Ain’t Misbehavin’
Southwark Playhouse, London

THE FIRST thing that hits you as you enter the horseshoe arena housing Ain’t Misbehavin’ are the onstage arches glittering with lights. A master stroke from designer Takis, they joyfully invoke the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s when Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong were all the rage.

Premiered in New York in 1978 and winning a Tony award, the show is based on the music of Waller and the book by Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby Jr and it’s given a co-production here by Colchester Mercury and Tamasha.

Offering no storyline, it’s instead propelled forward by numbers offering a slice of life that oscillates between the tender, the jovial and the heartbreaking.

First-time director Tyrone Huntley — one to watch — wisely lets the music do the talking in a joyous, foot-tapping romp through 32 classic songs written over a period of almost two decades.

Landi Oshinowo, Carly Mercedes Dyer and Renee Lamb provide distinctive characterisations as streetwise divas, while Adrian Hansel and Wayne Robinson as their interlocutor foils keep pace admirably and, while they all chip in with deft comic asides, Lamb is particularly hilarious.

They are all in particularly good voice after the interval, when the ebullient revue theatricality diminishes to afford each of the five full-throttle vocal expression.

This culminates in the collective rendering of the powerfully anti-racist 1929 jazz standard Black and Blue, with its lines: “My only sin is in my skin/What did I do to be so black and blue?” A singular moment of seriousness in the evening, it’s a song which was a big hit for Louis Armstrong, as was Ain’t Misbehavin’.

Other classics such as Honeysuckle Rose, Jitterburg Waltz, Squeeze Me, Two Sleepy People and Blue Turning Grey Over You have lost none of their musical appeal and their longevity is conclusive proof of the high-quality entertainment black artists originated at the time.

They certainly put paid to the petty and unjust accusations of “cheap entertainment” levelled at Waller and Armstrong back in the day.

Last but not least, choreographer Oti Mabuse energises a packed stage by weaving in some nimble dance routines, while the band swings with superb ease through Waller’s brilliantly crafted jazzy compositions, orchestrated by Mark Dickman.

A candidate for show the year.

Runs until June 1, box office: southwarkplayhouse.co.uk