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DOCUMENT RESUME 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 :Abe Burrows), 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. ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. 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 Company. To get to This production of How ToSucceed the top, he applies the tenets of In Business Without ReallyTrying, Shepherd Mead'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 Wayne Cilento, 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 Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert). The musicand MUSICAL lyrics are by Frank Loesser.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 cheers. The show egomaniac who skips to the topof claimed seven Tony awards, 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 kazoos. 0 the nine bars of classical music that interrupt parts of "Rosemary" are from Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor. so 47 4 $, 10.4....-0-52Itleata,1*,e51101.14191Ag . J Medan Mullally and Matthew Broderick 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 Robert Morse (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 actor 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 Horton Foote's On Valentine's Day! When he was 19, he several original plays for New York's appeared in Harvey Fierstein'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 Neil Simon'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 Marlon Brando), 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 Anthony Hopkins) 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.