'Ain't Misbehavin' ' has a touch of crass, a ton of class

It's hard to imagine anyone failing to be won over by the classy Americal Heartland Theatre production of "Ian't Misbehavin'," a musical revue derived from the music of Fats Waller.

Waller, a classically trained pianist who made his name as a Tin Pan Alley songwriter and jazz artis, contributed to Kansas City's jazz history in a most unfortunate manner - by dying, apparently of pneumonia, on a train in Union Station in 1943.

His songs - including "Honself a Letter" - sometimes leaned more toward pop than jazz, but the music is always lively and inventive. And Waller's sense of humor was as broad as well, as his own girth.

The Heartland produciton, staged and choreographed by Gordon McClure with musical direction by Mark Ferrell, has surrounded Kansas City jazz veteran Queen Bey with an exceptional cast of out-of-towners.

The result is a study in contrasts between Queen Bey's earthy, idiosyncratic singing style and the ever-poised and polished work of her theater-trained colleagues. For the most part, the combination works.

Decked out in designer Paul Hough's colorful constumes evoking the 1920's, the actors find ways to transcend the show's inevitable and regrettable ethnic stereotypes. The cast is called on to portray sexy, high-rolling character with a taste for liquor and after-hours adventures in a sort of fantasyland version of Harlem during Prohibition.

This, of cours, adheres to one of the oldest traditions in American show business - black actors singing and dancing for mainly white audiences. But Waller's music is so alive and his lyrics so witty that surrendering to t6he show's kinetic energy is fairly easy.

Queen Bey occasionally sounds a bit sharp but her big numbers - "Cash For Your Trash" and "Mean To Me" - are executed with showmanship and gutsy bravado. She can sell a song.

The imposing John Steven Crowley, a Chicago actor, captures the spirit of Waller's own flamboyant style, most vividly in his rendition of "Fat and Greasy."

He and Michael J. Bobbitt share a memorable number in "Ladies Who Sing With the Band" while Bobbitt and Kara-Tameika Watkins provide an electric dance routin in "How Ya' Baby."

Cynthia Thomas is a large but graceful woman with an impressive voice and a formidable sense of comic timing; she and Queen Bey share a memorable comic number in "That Ain't Right."

A high point is Bobbitt's extended and impressive rendition of "The viper's Drag," a comic song that both celebrates and condemns the effects of marijuana. At Tuesday's performance, Bobbitt noted several teen-agers at cabaret table by the stage and ad libbed: "Wo let all these children in the house?" After a beat, he said,"Just say no."

-Robert Trussell : Theater Critic