Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe pays tribute to Fats Waller with 'Big Sexy'

During his brief 39 years on Earth, jazz composer and musician Thomas Wright Waller believed in living large. He was a big man with an enormous appetite for food, drink and women, which is how he gained the nickname “Fats.”

In the movie “Stormy Weather,” even as Waller proclaims in the song “Ain’t Misbehavin’” that it’s just “me and my radio” until his sweetheart returns, the ladies man reveals himself in the song’s finale, when he sings, “I’m saving my love for you ... and you ... and you” as he looks around the room.

So it’s fitting that Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s musical ode to Waller is called “Big Sexy.” Credit for coining that title goes to the show’s leading man, Leon S. Pitts II. He suggested it, somewhat in jest, to WBTT founder and artistic director Nate Jacobs, creator and director of “Big Sexy: The Fats Waller Revue.”

“I was standing in front of a mirror after a dress rehearsal for the Marvin Gaye show and I ran my hand through my wig and said, ‘Mr. Jacobs, you should create a show for me and call it ‘Big Sexy,’” Pitts recalled in an interview, where he was joined by Jacobs and Ariel Blue, the show’s leading lady.

It wasn’t long before Pitts got a call to come visit Jacobs in his office to discuss his vision of a show that would use Pitts as the focal point to tell the life of Waller through music.

Pitts got his introduction to Waller’s life when he was 18 years old. That’s when he played the character André in WBTT’s 2010 production of“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” the Broadway tribute to Waller’s music that brought back the days of Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club.

Unlike that show, “Big Sexy” tries to tell the story of Waller’s often outrageous life using Pitts as the star who describes how he has been inspired in his own life by the legendary jazz musician.

“When I was in ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’ I was so excited that I kept asking the director, ‘Is it time to go on stage? Is it time?” He would say, ‘No, Leon, you’ve still got 30 minutes.’”

Jacobs said that director, Harry Bryce, told him that it had been years since he had worked with an actor who was as enthusiastic as Pitts. “He told me Leon literally brought tears to his eyes,” Jacobs says.

In learning about Waller, Pitts was impressed by the entertainer’s tenaciousness and drive, which may have contributed to his premature death from pneumonia while he was on tour.

Pushing the envelope

“He had a willingness to push boundaries, to go into places where we were not invited,” Pitts says, describing Waller’s refusal not to be pushed out of a recording session by white musicians. “He went in there and did his thing in the midst of pressure and ignorance.”

Another way that Waller pushed the envelope during his career was by sprinkling his song lyrics with double entendres and sexual innuendo that left his audiences in stitches.

Photo by Sorcha Augustine

The joyful tunes of Waller, which include such standards as “The Joint is Jumpin’” and “Jitterbug Waltz,” allow “you to be free in the music,” Pitts says.

Waller was in such great demand as a performer that he was once kidnapped, blindfolded and made an offer he couldn’t refuse — performing at the birthday party of gangster Al Capone.

It would be impossible to tell the story of Fats Waller’s life without depicting his relentless pursuit of women. That’s where leading lady Blue comes in.

“Once I started building a show around Leon in my head, I knew that it had to include Ariel,” Jacobs says. “They play off each other so well.”

“There’s not a whole lot of dialogue, just quick, popping comedic moments,” Jacobs says, as the two stars play out endless variations on the mating dance that has been going on since the beginning of time.

To prepare for “Big Sexy,” Pitts learned all he could about Waller’s life. In his research, he discovered an interview online with the jazz musician’s son, who remembered being told as a child that the numerous women coming and going from his house were all “aunties.” It was only later on that he figured out that he couldn’t have had that many aunts, Pitts says.

Since Blue’s character is not based on a single person, she says she draws her inspiration from the lyrics of the music. “Then I act out my ‘isms,’ my little Ariel quirks,” she says. The diva character she plays runs hot and cold, sometimes beckoning come hither and other times playing hard to get, Blue says.

With more than 30 songs in the show, Blue’s got plenty of material to work with to create her elusive everywoman that exercises the feminine prerogative of changing her mind.

Jacobs said he dug deep into Waller’s music catalog and discovered some of his lesser-known songs that he added to the songlist that includes well-known favorites such as “Sit Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “All That Meat and No Potatoes,” as well as the titular number for the Broadway musical, “Ain’t Misbehavin.’”

“Big Sexy” also features songs by other composers of the era to help move the show along, including “Two Sleepy People,” “Your Feets Too Big” and “Stormy Weather.”

The search for summer fun

To help celebrate the life and music of Waller, “Big Sexy” has its music director, Michael McKinnon, dressed in period costume and playing an upright piano on stage. In addition to Pitts and Blue, the production includes three other cast members — Jazzmin Carson, Andrea Coleman and Ulric Alfred Taylor.

This is the second time that WBTT has performed “Big Sexy.” The first was in April 2023, when it was the last show in the main season. Jacobs said he decided to revive the revue for the dog days of summer this year because of demand from WBTT’s patrons.

Two recent WBTT summer cabarets, one a Harry Belafonte tribute show starring Michael Mendez, and the other, “The Titan and the Muse: Love Deluxe,” showcasing the talents of Raleigh Mosely II and Carson, were more popular than anticipated, Jacobs says.

Photo by Sorcha Augustine

“More people are moving to Sarasota and more people are looking for something to do in the summer,” he says. 

Prior to the disruption to theater during COVID-19, it was traditional for WBTT to present a full-blown mainstage production during July, Jacobs says. In the early days of WBTT, which is starting its 26th season this fall, having a summer show was a necessity “so we could get through to the fall,” he says.

Thanks to the generosity of donors and the demand for subscriptions, those hand-to-mouth days are behind the company, which is dedicated to telling African-American stories with Black performers.

Nevertheless, Jacobs is not one to rest on his laurels. Pointing to a space next door to WBTT’s campus at 1012 N. Orange Ave., he says, “I’d like to have another theater there one day.”

In the meantime, get ready for a little misbehavin’, Fats Waller style.