38 August 1 • 2019
jn

A 

filmmaker brought together two 
play makers who created very 
different Tony Award-winning 
musicals.
When filmmaker Alex Horwitz 
was attending Wesleyan University in 
Connecticut, he introduced a swing/jazz 
enthusiast, his dad, to a 
rap enthusiast, his room-
mate. Murray Horwitz, 
a co-creator of Ain’
t 
Misbehavin’
, and Lin-
Manuel Miranda, creator 
of Hamilton, have reached 
beyond generations to 
hold a friendship of mutual professional 
respect.
“My kids know the score to Ain’
t 
Misbehavin’
 as well as they know the 
score to Hamilton,
” Murray Horwitz says. 
“We’
ve known Lin over 20 years, and 
he was very gracious in saying I was his 
first mentor. It was very humbling, and I 
don’
t know that I did that much.
”
Whatever he did, Alex Horwitz seems 
to have reciprocated in a way by direct-
ing a PBS documentary, Hamilton’
s 
America, that explores the founding of 
America while delving into the Miranda 
production. 
Earlier this year, Metro Detroit 
audiences got to see a touring ver-
sion of Hamilton. Starting in August, 
they can see a local production of 
Ain’
t Misbehavin’
 staged by the Jewish 

Ensemble Theatre (JET). 
It stars Alvin Waddles 
and Lauren LaStrada and 
is directed by Harold 
Jurkiewicz.
“Ain’
t Misbehavin’
 is 
a play written in notes 
and lyrics and dance 
steps and gestures,” says 
Murray Horwitz, who 
wrote the book with 
Richard Maltby Jr.
“It’
s not a concert or 
‘
jukebox musical.
’
 There’
s 
a through line to the 
show, which is actually an 
unconventional play. 
“The main ingredient of the show’
s 
success over 40 years is Fats Waller (a 
pianist, singer, composer and comedic 
entertainer). Audiences get to know a lot 
more about him and the times in which 
he lived.
”
An in-depth discussion of the enter-
tainment virtuoso at the heart of the 
second JET production of the season will 
be presented by Charles Troy, who has 
established a multimedia series about 
acclaimed musicals. “Fats Waller: The 
Man Behind Ain’
t Misbehavin’
 will begin 
at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 12.
Among some 30 numbers performed 
in the musical are “Mean to Me,
” 
“Honeysuckle Rose,
” “I’
ve Got a Feeling 
I’
m Falling,
” “Keepin’
 Out of Mischief 
Now” and “The Viper’
s Drag,
” the mari-
juana song of those times.
“Richard Maltby and I collaborated on 
the lyrics for ‘
Handful of Keys,
’
” Horwitz 
recalls about the tribute to the piano. “I 
know Mandy Patinkin recorded it on an 
album and, sometimes, I hear people do 
it in nightclubs and cabarets.
” 

Horwitz thinks his development of 
this show has to do with Jewish prov-
enance.
An English and drama major at 
Kenyon College in Ohio whose first 
theatrical placement was as a clown with 
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey 
Circus, Horwitz moved to New York 
and put together a one-man show about 
Sholem Aleichem, which he still per-
forms. 
“An Evening of Sholem Aleichem 
attracted the interest of a producer, who 
said I needed a director,
” recalls Horwitz, 
77, who grew up in Ohio and made 
many summer visits to family friends in 
Detroit. “That led me to Richard Maltby 
Jr. The show did really well, and Richard 
became my mentor in lyric writing.
”
Horwitz, a devoted Fats Waller fan, 
put a tape together of the late enter-
tainer’
s music to interest Maltby in 
working on what would become Ain’
t 
Misbehavin’
, and that began their 
award-winning partnership. 
“My blessing and curse at the same 
time is that I find everything interesting,
” 
says Horwitz, who has been a political 
speech writer, soap opera director and 
administrator for arts organizations, 
including the National Endowment for 
the Arts, American Film Institute and 
National Public Radio.
“I’
m semi-retired with two part-time 
jobs: artist-in-residence at Washington 
Performing Arts and host of ‘
The Big 
Broadcast,
’
 a Sunday night old-time radio 
show (recalling broadcasts from the 
1930s-50s) on WAMU in Washington.
” 
Horwitz and his wife, opera singer 
Lisa Miller, have three grown children 
and remain active in the Jewish commu-
nity. They attend High Holiday services 
at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in 
Washington, D.C. 
He has done some work for the 
Washington Jewish Museum and is 
on the board of Yiddish of Greater 
Washington. She has been a cantorial 
soloist and teaches nursery school at Ohr 
Kodesh Congregation in Maryland.
Horwitz, whose circus performances 
have brought him to Cobo Hall and his 
Sholem Aleichem show to Michigan 
locales, also has been to Detroit on a 
musical project with members of the 
singing Winans family.
“It was inspiring to see Detroit 
through Marvin Winans’
 eyes,
” Horwitz 
says, “and I’
m proud to be able to show 
the world Fats Waller in all his glory.
” ■

SUZANNE CHESSLER 

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

theater
arts&life

JET brings the classic 
Ain’
t Misbehavin’
to the stage.

Murray Horwitz

A Toe-Tapping 
Good Time

Lauren 
LaStrada

Alvin Waddles

Ashley Lyle as Charlaine, 
Elizabeth Grey as Armela 
and Jason Alan Briggs 
as Andre

JET THEATRE

details
Ain’
t Misbehavin’
 runs Aug. 2-25 at the 
Jewish Ensemble Theatre in Walled Lake. 
$16-$44. “Fats Waller: The Man Behind 
Ain’
t Misbehavin’
” will begin at 7:30 p.m. 
Monday, Aug. 12. $18. (248) 788-2900. 
Jettheatre.org.

Tickets are on sale for this year’
s 
JET fundraiser — “Back Home 
Again: A Tribute to John Denver,” 
which will be held Wednesday, Oct. 
23, at Temple Israel. Patron ticket 
with dinner, $180; show only, $75; 
under 35 audience members, $35.

