
James Monroe Iglehart (Spamalot, Hamilton, Aladdin) takes center stage as jazz icon Louis Armstrong in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical, a vibrant tribute to one of music’s most influential legends. But while Armstrong’s name is the one history remembers, the women in his life shaped the man and musician he became. His wives—each a force in their own right—were not just companions but key players in his journey, and A Wonderful World brings their voices to the forefront.
Developed by the late Andrew Delaplaine and Christopher Renshaw (Taboo), A Wonderful World was commissioned by and given a world premiere at the Miami New Drama. The show was then fittingly mounted in the musicians birthplace of New Orleans at the Saenger Theatre. After a successful run in Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre, it now lands at the legendary Studio 54, cementing Armstrong’s legacy on the Broadway stage.
Black Girls Do Theater had the honor of sitting down with three of the powerhouse actresses who were cast to bring the voices of Armstrong’s ex-wives to modern audiences: Darlesia Cearcy (Once on This Island, The Color Purple, Ragtime), Kim Exum (The Book of Mormon), and Jennie Harney-Fleming (Hamilton, The Color Purple), who play Wilson, Smith, and Hardin, respectively. Dionne Figgins, who plays Armstrong’s first wife, Daisy Parker, was not present.
In this exclusive roundtable, we explore how these women’s stories add depth to Armstrong’s legacy, the magic they bring to the production, and what makes A Wonderful World a must-see Broadway event.
Jennie Harney-Fleming: Reflecting on the Impact of the Original Production
©Heather Gershonowitz
Fleming had an interesting perspective of the show before it headed to its Broadway home. Her husband, DeWitt Fleming Jr., who not only is the originator of the dual role of Fate Marable and Lincoln Perry but is also the show’s tap choreographer, was a part of the original production in 2020. “I was very pregnant at the time,” she recounts. “I got an opportunity to see what it was originally, how it was originally designed. It's drastically different from the original version. To see the different iterations and approaches to shaping [Lil Harden], I consider to be a huge advantage because you're not just getting what's on the page, but you're getting the perspective of the people who are creating the thing and how they want to tell the story. We got an opportunity to really give her a heart and be more passionate rather than just exclusively business, business, business.”
“When you do the research about Lil, this woman was heartbroken when [Louis] left. She didn't sign the divorce papers for eight years to let him marry Alpha [Smith]. Even after that, she never remarried, and she died singing a tribute to him. She had a heart attack. She was enamored. She was in love. She was head over heels with this man for a really, really long time. I was able to work with the creative team and find that balance of her being both a woman who had to pull herself up at a time when women weren't allowed to occupy those spaces and be the forerunner in that and then pull him up at the same time, but also still find that fine line of “Yes, I pulled him to a higher level.”
Fleming imparts that she “definitely listened to Lil's music before the show.” “She has so much personality in her writing. She's very sassy. She's got a lot of humor, but she was very passionate about what she did. I like to listen to some of her songs during my ‘beat moment’. I have my Doctor Vox bottle that I'll blow my bubbles into, especially after the first act, to start the cool down process a little bit after singing so aggressively for a sustained period of time. I do steam. If it's a one show day, I'll go to the gym right before the show, at least get 15 minutes on the elliptical or in the steam room.
“I'm still finding [Alpha]. The way that I work, or if I were to describe my artistic process, is ever evolving. Thankfully, there's not a camera documenting, so I can continue building upon or subtracting if I unlock or discover something new. I was still working with that sketch into previews. I kept getting different puzzle pieces and getting ones taken away and having to make a different picture in a different arc, which was challenging.”
- Kim Exum
©Heather Gershonowitz
Kim Exum on the Evolution of Her Portrayal of Alpha Smith
“The process of auditioning was very, very quick for me,” Exum notes. “Going into the process, I knew a little bit more about Alpha being his third wife, and where they had met, and how they had met. I'm not going to sit up here and lie to you [laughs] and say that I did a sh*t ton of research on her before I started. I let her grow with me.” Exum did learn a fact about Smith that she did not expect and considers it a fascinating discovery. “She was an avid scrapbooker. She would document all of his concerts, and she would cut off the articles and put them in a picture book and write little captions and put tickets in and things like that. She documented a lot of the time that they were together and they were dating. That was a huge resource to the Louis Armstrong House [Museum]. They have lots of her pictures, and they’re able to connect more dots during that time of when he was on tour because Alpha scrapbooked it all.”
Exum’s pre-show routine involves another familiar music icon.
“As for Alpha, sometimes when I get her tone, I'll listen to a little Ella Fitzgerald ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’. Ella has a spoken quality, she remarks. Most of the artists sing how they sound. It's talking with music, so I remind myself that I don't really have to put on or actively place things unless they're higher and I need to place them. I listen to ‘A-Tisket, A-Tasket’ a bit and I'll be talking to people. I just try to have fun.”
Darlesia Cearcy: Deep Research and Dedication in Portraying Lucille Wilson
Taking on her eighth Broadway role as Lucille Wilson, the last wife of Louis Armstrong, Cearcy has learned to never take any process for granted.
©Heather Gershonowitz
“I always know when you're stepping into the room that you're stepping into a new process and things are going to unfold as they need to in order for that specific entity to develop and work for itself. This time around, I stepped into the process feeling quite comfortable with the character, Lucille. Having been introduced to her through the audition process and doing a fair amount of research prior to rehearsal, I knew that I really liked her. It made all of the activities of the rehearsal a little bit easier; Being able to come into this new group, this world, and watching everyone, which I love to do, explore their creativity and how they work and see what they bring to the table—That's always very interesting to me.”
