Arizona’s Phoenix Theatre Company will host the world premiere of “Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo,” a new Broadway-aimed musical conceived and written by Tony Award-winning producer Jack Viertel. The production, which will feature direction and choreography by Sara Edwards, will begin previews on Aug. 6 and open on Aug. 8, and is scheduled for a limited run through Aug. 31. “Let the Good Times Roll” is being produced in association with Michael P. Kruke and Ram Narasimhan, and will feature arrangements, orchestrations and musical supervision by Sonny Paladino.
Also newly announced is a concept album for the musical, whose release will coincide with the start of previews at Phoenix. Produced by Paladino, the album from Joy Machine Records will include songs made famous by Bessie Smith, Harry Connick Jr., Rebirth Brass Band, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, the Meters and Randy Newman. The album will feature performances by Tony winners J. Harrison Ghee and Lauren Patten, as well as John Edwards, Jonny Rosch, Rashidra Scott and Alysha Umphress. The aforementioned Rebirth Brass Band will also appear on the record.
The cast of “Let the Good Times Roll” will feature a different set of performers from the album. The company of the six-person show will include William Bailey as Onyx, Scott Davidson as Captain, Gina Guarino as Wanda, Miciah Lathan as Maretha, Carmiña Monserrat as Liza Jane and Tre Moore as L.D. Completing the cast are swings Ernest Allen and Savannah Inez and understudy Robert Watson.
“Let the Good Times Roll” follows a young woman’s journey in rediscovering life set against the backdrop of New Orleans, a city known for resilience, culture and an inimitable joie de vivre.
Viertel is no stranger to creating new musicals from the ground up, having conceived 1995’s “Smokey Joe’s Café” (a revue crafted around the music of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) and 2013’s “After Midnight” (a celebration of Duke Ellington and other jazz greats). “The Prom,” which bowed on the Main Stem in 2018, was created from his original concept. Like the former two musicals, “Let the Good Times Roll” found its genesis in Viertel’s longstanding proclivity for the music.
“To begin with, this is all music I love and have loved for many years before trying to make a show with it,” Viertel told Broadway News.
“In the case of ‘Smokey Joe,’ the first record I made my parents buy for me was ‘Yakety Yak’ — I must have been about seven or eight,” he continued. “It found its way into ‘Smokey Joe’ many decades later, needless to say. Jazz and R&B, blues, all these forms have been my other passion — besides theater. The temptation to fuse the two is hard to resist.”
While “Smokey Joe’s Café” and “After Midnight” are revues, “Let the Good Times Roll” will have more of a narrative, one that seemed to present itself naturally for Viertel.
“Usually the stories are within each song, rather than the show developing one long story that takes all night to tell, but you always have to take the audience on some kind of a journey from beginning to end whether they know they’re on it or not,” Viertel continued. “In the case of ‘Let the Good Times Roll,’ there actually is the thinnest thread of a story — just enough, I hope, to tie all the music together neatly. Because the music of New Orleans is so varied and comes from so many different cultural sources I felt we needed a bit more of a through-line than with the other shows.”
The New Orleans-specific setting allowed Viertel to shape the show around one location (and its inherent soundscape), rather than the work of one or two artists. New Orleans’ unique history, geography and culture offered Viertel no dearth of inspiration.
“New Orleans is a place where so many cultures — Indigenous, African, Spanish, French Caribbean and more — have crossed paths and blended their traditions while also retaining a great deal of their identity,” explained Viertel. “The result is music that, for the most part, you don’t hear anywhere else — at least not played in the streets, in bars, on the way to funerals, and, of course, at Mardi Gras. There have been other shows set in New Orleans, I realize, but this might be the first one that is, implicitly, at least, about the nature of the place itself. The city and its residents are, in some way, the stars of the show, along with all the music they’ve made going back to Jelly Roll Morton and forward to the Neville Brothers, the funky Meters and Dr. John. Our wonderful cast here in Phoenix gets to embody it all. Or, at least, most of it.”
“Let the Good Times Roll” will also mark a reunion for Viertel with past collaborators Paladino and Edwards. Paladino was the music supervisor, arranger and orchestrator on the 2018 Off-Broadway revival of “Smokey Joe’s Café,” while Edwards’ first Main Stem associate director credit was for “After Midnight.
Paladino has also served on the music teams of “A Beautiful Noise,” “Gettin’ the Band Back Together” and “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” and is a co-founder of Joy Machine Records. Edwards has served as the associate choreographer on the current “Pirates! The Penzance Musical,” as well as “Hello, Dolly!,” “The Music Man” and “Harmony,” the latter of which she also served as associate director.
Prior to its full mounting, “Let the Good Times Roll” received a reading at Phoenix Theatre Company’s 2024 Festival of New American Theatre.
“Watching it grow into a full production has been incredibly rewarding,” said Phoenix Theatre Company artistic director Michael Barnard in a statement. “Developing new work is a vital part of our mission, and we are committed to continuing that work and helping launch the next generation of theater.”
“When ‘Let the Good Times Roll’ was shown to me, I loved the concept immediately,” added Kruke in a statement, whose Broadway co-producing credits include “Real Women Have Curves” and the 2022 return engagement of “Take Me Out.” “I was aware of the success of Phoenix Theatre having led to a strong desire to expand their profile beyond Arizona. Here was an idea that could create recognition for them on a national scale and at the same time give them an opportunity to present a world premiere with Broadway veterans, with a collection of irresistible songs and with a feeling of pure celebration.”
