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Home , Abe Burrows, Charles Nelson Reilly, Frank Loesser, Greenwillow, Harvey Fierstein, Jack Weinstock

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CS 508 905 ED 381 838

AUTHOR Carr, John C. Business Without Really Trying." TITLE "How To Succeed in Spotlight on Theater Notes. for the Performing Arts, INSTITUTION John F. Kennedy Center Washington, D.C. Washington, DC. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, PUB DATE [95) Performance Plus Program, NOTE 13p.; Produced by the Kennedy Center EducationDepartment. Funding also provided by the KennedyCenter Corporate Fund. For other guides in thisseries, see CS 508 902-906. PUB TYPE Guides General (050)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. *Drava; Higher DESCRIPTORS Acting; *Cultural Enrichment; Education; Playwrit..ng;Popular Culture; Production Techniques; SecondaryEducation *How to Succeed in Business IDENTIFIERS Historical Background; Without Really Trying;Musicals

ABSTRACT This booklet presents avariety of materials Succeed in concerning the current revivalof the 1961 play "How to introduction to the Business Without ReallyTrying." After a brief the plot of the play,how it went from play, the booklet discusses information on the best seller to prize-winningmusical, biographical :), a lead actok. (MatthewBroderick) and the playwright biographical information aboutthe quiz about plays, and book on which composer/lyricist (FrankLoesser), the author of the and the designer. the play is based, thedirector, the choreographer, (RS)

*********.A.****-::**)%-**,:z************** can he made Reproductions supplied byEMS arc the bestthat from the originaldocument. :*,::).:***************************.A***************************** Produced by the Performance Plus Program, Education Departaent

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality.

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000 oaa p 0 0 0 p 0 0 0 p p n aaa P oOn 0 0 0 p 000 0 0 p flsi app 00 P p 0 00 (I p B app 0 0 0 aao 0 0 01 oao aao .W T SUCCEEa a a washer and winds up as the Chairman of the Board of the World NEW PRODUCTS It Wide Wickets . To get to This production of How ToSucceed the top, he applies the tenets of In Business Without ReallyTrying, 's book from which starring Matthew Broderickwith the musical gets its title. Oh, yes, direction by Des McAnuff and Finch finds true love along the way. choreography by , is a One critic referred to the show as a new.treatment of the1961 Pulitzer "mixture of Moliere and the Marx Prize and Tony Award-winning Brothers." Maybe that's enough. musical. Based on Shepherd Mead's satirical guide of the same name,the book for How To Succeed... was EST SE LE written by Abe Burrows (based on a TOP MUM non-musical script by and ). The musicand MUSICAL lyrics are by .The The plot of How To Succeed In current productionoriginated at the Business Without Really Trying was La Jolla Playhouse in LosAngeles, inspired by Shepherd Mead's 1952 will play a four week run inthe best-selling satirical handbook of the Opera House, and will move on to same name. A non-musical versionof Broadway in March. the book was written in 1955 by Willie Gilbert and jack Weinstock, but no producers were interested in W T MCC= ER II II staging it. After considerable persuasion, Abe Burrows agreed to T E PL adapt the story for musical purposes. What do you need to knowabout the Burrows convinced Frank Loesser to plot of How To Succeed InBusiness provide music and lyrics. The rest, as Without Really Trying? Notmuch, they say, is history. lest its zany pleasures belessened. After its 1961 Philadelphia tryout, How about this, from a reviewin How To Succeed... opened on The New Yorker in 1961: HowTo Broadway to unanimous rave reviews Succeed... is "the saga of a young and loud audience . The show egomaniac who skips to the topof claimed seven , two for the mercantile world byduplicity, Abe Burrows (book and direction) chicanery, and just plain gall." and one for Loesser (lyrics). It had a A bit more? Well, J. Pierrepont run of 1,417 performances,placing Finch, who seems to havestudied the it at the time as the fifth longest- works of Horatio Alger and running musical in Broadway history. 'Machiavelli, starts out as a window By 1965, there were three road 2 3 0 0 0 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ODD 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0OO 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 D 00 0 00 0 D 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 ,00 0 000 Lzsgamm CA TEEMILEY for a few extra laughs (or smiles, as the case may be): 0 the sound of the electric shaver you hear in "I Believe in You" is really made by . 0 the nine bars of classical music that interrupt parts of "Rosemary" are from Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor.

