AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' originally opened on Broadway on May 9, 1978, and instantly made history. Within four weeks, this musical revue won every award a musical can win in a Broadway season: the Tony Award for Best Musical (along with Tonys for Director Richard Maltby, Jr. and Nell Carter for Best Featured Actress), the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Drama Desk Award, all for Best Musical.

The extraordinary feat of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' is that it delivers several layers of entertainment. On the first level, it is a treatment of 30 songs and piano solos. On another level, it is a showcase for the enormous talents of an all-star cast; including American Idol champ Ruben Studdard and Frenchie Davis, also of American Idol fame and Broadway's RENT.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' brings to life the world that the legendary Fats Waller lived in and largely represented: Harlem in the 1930's-the Golden Age of places like the Cotton Club and the Savoy Ballroom, of honky tonk dives along Lenox Avenue, of rent parties, of stride piano players and that new beat, swing. The deceptively simple but dazzling set recreated by original Broadway set designer, John Lee Beatty, suggests all at once a Harlem nightclub stage, a Harlem street, a '30's radio and a giant jukebox,

But if the entertainment of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' exists on several levels, there is one final level that is as unexpected as it is thrilling to discover as you sit in the theatre: Fats Waller comes alive on stage! No one in the cast ever impersonates him. Rather, the spirit of this extraordinary man is conjured up by the content, the exuberance, the musical wit, the pure energy, and the joy of 30 show-stopping numbers, and a smokin'-hot band live on-stage. It is part of the extraordinary conception of Director Richard Maltby, Jr. that the atmosphere of the '20s, '30s and early 40s is evoked rather than re-created in AINT MISBEHAVIN'.

AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' originated when Murray Horwitz invited Richard Maltby, Jr. to his apartment to listen to some rare Fats Waller recordings. According to Maltby it was the wit in the piano music, not the comic asides, that convinced him that Waller's music and personality could live on stage. Since that fateful night, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' has been produced Off-Broadway, twice on Broadway (revived in 1988 with original cast member Nell Carter as an above-the-title star), and three times on tour, not to mention all over the world with regional, community theatre, and stock productions. Don't miss the chance to relive the magic of this incredible time. Come see the 30th Anniversary Tour of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'!