Climbing the corporate ladder requires only charm and manipulation in the upcoming “How to Suceed in Business Without Really Trying;” experience is just a waste of time.
Reprise Theatre Company’s revival of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, runs at UCLA’s Freud Playhouse from May 11 to 23.
The show follows an ambitious young man named J. Pierrepont Finch (Josh Grisetti) as he tries to manipulate his way to the top of the World Wide Wicket Company, aided by a talking book (voiced by Ed Asner), entitled “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” The musical comedy, adapted from a bestselling 1952 satirical book of the same name by Shepherd Mead, has had two successful runs on Broadway and was adapted into a feature film in 1967. This Reprise production retains that successful formula by adhering faithfully to the source.
“That’s the Reprise standard,” said production coordinator Rob Rudolph. “We reduce things a little bit, the text is still there, all the songs are still there, all the orchestration. Nothing has really been removed, it’s just scaled down in terms of the technical scope. The whole production is almost identical to the original.”
While it was first staged over 40 years ago, Rudolph said the show is still fresh and relevant.
“It’s always been very satirical,” Rudolph said. “The show always kind of, to a small degree, mocks corporate structures and hierarchies and nepotism and there are some asides in the script itself that kind of pertain to the current (economic) situation.”
Part of the appeal, said development assistant Jeff Callaghan, is the show’s relatively innocent ’60s attitude toward the business practices it mocks.
“It makes the ’60s, which were so turbulent, seem so simple compared to how toxic the world is today,” Callaghan said. “You have inter-office affairs that seem so charming compared to Tiger Woods. … But it’s also very sharp, and there are some stinging jabs at corporate America.”
This particular production retains that edge, Callaghan said, thanks in large part to director and choreographer Marcia Milgrom Dodge, who recently received a Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Muscial for the revival of “Ragtime.”
“It’s incredibly well-staged,” Callaghan said. “I think we have a tendency to look at musicals from the ’50s and ’60s as very cheesy and hokey but there’s nothing about that in this. The choreography is fantastic. … We owe a lot to the director.”
The cast is a similarly impressive collection of recognizable film and television actors. The play features Asner, who voiced Carl Fredricksen in Pixar’s “Up”; along with John O’Hurley, a “Seinfeld” regular and star of the Las Vegas production of “Spamalot,” as top boss J.B. Biggley; and Simon Helberg, star of “The Big Bang Theory,” as his coattail-riding nephew Bud Frump.
“The objective for Reprise is to always have the best cast possible … to find names and faces that a non-theater audience would recognize that have musical theater talent,” Rudolph said.
Still, the cast needs something to sing. Callaghan praises the show for its “singability,” citing the music as part of what makes this production feel fresh and relevant.
“Musically, it’s got some of the catchiest songs and some of the smartest lyrics, and I never feel like I’m watching my grandmother’s musical,” Callaghan said. “I just feel like it’s the first time.”
For him, the show’s strength comes from its mockery of a subject that much of the audience has had experience with: the trials and frustrations of the job world.
“Anyone who’s not thrilled with their job situation and is looking for more can relate to (Finch). … Anyone who hasn’t had a cup of coffee available when they need it will certainly enjoy this,” Callaghan said. “It’s all very relatable, and it feels very new, even though it’s been around for a while.”
Poking fun at corporate absurdities has not gone out of style, as the continuing success of the television show, “The Office,” can attest. That universal target, said Rudolph, combined with a talented cast, clever script and Dodge’s direction, keep this 48-year-old musical feeling new.
“I think this is one of the few shows that we can say is legitimately timeless,” Rudolph said.