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Medan Mullally and in How to Succeed _ in Business - Without Really 4 .-v;r. .ciriiit44=7.4.: :J.Ci yind 3 companies of the show. Foreign bright-watt star and provided Rudy productions were mounted inGreat Vallee, a popular crooner of the '20s Britain, France, Denmark,Italy, West and '30s, with a comeback of Berlin, Israel, Australia, andJapan. considerable force in the role of J.B. How To Succeed... firmly Biggley. The show also placed established (who Charles Nelson Reilly, as Bud Frump, played the conniving hero) as a in the top rank among stage comedians. The 1967 film of the show starred both Morse and Vallee. Michele Lee, who had replaced original love interest Bonnie Scott on Broadway, repeated her role in the film.

0E: ICE At 33, Matthew Broderick, starof How To Succeed..., has established himself on stage and screen as an of considerable rangeand depth. Appearing in musical comedy seems to be a natural nextstep for a man who has impressedaudiences in roles of action and adventure aswell as in drama andcomedy. Why riGt singing and dancing, too? Maybe it's fate for Broderick,who was born five monthsafter the original How To Succeed... opened on Broadway, to beplaying its leading role in the show's first Broadway revival, particularly since he was born not far from thetheater in which the show wasplaying. His parents are artist PatriciaBroderick and the late actor JamesBroderick. Matthew Broderick made hisoff-off- Matthew Broderick as J.Pierrepont Finch in Broadway debut at 17 oppositehis How to Succeed in BusinessWithout Really Trying father in 's On Valentine's Day! When he was 19, he several original plays for 's appeared in 's Torch Naked Angels groupthe same Song Trilogy as the "adopted child" adventurous company for which a performance which earned him playwright (and Spotlight on Theater both the Outer Critics Circle Award interviewee) Jon Robin Baitz as Best Supporting Actor and a develops scripts. Behind the camera, Villager Award. He later played the Broderick recently directed the not- role of "Alan" for the 1988 film. yet-released film Infinity, written by Soon after his debut, he was on his mother Patricia Broderick and Broadway in 's Brighton starring Patricia Arquette. Beach Memoirs, for which he Check back in another 33 years to received the Tony Award as Best see what else the talented Mr. Actor. Almost simultaneously, he Broderick has accomplished. starred in his first film in another Simon script, Max Dugan Returns. ; Still another Simon endeavor, Biloxi E MEAD'S Blues, followed, both on stage and EIETIVE011% lEART 0 ZE screen. How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying* is a spoof of both Broderick also continued his corporate ladder climbing and self-help books. Mead gets to the comic point quickly: professional relationship with "Let us assume you are young, healthy, clear-eyed and eager, Horton Foote, appearing in the anxious to rise quickly and easily to the top of the business world. writer's film 1918 and play The "Yru can. Widow Claire. "If you have education, intelligence, and ability, so much the b'.tter. Among Broderick's other film But remember that thousands have reached the top without them. You, highlights are War Gamcs, Ferris too, can be among the lucky few. Bueller's Day Off Glory, The "Just have courage, and memorize the simple rules in the chapters that follow." Freshman (in which he appeared There are 17 of those chapters, which offer the fictional J. Pierrepont with ), and, among Finch as exemplar of a young business executive on the make. others, the current The Road to Using samples of droll dialog, Mead discusses such topics as: "How Weville (with ) To Rise from the Mail Room," "How To Be a Fair-Haired Boy," "How and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious To Play Company Politics," and "How To Write Memos." He also gives Circle (with Jennifer Jason Leigh). In advice on choosing the right wife. picking the right country club, and The Lion King, he is the voice of stabbing the right backs. No wonder the book is subtitled "The Dastard's Guide to Fame and Simba. Fortune." On , Broderick has *Mead, Shepherd How To Succeed in Business I,.)thout Really Trying New York. Simon and appeared in Athol Fugard's Master Schuster. 1952 Harold...and the Boys and in 's A Life in the Theatre with . Lately Broderick has been honing his skills as a director. He has staged

