Photo by John Horan
Andrea Rouch and Jordan Nichols in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at Playhouse on the Square.
Judging from recent economic headlines, a newly minted college graduate has as much chance landing a cushy job in corporate America as a camel has passing through the eye of a needle. Jobs? Just ask the currently unemployed: there are no jobs.
The middle of a recession brought upon by unchecked avarice seems as if it could (or should) lend interesting contextual shades to the musical revival of "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying," which launched the 2011-12 season at Playhouse on the Square Aug. 12.
The unlikely story of a window washer who, in a matter of weeks, climbs the corporate ladder and ends up the chairman of the board of a company called World Wide Wickets cynically posits that success is not a matter of talent, hard work or dedication, but how well a man can game the system.
Notice I said "man" and not the gender-neutral "person." That's because "How to Succeed" is an artifact from that glorious era when men jockeyed for executive positions and women were their pinchable playthings whose primary responsibilities were shorthand and long legs.
Based on a self-help book by the same name, the 1961 musical adaptation reflects '50s-era workplace attitudes, glamorized recently by television's "Mad Men."
Director Kimberly Faith Hickman, a New Yorker making her directorial debut with Playhouse, digs the swinging, boy's club vibe, but shuns any deeper critique about the business world, both then and now. The wonderful racial diversity at World Wide Wickets bears no resemblance to the whitewashed world of the 1950s. Only the women are second classers, as the script dictates. You begin to wonder if the secretaries aren't passing around a self-help manual of their own: "Fishing for Success: The Single Woman's Guide to Hooking a Man."
Jimmy Humphries' set design uses vintage graphic elements to suggest the spirit of the time. Like Hickman's direction, it waffles between nostalgic and cartoonish, but never tongue-in-cheek, which might have livened up stale ditties such as "A Secretary Is Not A Toy," and "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm."
A few amusing performers are more compelling than the production as a whole. Nick Mason (as Bud Frump, the boss' nephew), David Foster (as Bert Bratt, the corporate yes-man) and Ken Zimmerman (as J. B. Biggley, the womanizing boss) create clever and sometimes even wry caricatures. Carla McDonald, as the secretary Smitty, winks at the absurdity of certain lines to modern ears. After her character announces that she's spread a rumor that she's a nymphomaniac so that men might pay attention to her, she bursts into a hysterical, anachronistic laugh.
How an audience member relates to the striving protagonist, J. Pierrepont Finch, might be the most contemporary thing about the revival.
Finch is a clean-cut, attractive, likable young man who is no doubt the perfect role for Jordan Nichols, a clean-cut, attractive, likable young actor. Without a trace of insincerity, Nichols' Finch is, strangely, the most innocuous character on the stage. Cloaked in a magical aura of entitlement, Finch never misses a beat, even when on the verge of being caught. Everything falls fatefully into place for him, including the girl, the blasé husband-hungry secretary Rosemary Pilkington (played by Andrea Rouch).
I was at first ambivalent toward Finch, and later, resentful of what he signifies today. Watching Finch get ahead by memorizing the boss' college fight song, flattering the boss' secretary and faking hard work comes across more fraudulent than clever in an age when some of the blame for our economic woes can be ascribed to the Finches of the world and their bosses -- the people who achieved positions they weren't qualified for, and the people who didn't catch on until it was too late.
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"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"
The production continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 4 at Playhouse on the Square, 66 South Cooper. Tickets are $33-$38 adults, and $20 seniors, students and military. Call 726-4656.
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Comments » 3
clarktower24601 writes:
Unchecked avarice was not the root cause of the recession. Government meddling in the economy, by guaranteeing home loans no real banker would touch, caused it.
theblackdane writes:
I completely agree with Mr. Blank on the note-worthy performances, everything in his final paragraph, and almost nothing else he wrote.
This delightful toe-tapping comedy has a slightly tangy after-taste of socio-economic satire.
Mr. Blank spends much of his review lamenting a lack of a "deeper critique" of the business world, in this production, and then in the final paragraph indicates that this is exactly what it evoked for him - "the blame for our economic woes can be ascribed to the Finches of the world and their bosses..."
Mr. Blank, perhaps thinks his reaction was wrong or unintended. I however left the show feeling that it was clearly the desire of the production for us to cringe (and laugh!) at the young ingenue yearningly singing about keeping her husband's dinner warm; and laugh (and cringe!) at what buffoons these fictional (and our real) men of capitalism are.
There were no director's notes in the program - so we might never know if the "deeper critique" Mr. Blank says he missed (though his final paragraph clearly indicates he experienced) was intentional or not. But, from my perspective, it seems no more an accident than the "swinging, boy's club vibe."
So head to the Playhouse for a great night of musical comedy chicanery, and who knows, you may get more!
theblackdane writes:
Most nobel prize winning economists, that I've read, would say you have it almost exactly backwards.
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