The cast of WBTT's 'Big Sexy: The Fats Waller Revue' includes (from l-r) Andrea Coleman, Ulric Alfred Taylor, Ariel Blue, Leon S. Pitts II and Jazzmin Carson. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.

Some things are even better the second time around. Such is the case for Big Sexy: The Fats Waller Revue, now in production at the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe until September 7. The show, which stars WBTT favorite Leon S. Pitts II as Waller, the legendary American jazz pianist, originally ran during the theater’s 2022-23 season to much acclaim. Now, the show is back with the same cast as its original run, giving audiences a deep dive into the storied life of one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.

“The story of Thomas “Fats” Waller is a brown and black story that needs to be propagated. Why? Because he was a genius,” says WBTT founder/artistic director Nate Jacobs. “I was looking for the opportunity to bring the show back—our five cast members did such a remarkable job the first time around—and I said I’d only do it if we could get the original cast and we were blessed to do just that.”

Big Sexy serves as not only a tribute to Waller—whose progression in the Harlem stride style laid the foundation for much of modern jazz piano—but also to Pitts II, who has been performing with the troupe since he was 17-years-old and Ariel Blue, another WBTT favorite, who plays the leading lady, Devenae Darling. Interspersed throughout the show are moments where Pitts II addresses the audience directly, relaying his own journey as a musical artist to that of Fats Waller.

In taking on Big Sexy for a second time, the cast, which includes Jazzmin Carson, Andrea Jean and Ulric Alfred Taylor, were able to bring a fresh perspective to the 1930s and ‘40s jazz numbers that permeate the show. “We have more room to play because we’ve done it before,” says Carson, who plays Henrietta Hash. “Now it turns into how can we make it stronger? In “Stormy Weather” for instance, I’ve grown as an artist and a person so much in the last two years that I’m singing it with a different deeper meaning and feeling.”

Andrea Jean, who plays the effusive Sherry Sunshine, noted that the improvisational nature of jazz combined with returning to the characters for the second time, has given the cast greater creative liberties over their performance. “There’s a foundation in jazz, but there is so much that you can explore, not just vocally but in the way we present the characters,” says Jean. “Fats Waller based his career in stride piano—the left hand plays a specific pattern while the right is free to create—it’s similar to how we’re approaching the show the second time around.”

August 22-September 7, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N. Orange Ave., Sarasota, 34236

The cast of WBTT's 'Big Sexy: The Fats Waller Revue' includes (from l-r) Andrea Coleman, Ulric Alfred Taylor, Ariel Blue, Leon S. Pitts II and Jazzmin Carson. Photo by Sorcha Augustine.

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