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0013 13 0 0 0 Dan 0 0 B 01313 0013 00 0 0 0 0 a00 000 0 0 0 11,3e0NG NOW Trgi SUCCEED. ENE WEWILFES ES COVEC EMEDIE Part of the fun of How To A E varn How To Succeed In Business Succeed... is the way characters' A! VT Without Really Trying is a comic names remind us who they are in WIRRVIERS needle at work in a skyscraperof the scheme (or in this case, who have to refer to balloons. Shepherd Mead's original schemes) of things. them Irequentiv. How ibout Tennessee spoof, and Abe Burrows and Frank Consider the jibes in these names: C:ir Loesser's adaptation of it. goafter J. B. BIGGLEY Hot Till Roof and such big-business balloons as "yes BUD FRUMP The TLI1/1 men," executive board meetings, HEDY LARUE Doesn't Stop Here expense accounts,executive TWIM BLE Anyinoie. or .A.rthur washrooms with special keys. WOMPER Miller's The Creation nepotism, office Lotharios.and rho ',-Voi!ci sit:d GATCH Other Matters or coffee breaks. BRATT s Other balloons that get punctured And, of course. the schemer-of- Dark at the Top 01 are musical comedyconventions. schemers who succeeds in the Stairs) Horatio Alger rags-to-richesstories, business without really trying: Publicists. dreams of suburban life, J. PIERREPONT FINCH coiummsts. alumni allegiances. andrigged TV The song "Grand Old Ivy" also critics in ti,irt:CUidl Lave i i ;(.'d quiz shows. has a go at college team mascots, How To Succeed In "Chipmunks" and "Groundhogs." Business Without Also take a look at the name of Really Ti wing down oguagain the business whery all the to iournanstic SHEPHERD MEAD scheming takes plac.e: World manageability, with Wide Wickets Company. the most often-used Shepherd Mead knew what he was How To Succeed... talking about when he wrotehis -Ind the confusing satiric handbook How ToSucceed in had moonlighted as a writer (How To HTSIBWRT Business Without ReallyTrying. He Succeed... was his third book), but at had climbed his way up the corporate 41, with royalties aplenty, he retired ladder from r clerk (just like the to England to live as a country character in the book) to vice gentleman-author. president of Benton and Bowles, one In addition to numerous other of New York's prestigiousadvertising works of fiction, Mead wrote How To agencies in the 1940s and '50s. Succeed in Tennis Without Really What lie saw there, what heknew, Trying. How To Live Like a Lord and what he may have donebecame Without Really 'hying, How To the stuff of his 1952 bookthat Succeed With Women Without quickly did its own climbing Really Dying, and How To Get Rich straight up the best seller lists.Mead in TV Without Really Trying. 6 7 D00 0 0 0 p00 0 0 0 a 0 O 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 pQD 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 p00 0 0 D 0 0 0 0 00 0 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 o n a 0 0 0 000 00 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 I W 74r, SUCCEED- is one of only six musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize. The 43,7A-gowta,14,1,. others are Of Thee I Sing, , Fiorello!, , and Sunday in the Park with George.

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0 n, 0 0 0 0 0 D 5 0 0 n0 0nn N T SINEW: SU TITLE GETTING 1 ShellneRt A IP If 1952 best -sellmo There's no business like show business,and there is a lot of business in spoof How To shows. How To Succeed... capitalizes on acorporate big-business milieu. Succeed In Buswess The short-lived Skyscraper itsshirt as a musical about the construction is A business. mergedthe movie and private eye businesses, and :list:v(1s Guide to How Now, Dow Jones? wasbullish about Wall Street. :Thnp, And Fortune Here are clues to 10 musicalswhose :tories feature business backgrounds. How many can you name?How many played the Kennedy Center?

1. The politics of a unionstrike tangle with true love in this 1954 musical based on a novel called 71/2 Cents. 2. and Nancy Walkerstarred in this 1960 show, produced by David Merrick, dealing with thejukebox business. 3. Promoting "Susanswerphone," atelephone answering business, Judy Holliday suggested that if Romeoand Juliet had had access to a telephone, "Those two kids would be alivetoday!" 4. This Rodgers and Hart musical of1941, which led to Hollywood and stardom, was set inthe nightclub business. 5. The business of Parisian highfashion provided Katharine Hepburn with her one and only musical foray. 6. This show about the thinlydisguised Motown Records label won aTony Award as Best Musical in 1982. 7. and ChitaRivera chewed the scenery in this1984 musical about the roller skating arenabusiness. 8. 's taleabout an odd couple, played by and , featured twobusinessesbarbering and pie making. 9. A renowned European Jewishfamily is at the center of this musical about the banking business. 10. Jimmy Durante cavortedwith an elephant in this Rodgers andHart musical about the circus business.

