Glamour was part of his roots: the Duke Ellington of 'Sophisticated Ladies' at B&B

Beef & Boards' "Sophisticated Ladies" cast dazzles in "Cotton Tail."

Duke Ellington never let the benefits of being a middle-class black man in the early 20th century overwhelm him. He knew there were limits, but he had the wit to surmount them. He also had the canniness to turn his developing genius to advantage in a world not set up to reward black creativity. 

When not long after his death in 1974, Broadway mounted the tribute show called "Sophisticated Ladies," Ellington's aura still glowed through the well-nourished stability and sturdy artistic aptitude of his band, in addition to his suave manner and unique style at the keyboard.

 In Beef & Boards' new production, the band is prominently displayed. For the overture, it's fitting that music director Teneh Karimu stands before the ensemble, white-jacketed with a gold-glitter back, wielding a baton, even though it's not representative of Ellington's onstage style. It puts foremost the central, galvanizing role that his ensembles had in shaping the Duke's creativity.

"Sophisticated Ladies" proceeds by lifting the show-biz spectacles of Ellington's early career to the fore.

Teneh Karimu conducts the band in the show's overture.

After moving a century ago from his native Washington, D.C., to New York, he turned what might be seen as demeaning scenarios at the fabled Cotton Club into a seedbed of creativity. The "jungle shows" that attracted whites-only clientele are briefly evoked in "Sophisticated Ladies," but the more assertive and glamorous presentations of black talent rule the show. The glory of the costumes helps convey that impression. The cast is dressed to the nines for the reprise of "It Don't Mean a Thing" at the end. The elegance and self-possession evoke the famous Harlem Renaissance photography of James Van Der Zee.

The Duke's essential dignity and emerging mastery pervade the production. Those qualities follow through on the advice Ellington received as a young newcomer to Manhattan from the eminent black musician Will Marion Cook: "First you find the logical way and when you find it, avoid it and let your inner self break through and guide you."

But there's no biographical thread in "Sophisticated Ladies." Hints of Ellington's inner self breaking through from his society-ensemble origins are embedded in a lively, well-designed musical revue. The cast presents the trivial songs as if they had the same stature as the masterpieces, which seems quite apropos. Ellington never shied away from maximizing public appeal, as was clearly indicated by how he revived his sagging career at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival.

Card-playing men show adept focus in "Ko-Ko."

I liked the variety and deft pace of Kenney M. Greene-Tilford's direction and choreography. Entrances and exits were divided among stage right, stage left, and up the center through the band layout. The dancing sometimes reached high peaks; in a few instances, though, it was satisfied with romping on the foothills. The tap numbers usually had requisite precision. You like to see tap dancers looking relaxed above the precision of their feet. The most imaginative dance number was the men's poker game choreographed in accompaniment to the swinging "Ko-Ko."

The solo singing was long on brassiness, but with some welcome juxtapositions shedding light on romance, such as "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" paired with "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" in the first act, and in the second, "I'm Checking Out — Goombye" answered by the rejected lover in "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me," with its classic punchline "and you never will." 

There was some unfortunate cutting out of the singer's face microphone in "Just Squeeze Me" and "Mood Indigo," which spoiled those songs' linkage with "Satin Doll" and "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," respectively. Perhaps harder to correct will be two soloists' slightly cringeworthy intonation in 
"Something to Live For" and "In a Sentimental Mood." In the latter, the rising opening phrase initially fumbled its way up to the security of "mood," and the uncertainty came back later, though not again in that crucial repeated phrase. 

The show's title song is "Sophisticated Lady," a sad portrait of a lonely woman, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish that are the most distinguished of any of the Ellington songs retrofitted with texts ("Satin Doll," "Take the 'A' Train"). The words go against the grain of the generally upbeat anthology that constitutes "Sophisticated Ladies," but the song's performance Saturday night didn't cloud the show's atmosphere. 

Besides, there's no doubt that the design of "Sophisticated Ladies" and the way it's presented here live up to the urbane optimism characteristic of the man being celebrated. Late in life, when Duke stepped outside after a gig to chat with a writer, his companion looked up at the gloomy, wee-small-hours sky and remarked: "I hope tomorrow is a good day."

Ellington replied: "Any day I get up is a good day." That's the spirit of this show, which runs through Aug. 20.