Video: Inside Opening Night of A WONDERFUL WORLD

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

The Lewis Armstrong musical, A Wonderful World, has come to Broadway, starring Tony Award winner James Monroe Igelhard as the iconic trumpeter and entertainer

And we're here on opening night to celebrate with the company. I am ecstatic

I am anxious. I'm nervous, but I am so excited to finally be able to open this thing

You know, we've been working on this for a very, very, very long time. And we were out of town

and then once we came back out of town, we spent like seven to eight, seven and a half months

working on and getting it together. And then it was almost like a weird workshop style of rehearsal

I mean, we were throwing spaghetti at the wall and if it, you know, see whatever stuck. And then just to finally whittle it down

whittled it down, with it down, in front of an audience sometimes to get to where we are today

just makes me feel so excited. And so actually very fulfilled, I've always wanted to put together a Broadway show

This has been my dream to be on both sides of the table and the fact that I actually get to do it

It's nuts because most people say you can't do it. I'm actually proven you can't

I'm excited. I'm ready to get it open. This is my first original Broadway cast, my first opening, my first all of this

So I'm getting my OBC virginity taken away, and it's fantastic. I'm excited

I'm feeling ecstatic. This is an original piece of work that we're all happy to be a part of and support

And I'm, this is a big moment. I'm really grateful to be here

The team, the piece itself, getting to know the life of Louis Armstrong

My character, the real-life human, Lucille Wilson, she's remarkable. I love her

I have so much respect for her. I've learned so much. That beautiful combination has been a winning formula What made this musical so special for you to work on

A conglomerant of things. One thing being able to do this with my husband

and doing it with people who I have admired for years like James and Dion and Darlicia and Kim

and being able to create a real piece of art that is commemorating such unspoken and unsung heroes

that we don't know anything about, that we're learning so much about in our history, that have contributed so much to the jazz era

It's just, it's a dream come true. I sat down in a cold read in 2019

just reading the script for the very first time. And from that cold read, I was invited to come

and, you know, build this character, Daisy Parker. No one knows anything about this woman

There are no pictures of her. She is like an unknown character. So for me to be able to breathe life into someone

that has so little history about them, has been so meaningful. Her background is very troubled

So trying to bring some dignity to this woman who is essentially a sex worker

you know, and giving her some life and some dignity, I think is the most important thing for me

And so it's really just been awesome. And I'm so excited to finally get a chance to share it with everyone

How did you find the Lewis Armstrong voice and how do you maintain it

Yeah. Well, you just don't show up doing Lewis Armstrong just out of the blue. You can't do that

You know, so I study with a woman, Susan Icorn Young, who is my voice teacher

I have a voice lesson every week. In addition to that voice lesson, we have a vocal coach named Derek Rosenblad

And we work on that Louis voice. The first thing was an anatomy lesson

Find out what the folds are doing because we got false folds that really make that sound that classic sound that you need you know and so you work from there And then you do bit by bit You go through the scale You go through the material and you learn how to create that sound

in the best way that you can. There's no healthy way to do it

But you make sure everything around it is really in shape and really secure so that you can give that iconic sound

It's just been so special because I've been here from the beginning since Miami 2020

And just to see it go through all of this changes and grow and become this big, beautiful show, you know

and to be able to start out as just an actor, singer, and then now, actually now being able to choreograph

it's just a dream come true. It really is. Yeah. What's made this so special for you with working on this musical

Actually, I think about my oldest brother a lot because he was the one that gave me my trumpet

and he told me to just continue to play on it, work on it, and I almost gave it up

but I know that if it wasn't for him giving it to me, I wouldn't have booked this

So this is amazing. Yeah. It's my ninth Broadway show. It's opening nights are always just so special

They're so exciting. This has been a very long process. We started rehearsal on August 19th

So it's been three months of getting to this point, the apex, the opening

So I'm so happy we made it. And, you know, it's always a thrill

It's always a thrill. examining the history behind his music, really learning about him

all the layers, all of the generations, that has been so incredible to be a part of discovering together

with these talented people, you know? That's been really special. The music, the music

It's my first time coming back and originating something since I had a child in the pandemic so it very special for me And my first time standing by which has a lot of different flavors of emotions and I already gone on in the first week of preview

So it's been awesome. It's really been awesome. It's a throw you in. Throw you in

I mean, soon as I realized that they were doing a musical about my great, great uncle

I was immediately excited to see it. I had no idea that I'd be a part of it

And getting to be on this side of it is incredibly amazing. This is wonderful because James said he's loved this idea of working with all three directors

what that concept was like in that collaboration. Oh, it's been extraordinary

We all have different strengths in areas where we are not so strong

We find ways to actually support each other in that to help build this ginormous production

And it wasn't just us. I mean, it took an entire family and team for all of us to come together, a choreographical team, our design team, everything

our music team, it really does take a village to build something so beautiful and so extraordinary

This show is bringing so much joy to audiences. Of every different age, people who knew Lewis Armstrong

some people who just knew him from his records. I mean, what amazes you the most when you watch

how effective this is having our audiences? I love seeing them, listening, watching them hearing

and they're very quiet as well as they enjoy the loud bits, but they're really

really concentrating and learning. And I've heard all sorts of interesting comments afterwards

about how much they've learned about this country. So if you're standing here on the carpet, opening night, how do you feel

I'm very proud. Proud is a good word. I'm looking forward to going home, taking my shoes off