Answers on page 12.

9 COMP SEAT ECES'Ir: song material for nightclub and TOE performers. EX REET F AMC L ESSE From Loesser's Broadway musicals Frank Loesser Frank Loesser stands with Irving came songs such as "My Darling, My Trying and Berlin, Cole Porter, and Stephen Darling," " In Love With Amy," Succeeding' will be Sondheim as ore of the great :'," "If I Were a on display in the Kennedy Center Broadway composer-lyricists of the Bell," "." Performing Arts 20th century. "Big D," "Standing on the Corner,- Library. Roof Terrace Loesser, who was born in 1910 and and "I Believe In You." level, from Friday. died in 1969, learned his trade as a January 27 through lyric and sketch writer for vaudeville Friday. May 26. and radio. In 1936. he reached Broadway as the major contributor of ICIESSEIs OTE lyrics to the revue The Illustrators' Slum'. After it quickly flopped, he Remember the old Hollywood of the spent the next 10 years writing studio system, where legions labored lyrics, then music and lyrics, for under contract to turn out film after wood and . During film. year after year? Remember Tin that period he worked with some of Pan Alleythat somewhat real, the major popular music composers somewhat imaginary place where of the time: , Jimmy America's popular music was written McHugh, , Arthur from the end of the last century into Schwartz, and . the 1940s? Those were the places His Broadway break through came where How To Succeed... composer- in 1948 with Where's Charley?, an lyricist Frank Loesser developed his adaptation of the farcical warhorse talents and had his first successes. Charley 's Aunt for which he A few of his before-Broadway hits supplied music and lyrics. Next came were: (1950), followed by 0) "The Boys in the BaLkroom" (1956), he wrote the lyrics for Frederick (1960), and How To Hollander's music, and Marlene Succeed In Business Without Really Dietrich sang the song in the 1939 Trying (1961). Although he wrote film . the score for , o "" and"Heart the show did not survive its Detroit and Soul he wrote the lyrics for tryout. Hoagy Carmichael's music. Bing A little-known aspect of Loesser's Crosby introduced both songs. career is his collaboration in the o "I Don't Want to WalkWithout 1930s with composer William You "he wrote the lyrics for Schuman (a Kennedy Center honoree Jule Styne's music. in 1989). which produced special o "Jingle Jangle Jingle"he wrote the lyrics for Joe Lilley's music. Burrows, who was born in 1910 and On his own, Loesser wrote both died in 1985, made his start in show music and lyrics for "Praise theLord business at 18. performing on the and Pass the Ammunition." oneof Borscht Beltthat string of summer the anthems of World War II. He also resort hotels and summer camps in wrote the music and lyricsfor "I'd New York's Catskill Mountains. Like to Get You on a Slow Boat to After writing for nightclub China" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside." entertainers, he graduated to writing After his for such popular radio programs of Broadway the 1930s and '40s as "Duffy's success with Tavern" and "The Texaco Star Where's Theater." By 1946, Burrows was Charier? and appearing on the airways himself. Guys and Dolls, singing satirical songs ("I Looked he returned to Under a Rock and Found You," "The Hollywood to Girl With the Three Blue Eves "). write the words Scriptwriting in Hollywood came and music for next, but not success. Hans aristialz Soon Burrows had his own Monday Andersen. evening radio program, "Breakfast starring Danny With Burrows" ("I get up late"). Kaye. The film is TV was the inevitable next step, memorable where he became a regular on game especially for and talk shows. At the same time, he two of its songs. hosted TV's "Abe Burrows' Almanac." "Wonderful On Broadway, Burrows established " credentials as book writer and and director of two Cole Porter musicals, "Inchworm." Can Can and . He Director Des IvicAnuff went On to write the hooks for other musicals and to adapt two French WIRIEVE comedies for Broadway. His work as book writer and director for How To 23113EIROWS Succeed In Business Without Really Co-book writer Abe Burrows was one Trying earned him two Toff Awards. of the leading funny men of histime Ensconced as a Broadway luminary, and a versatile one, establishing Burrows once reflected on his career himself not only as a playwrightbut in television. "All I can say about TV as a director. a radioand television is, I love the theater." personality, a stand-up comic, and an autobiographer. 