'Satchmo' Comes To Long Wharf

New Play Shows Human Struggles Of Famous Trumpeter

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The play stars John Douglas Thompson, who has made a name for himself tackling major titular Shakespearean roles such as "Antony and Cleopatra" (at Hartford Stage, and elsewhere "Othello,'" "Henry IV," "Macbeth" and "Richard III." The Obie Award-winning recently completed a run of "The Iceman Cometh" at Chicgao's Goodman Theatre with Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy.

"This is not just storytelling but a real play with real conflict," says Teachout who says he has no problems being on the other side of the critical pen. "This is more than what Gordon calls 'a taxidermy play,' which is a famous guy sitting around talking for two hours about what a great guy he is."

The play takes place in March, 1971 backstage at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel, just four months before Armstrong's death at the age of 69.

The idea for the work began on the 2009 book tour for Teachout's biography when a theater professional suggested there might be a play it.

"I was thunder stuck at the suggestion," says Teachout who had written opera libretti for two operas but never a play. "But as I thought about it I thought, 'Well, maybe he's right.'

Teachout was inspired by a 1970 Eddie Adams introspective photograph of Armstrong. "He's sitting in a little dressing room in Las Vegas, with his trumpet in his lap, looking old. Then the first line of the play came to me and I sat down and started writing. Four days later I had the first draft of the play."

He showed it to a theater-savvy friend, who suggested having the single actor play multiple parts. Two days later he rewrote the work "and that's the play more or less that we have now — in the structure, the way it overall works."

Instead of multiple characters beyond Armstrong, Teachout centered on one: Armstrong's longtime manager, Joe Glaser, a white, Jewish Chicago nightclub owner with mob connections.

"Until the end of his life, Armstrong believed that Glaser was one of the best things that ever happened to him. He was the man who helped make him become famous — more than just a jazz musician but an icon beloved throughout the world.

The New Orleans-born Armstrong, who was deserted by his father in his early childhood, saw Glaser as a father figure. But after Glaser died Armstrong came to feel — in reasons that are explained in the play — that Glaser, had, in fact, betrayed him.

"If your father betrays you and you find this out a few months before you die, this is going to trigger a tremendous psychic upheaval, and that is what's happening in the play as it starts. The way Armstrong looked at their relationship at the end of his life is the center of this thing.

"You would also have a black actor crossing a racial line to play a white, Jewish, mobbed-up manager and that would be inherently a very dynamic and exciting thing to see on stage and a great challenge for the actor.

Race Relations

"Many people, especially younger black musicians were uncomfortable with the fact that Armstrong had put his career in the hands of a white man and trusted him so completely. The way Armstrong talked about Glaser in public was a couple steps away from being obsequious and they hated this and jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis talked about it. They felt it was tied into Armstrong's stage manner — which was developed not long after the turn of the century — which was '[Uncle] Tom'-ish."

"Armstrong knew about the criticism and it stung him to the marrow. And so [in the play] Glaser becomes the target of these feelings. "He's the boss man. When all of your emotions are stirred up by the feeling that you've been betrayed by this man, then you begin to look at every aspect of your life and to question it and ask yourself, 'Was this a mistake?' Did I take the wrong turn in 1935? How do I live with this now that I know my death is near? It's the lens through which all of Armstrong's life is seen."

When asked about his name — he was called both Louis and Louie — Edelstein says that question is significant to the play. "His name is Louis. The jazz musicians called him Louis. He wanted to be called Louis. Louie is the defanged, smiling black man on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.'

"It's not a play about race," says Edelstein, "but it's impossible to do a play about jazz in the 20th century and not deal with race."

"There's a lot of radioactive material in this play," says Teachout.

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• Louis Armstrong
• Father Figure
• John Douglas Thompson