She continues by saying that she has “a lot of respect for her”. “Going to the Corona house in Queens, it was remarkable just to know what's inside of that home, first of all, and that everyone in the neighborhood is so completely on board with what's going on there and how it contributes to the entire neighborhood. To know that there's all of these original pieces that are worth millions of dollars, and it's just sitting there and everybody knows that that's a safe house and we're going to respect it and we're not going to touch it—I was awestruck to know that people have that much admiration and respect for that home and Louis and Lucille and how they've really cultivated a community. Lucille started out dancing so that she could take care of her family, but then she really struck out in the dance world and started creating a different standard when she traveled abroad. She became a principal. She came back to the United States, joined the Cotton Club dance line, breaking all of the traditional standards: Being the shortest, the oldest, the darkest on the line, which is also how she met Louis.”
L-R Jennie Harney-Fleming, Darlesia Cearcy, Dionne Figgins, Kim Exum ©Heather Gershonowitz
On how the ensemble brings the show together
A show such as A Wonderful World is afforded the privilege of having a large cast to fill out the everyday people who lived during the time to those who were a part of Louis’s musical career, for better or for worse. When asked about the relationship between the main cast and the ensemble, the actresses took time to call out the almost-hypnotic excellence that the ensemble exhibits on stage each and every night.
Fleming shares how a rich ensemble can not only elevate a show’s story but also help the audience establish its scenery. “We don't have a lot of set pieces that identify place and time”, Fleming explains. A lot of it is established by them: “Where are we? Are we in a club? Are we in a speakeasy? Are we on the street? Are we in a train station?”. A lot of that information is given by how they physicalize the movement and how Ricky [Tripp] has choreographed that movement and on time period. Of course, we have other things that lend to that as well. They are the set pieces. Night after night, continuing to establish and shape the scenes that we are getting ready to walk into, the chapters that we get ready to walk into and develop even further.”
Finding the Fun: Bringing Levity Onstage and Backstage at Studio 54
“We have a guy that is doing these very interesting busts of each of us that live backstage and are being painted and highlighted.” Cearcy happily describes it as “a collection of cast members that are back there.” Each performance, we find that there's a new bust and a new person that's been added to the collection. Music [playing] that has nothing to do with the show, DeWitt will be playing on the karaoke machine, and there's always something going on backstage.”
Fleming expresses that there’s times where the seriousness of performing certain scenes in the show makes those intimate interactions backstage even more enjoyable. “I have lots of little moments. After the first number, when the wives exit the stage, I meet Kim and have a little high five moment. There are lots of silly little things that we'll do backstage with the crew, and little funny sayings every time we pass. We have fun. We just are goofing off, honestly, backstage when it's not our moment. We just try to keep it light, especially dealing with some of the [topics] we have to deal with in the show.
“I'm laughing with my dresser and sometimes with Kim and Dionne [Figgins]. Even if we're traveling up and down the stairs to get ready for the show. It depends on the day, it depends on the moment, but there's always something happening.”
- Darlesia Cearcy
On multi-generational appreciation and the current Broadway audience
The show doesn’t stray away from illustrating how Louis utilizes his charm, throaty yet instantly recognizable voice, of course, his musicianship as a trumpeter, kept his then-potentially sinking ship of a career afloat. Now older audiences have a chance to bring his music back into cultural conversation.
“You look out and you see the typical Broadway subscriber, you see tourists, but then you see a whole slew of younger audience members, especially now that we have shows like Six and Hamilton that are prescribed to that age group,” Fleming explains. “[A Wonderful World] is an awesome opportunity for jazz music that they may have heard all their lives to strike a different chord in them when they come see this show, to make them want to go back and do research in a different way.”
“When we were growing up, there were a lot of things sampled and that we heard that we didn't truly understand were from things that people were digging in the crates. We hear these songs year round, we hear Louis' voice, but we don't know anything about him. I'm hoping that this helps to continue the education and legacy of what he did and the impact that he had so it doesn't get lost in future generations.”
“It's a different kind of jazz”, Exum excitedly remarks. It's the origin of jazz production. I love jazz. I love the complex simplicity of the music, and I love how it is the foundation of a lot of the music we enjoy today. Being able to hear the roots of that, makes us stand out. Our set is very unique. I don't think you're going to get another suitcase set this season on Broadway.”
The show surpasses expectations of what a biopic musical can look like in current day Broadway. “There was a bit of an anticipation of it being very jukebox”, Cearcy states, “and it turns out that that's not what it is at all. We actually have a book, we have a story, we have history, we have the authentic aspects of each individual, true to life characters on this stage. You may find that somewhere else, but what we do is what we do, and it's very specific, and it's very powerful and impactful. Anyone that I speak to; When I'm collecting my car in the garage, they always have plenty to say as to how shocked they are. They didn't know what to expect, but their expectations were exceeded in whatever capacity that is, and they walk away feeling thrilled and happy that they've been there. We do have something unique to offer that I don't think you can find anywhere else. I just would encourage anyone watching this to come and find out what that is.”
“Being able to show up as you are, not really trying to fit into the white box of what the choreography is supposed to look like, not worrying about: “Is my butt too big or sticking out, or am I not tall enough, not thin enough to fit on the chorus line?” Being able to watch Black people be Black people on stage is a really special thing. That is what makes us stand out.”
- Kim Exum
