Skip to content
Arts & Culture
Link copied to clipboard

Behaving oh so nicely

Scientists have tried to invent time travel for decades - Delaware Theatre Company has achieved it in one production, a foot-tapping, knee-slapping, neck-breaking (from laughter) revival of 1976's Ain't Misbehavin', directed here by the show's legendary cocreator, Richard Maltby Jr.

"Ain't Misbehavin'" stars (from left) Kecia Lewis, Cynthia Thomas, Doug Eskew, Debra Walton, and Eugene Fleming. (Matt Urban/Mobius New Media)
"Ain't Misbehavin'" stars (from left) Kecia Lewis, Cynthia Thomas, Doug Eskew, Debra Walton, and Eugene Fleming. (Matt Urban/Mobius New Media)Read more

Scientists have tried to invent time travel for decades - Delaware Theatre Company has achieved it in one production, a foot-tapping, knee-slapping, neck-breaking (from laughter) revival of 1976's Ain't Misbehavin', directed here by the show's legendary cocreator, Richard Maltby Jr.

Start with the set. Kacie Hultgren narrows DTC's expansive stage with a radio hall's tight arch, adorned in art deco overlays that light up on certain chords under Rita Carver's design. Behind a thin curtain, a five-piece band plays, recapturing the sounds of the 1920s and '30s Harlem Renaissance. From an onstage piano, William Foster McDaniel leads them through a songbook of Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, and others.

But they are only the prelude to the towering talent assembled here. Throw in Debra Walton, a sassy belle with the false innocence of a chorus girl and a voice that will knock you out of your socks. Follow her with the venomous charisma of Eugene Fleming's strutting and singing. Add the one-two punch of feminine seduction in the powerful voices of Cynthia Thomas and Kecia Lewis. Anchor their presence with Doug Eskew's captivating baritone and winking manners.

Dress them up in Gail Baldoni's velvet dresses, mink stoles, fur-lapeled coats, and suits stretched with ceiling-to-floor pinstripes. Drape them in knuckle rings and brooches, top them with a series of smart hats, and the five actors stride about the stage as though it were a pageant runway.

Then give them the moves of Julia Lema's remounted choreography, and their voices dazzle, their bodies sway first to sharp beats from McDaniel's left hand, then swoon across the melodies of his right. Together, the quintet rattle and hum through two dozen songs; a few brief interludes allude to the music's history, but not even these asides break the atmosphere.

That atmosphere, so iridescent and irradiating, even transforms the space itself. Ten minutes in, the intimacy of this production convinced me I had entered a jazz club, not a theater, having pulled up in a streetcar rather than a SEPTA train. At intermission, I looked in vain for a martini and a cigar.

Anyone seeking a total escape that transcends escapism need look no further. There's never a time like now to relish such a glorious past.

Ain't Misbehavin'

Through April 27 at Delaware Theatre Company, 200 Water St., Wilmington. Tickets: $40-$50. 302-594-1100

or delawaretheatre.org.

EndText