EXCLUSIVE: Tony Award nominee Vanessa Williams has joined the lead producing team for the Broadway-aimed A Wonderful World, a bio-musical about jazz icon Louis Armstrong starring James Monroe Iglehart.
Williams’ involvement comes as producers announce the full cast for the musical: In addition to the previously announced Iglehart as Armstrong, the principal cast of A Wonderful World will feature Ta’Rea Campbell (The Lion King, The Book of Mormon) as Lucille Wilson, Jennie Harney-Fleming (The Color Purple, Hamilton) as Lil Hardin, Brennyn Lark (Six, Les Misérables) as Alpha Smith and Khalifa White (Caroline, or Change, Little Shop of Horrors) as Daisy Parker.
Following Armstrong’s musical path from New Orleans to Chicago, A Wonderful World will premiere this year at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans (October 1-8) before moving to the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago (October 11-29). Producers plan to move the show to Broadway, although dates and other details have not been announced.
“I became interested in joining the producing team after I worked with Carl White and Greg Rae on a play I am starring in and co-producing called One Reach Away,” Williams said in a statement. “They told me about this Louis Armstrong piece, and I had to read it. What captured me was the life of Louis was told through the perspectives of his four wives, and that’s when my producing partner Liz Curtis and I dove in.”
Williams joins producers Thomas E. Rodgers, Jr., Renee Rodgers, Andrew Delaplaine, Liz Curtis, and Martian Entertainment (Carl D. White and Gregory Rae).
Williams, whose TV credits include Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives, has starred on Broadway in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sondheim on Sondheim, The Trip to Bountiful, After Midnight, POTUS and the 2002 revival of Into the Woods for which she received a Tony nomination. A Wonderful World marks her theatrical producing debut.
The cast of A Wonderful World also features DeWitt Fleming, Jr., Gavin Gregory, Matthew Greenwood and Matt Wolpe, with Ronnie Bowman, Eean Cochran, Lindsey Corey, Jamal Christopher Douglas, Alexandra Frohlinger, Afra Hines, Alan Kelly, Ashley McManus, Aurelia Michael, Alysha Morgan, Jarran Muse, Aaron Michael Ray, Khadijah Rolle, Dave Schoonover, Brett Sturgis, Renell Taylor and Dori Waymer.
Conceived by Christopher Renshaw and novelist Andrew Delaplaine and directed by Renshaw, A Wonderful World has an original book by Aurin Squire and features songs recorded and made popular by Armstrong.