There’s an unlikely connection between Louis Armstrong and Beetlejuice — or not less than there’s for James Monroe Iglehart, the Tony-winning Broadway star of the brand new musical “A Great World: The Louis Armstrong Musical.”

Hearken to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast under:

On the most recent episode of “Stagecraft,” Selection’s theater podcast, Iglehart (“Aladdin”) recalled that as quickly as he knew he can be approximating Armstrong’s signature growly voice in “Great World,” he known as his good friend Alex Brightman — the actor who affected his personal husky timbre enjoying the title character in “Beetlejuice.”

“I mentioned to Alex, ‘Say man, how are you doing that eight exhibits every week with out killing your self?’” Iglehart mentioned. Brightman, who co-starred with Iglehart within the D.C. premiere of the current “Spamalot” revival, advisable a vocal coach who might assist him out. To maintain his voice in form, Iglehart additionally frequently does vocal workout routines in Armstrong’s extremely recognizable rumble: “It’s like weightlifting however to your cords.”

For him, that gravelly tone is “type of like the place you speak once you’re drained,” he mentioned. “When most individuals wish to speak like this, they’re both sick or they’re making an attempt to be attractive, one of many two!” Add to that Armstrong’s distinctive speech rhythms, and all of the sudden Iglehart feels like Satchmo.

Even the singing is comparatively straightforward for him, he added — he simply can’t push it: “I gotta actually experience the microphone so I don’t harm myself.”

Additionally on the brand new episode of “Stagecraft,” Iglehart revealed the backstory behind how and why he signed on as a co-director of “Great World” along with headlining the present — and the way his expertise in “Hamilton” knowledgeable his work on the Armstrong musical.

Iglehart had appeared in an early developmental iteration of “Hamilton,” and went on to play Lafayette and Jefferson within the Broadway incarnation. The teachings of that present got here again to him in “Great World.”

“One of many issues that I fought for, and I truly received, was [inspired by the fact that] Louis Armstrong was one of many solely jazz musicians to jot down an autobiography — two autobiographies, by the way in which,” Iglehart defined. “So I mentioned to my collaborators: Louis ought to inform his personal story within the present.” Quoting a well known line from  “Hamilton,” he continued, “I saved listening to ‘who lives, who dies, who tells your story,’ and I simply couldn’t let it go that Louis needed to inform his personal story.”

To listen to the complete dialog, hear on the hyperlink above or obtain and subscribe to “Stagecraft” on podcast platforms together with Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the Broadway Podcast Community. New episodes of “Stagecraft” are launched each different week.