‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ ’ Comes Back to Broadway After 10-Year Absence

Has it really been 10 years since “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” opened on Broadway? Never mind. It’s back.

And with the original company--Nell Carter, Andre De Shields, Ken Page, Charlaine Woodard and Armelia McQueen. They opened this week at the Ambassador, to grateful reviews.

Howard Kissell of the Daily News was a bit wary, suggesting that “this time the show seems less an ensemble than a series of star turns.” Still “for sheer entertainment value, it’s the best value on Broadway.”

The Post’s Marilyn Stasio thought the Fats Waller songs had all the joy they had the first time around. The New York Times’ Frank Rich praised the company for presenting its Harlem characters as “liberated spirits from another time rather than prisoners of latter-day camp.”

Carter got especially good reviews. The AP’s Mary Campbell: “When she sings ‘Ow’ to start ‘I’ve Got a Feeling I’m Falling,’ it’s with the sharp surprise of someone who’s just been stuck with a pin. The audience breathes out in delighted surprise.”

Let’s hope that Carter and the gang play L.A., as they did in ’79. But they deserve a smaller house than the Aquarius.

What’s the longest-running Broadway musical? You’ll get an argument on that. On July 9, “Oh, Calcutta!” gave its 5,385th performance, pulling ahead of “A Chorus Line” by one. Since “Oh, Calcutta!” sometimes does two shows a night, the gap continues to grow.

However, “A Chorus Line” has been running since 1975, whereas “Oh, Calcutta!” opened in 1976. Beyond that, “Oh, Calcutta” plays in a much smaller theater than “A Chorus Line” and is a revival of a previous production.

“Oh, Calcutta!” still claims to be the champ. It distributed souvenir T-shirts at its victory celebration. Sounds like an anomaly.

IN QUOTES: K. Callan in “How to Sell Yourself as an Actor” (Sweden Press, $12.95)--”We are all drawn to this business because we come from a background of real or imagined rejection. We are, therefore, familiar with the feeling and have ways of coping with it.”