11 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 000 000 0 0 0 °00C 0 000 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 00 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 00 DE ECT*Yiag EOG APHEM EDMS MaRMUTT 7FME CEEZUES How lb Succeed...director Des Wayne Cilento has known success on McAnuff's third musical to play the both sides of the footlights. On stage, Kennedy Center's Opera House. The he received acclaim as a featured first was , the adaptation of dancer, notably in A Chorus Line and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, in Dancin'. Off stage, he garnered 1986. The second was The Who's additional praise when he added Tommy, which completed a five choreography to his credits. week run January 22. For both One of the original cast members of shows. McAnuff received the Tons' A Chorus Line, Cilento claimed the Award as Best Director, as well as spotlight with the memorable "I Can numerous other accolades. Do That." His standout performance Until recently, McAnuff was the in 's Dancin' earned him a artistic director of California's La Tony Award nomination. Jolla Playhouse, a position he held for While dancing on Broadway. Client() 10 years. While La Jolla was his base appeared in television commercials of ,peration. McAnuff established and was soon asked to try his hand at himself throughout the country and choreographing in Canada as a director with sharp them. That led to perceptions and theatrical savvy. He providing the has also established himself as a dances for two teacher of note at New York's shows directed Juilliard School and at the University by his current 44. of California-San Diego. collaborator Des -a In a December interview in The McAnuff, a Washington Post, McAnuff stressed national tour of that while h(is known nationally as chess and a La a director of musicals, his interests Jolla Playhouse are eclectic. Musicals. yes, but also revival of A Shakespeare, Chekhov, films, and Funny Thing more. "I believe the American Happened on theater is about eclecticism," he said. the Way to the "I really want the freedom to be able Forum. to bounce around from genre to Most recently. genre. If you forced me to stop, I Washington would be very unhappy." playgoers joined critics and prize givers in applauding Choreocuaphor Cilento for his no-holds-barred Wayne Cilento choreography for The Who's limuny.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 P o00 tip, Answers to sire Amy cage Flay Quiz, MEAD. pas, 8. Burrows, Abe. Honest, Abe; or Is 1 There Really No Business Like Show ") Do Re Business? Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. 3 Bells Are Rinainq Burrows, Abe. The Abe Burrows Song- 4. Pal Joey 1955. 5 Cuco book. New York: Doubleday, 6 Dreaingirls Loesser, Frank. The Frank Loesser 7 The Rink Songbook. New York: Simon and 8. Schuster, 1971. 9. The Rothschilds Scenic Designer John Arnone 10. Jumbo Loc-:,ser, Susan. A Most Remarkable The Pajama Game ENG Fella: Frank Loesser and theGuys and Sweeney Todd THE and Dolls in his Life. New York: have played the The team of designers forHow 7b Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1993. Kennedy Center Succeed... includes JohnArnone ,Ar.r,14:wavtg w;,;fievikiolVAISAIAIVAIEVOMMIfttItViftWAVM,, Give yourself one (scenery), Susan Hilferty(costumes), The Spotlight On point for each Howell Bink ley (lighting),and 'Theater iscussion will correct answer. Batwin and Robin Productions. e held oThu Total. 12 points. Arnone is rememberedby Opera lre'or ary 16, f om 6:.5- 12-11:You've lust House playgoers for hisscenic design been made chair- for Tommy. Hilferty's workhas been 7 .m in the liZen4 e y person of the board. seen on svige,film, and television, as Center's *;fe,era allouse 10-8:You've been well as in dance performances. and will feature elected second vice Bink ley has designed for Matthew :tlmodet iclz ara president. international theater, opera,and rara era e s©k the cast. 7-4:You've been dance productions. Batwinand Writer: John C. Carr moved to middle Robin Productions suppliedthe Production photos: Ken Howard management. video displays for Tommy. 3-0:Back to the Working together, Arnoneand mailroom' Batwin and RobinProductions have 111111 111111 created unique background computerized images that cast a The Kennedy Center skyscraper as a central imagein the James D. Wolfensohn. Chairman production. Hilferty's brightly Lawrence J. Wilker, President colored costumes recapturethe mod Derek E Gordon. Associate Managing fashions of the 1960s. whileBinkley's Director for Education lighting designs give theproduction Funding of the Performance Plus program is a musicalcomedy brightness. provided by the U S. Department of Education and the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund a2

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