Learn Amazing Facts About Louis Armstrong With James Monroe Iglehart

During the coronavirus pandemic, James Monroe Iglehart found himself doing what a lot of us were doing at that time: Looking for something to watch on TV. He ultimately went with Ken Burns’s documentary, Jazz—and it ended up being a pretty fateful choice. 

“The first couple of episodes happened to be about Louis Armstrong, and I just thought, ‘that makes so much sense,’” he says. “Louis Armstrong. Music. Musical. Broadway. I’m on Broadway. We should do this. I called my people. My people told me somebody already had the musical. I said, ‘contact those people and tell them that I want to be involved in some kind of way.’” Whether that was in a creative role or as a producer, Iglehart didn’t care. And when they asked him if he wanted to be in the musical, he was totally on board. “I secretly had been working on The Voice just in case they asked that,” he says.

Cut to today: Iglehart is currently playing Armstrong in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical at Studio 54 on Broadway. So in the latest episode of our YouTube series Amazing Facts With Mental Floss, we asked Iglehart to walk us through some fascinating details about Armstrong. You’ll find out about the bad decision that changed Armstrong’s life, the gift that allowed him to buy his first instrument, how he kicked the Beatles off the No. 1 spot on the charts with a showtune—and so much more.

Iglehart isn’t just starring in the show—he also co-directed it. “I got my degree in directing, so I always understood that sometimes it’s not about just you as the actor, it’s about the vision that the director has, the whole picture of the show,” he says. “Getting to be a part of the directing team with Christopher Renshaw and  Christina Sajous, it really helped me see the whole picture. … It’s about what's happening with the music, what’s happening with the choreography, what’s happening with the set, what’s happening with the light? How does the sound sound? How are the producers feeling? … This was such a moment to let me know, yep, there's so much more to this than just me, and I had the best time. I can’t wait to direct again.”

Watch the full episode above, and check out some of our conversation with Iglehart that we couldn’t fit into the video below. And don’t forget to subscribe to Mental Floss on YouTube for more fascinating videos every week.

On How He Prepared to Play a Real Person:

“I have studied more about Louis Armstrong than I have for anything else in my entire career, whether it be books, going to the library or going to his home and the exhibit that they have there, listening to tapes of him speak. I have never, ever prepared for anything more than I have for this role. And the reason why is not just because I got to play the role. The reason is because this is a true American icon, but not only that, he is a true African American icon. I am standing on the shoulders of this man. He opened doors for me that I won’t even be able to understand or know, and I wanted to make sure that if I was going to step into his shoes or at least step on top of his shoes, I want it to be as respectful and as reverent as possible to Louis Armstrong, because without him, there would be no me and most of the brothers on Broadway would not be around. ... He took so much crap for us with his smile so that we could get on a rap album and snarl. I wanted to be at my best and prepared the most for this. And I say, thank you, Louis, for all that you did so I could be here.”

On How Louis’s Second Wife, Lil Harden, Changed Armstrong’s Life:

“Louis loved playing the horn. He loved playing cornet with his wonderful mentor, King Joe Oliver, who he called Papa Joe, and Lil Hardin looked at Louis and thought, Louis was amazing … Louis should get off his ass and be the first trumpet player. … When Louis was trying to, you know, spit game, and Lil was like, ‘first of all, you could talk to me, you can spit at me, but I'm not going to date you unless you’re the first trumpet player.’ And he was like, what? … So she was able to help him develop his confidence to be, you know, strong enough to step out and be the first horn player … be the lead guy. Louis was always talented, but it was Lil Hardin—Lillian Hardin—who helped shape the Louis Armstrong star that we know now, and she pushed him forward.”

On Protecting His Voice While Performing as Louis Armstrong:

“I called a homeboy of mine, by the name of Alex Brightman. You may know Alex Brightman as Beetlejuice in the Broadway musical … He did {the Beetlejuice voice} eight shows a week. I called him and said, ‘Look, I can do his voice, but how do I maintain it?’ And he was like, ‘Man, I got you. Don’t worry, I have a friend. I can send you to him.’ So we both go to this wonderful voice instructor here in New York City named Deric Rosenblatt. … We coined the phrase of doing the unhealthy, healthily, so he helped me. I also go see my wonderful and amazing ENT … I see her twice a month to make sure my cords are OK. And I live like a hermit. Yes, as you can see, I’m very loquacious. I talk a lot. But I only do this because I’m here. My wife understands. She knows what I have to do. I {only} do six shows a week to preserve my voice, and on those two shows I’m not there {there’s an} amazing, ridiculous triple threat of an actor named James T. Lane who is my alternate. … He is awesome, and he goes on Wednesday nights and Thursday afternoons.”

On Doing More Directing in the Future:

“I love directing. There’s something about taking a project from page to the stage—there’s no other feeling like it, because you come up with an idea that sounds so fun or ridiculous or so silly, and yet you’re able to put it on paper, and once it’s on paper, it’s alive. And then once somebody says it, somebody says those crazy ideas that you thought were funny just by yourself, and somebody says it and it comes alive, you go, ‘Holy crap’—it takes on a life of its own, because then that person owns it, and then you build it to make it bigger and bigger. ... I would say I’m more of a fanciful director. I like brightness, I like bigness. … That’s kind of what I do, what I dig. Which is funny because the project I’m working on {now} is a little smaller. So I’m trying to get myself to kind of learn how to be more a little bit more intimate. … ask me in five years what kind of director I am. I think my answer will be a little bit more concrete, but it also probably be different.”

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