James T. Lane, Alanna Lovely, Lorenzo Rush Jr. and Alexis J. Roston in “Ain’t Misbehavin'” at the Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace. Some jukebox shows include almost all of a songwriter’s canon. Not so “Ain’t Misbehavin,'” given that Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller wrote more than 400 songs, even as he became famous as a massively talented jazz pianist in the 1930s, moving from theater organist to big-time radio star to Hollywood actor. European acclaim followed, too.
Even Al Capone’s goons were impressed. Both Waller and his son famously told a story about Fats being kidnapped at gunpoint at Chicago’s Sherman Hotel and then taken to Capone’s Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero and asked politely, so to speak, to perform at Capone’s 27th birthday party. The Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace is less than 15 miles from Cicero and much effort has been made by scenic designer Andrew Boyce to evoke a Chicago-style piano joint from the era of Waller’s prime: designers who have to deal with one-set revues either come up with the obvious or, in this case, build a really swank and glam environment for the singers, replete with faux-brick walls, a moveable platform for the live, on-stage band and what feels like a refuge from the world outside.
They sound terrific, too. The actress E. Faye Butler, a beloved figure in Chicago and Washington, D.C., theater, is in the director’s chair this time and she surely knows how to stage this kind of material. I’ve seen her appear in dozens of these kinds of revues, including this one from back in 1978.
The songs jump out for two acts, moving swiftly here with minimal chatter: “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ladies Who Sing With the Band,” “The Joint is Jumpin’,” “Mean to Me,” “Black and Blue,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Two Sleepy People,” and those are just my personal favorites.