Satchmo at the Waldorf

In this Terry Teachout production a curtain is pulled back to reveal Louis Armstrong as a complex character who traveled a tough road through poverty, discrimination, segregation, the music business, mobs and ultimately acceptance, though even that was marked with controversy. Actor Jahi Kearse embodies Armstrong, and takes us along Satchmo’s journey that started as a son of a prostitute in New Orleans through a five-decade musical career that. The talented Kearse gives a memorable one-man, three-character show—portraying not only Armstrong, but two men in the musician’s life he had complicated relations with—his white music producer Joe Glaser, who had dubious business tactics, and Miles Davis, who was both a friend and a critic.