Goodspeed– How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
It Succeeds and More.

By Bob and Karen Isaacs

BOB:  Frank Loesser's How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, now at Goodspeed Theater is not necessarily a favorite of mine.

KAREN: And I love it.

BOB:  There's some interesting songs in it, but I find it a sort of dull piece of work.
KAREN: I love a lot of the music in it and I enjoy the satiric look at big business. It was based on a take-off of self -help books. This musical won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1962.
 
BOB:  It is a very good production.

KAREN: It's about a young, ambitious guy -- a window washer -- who uses this book to climb the corporate ladder very high, very fast. Right up to Chairman of the Board in less than a year. I loved the sets in this production - it really had that 1960s skyscraper feel.

BOB: The choreography by Kelly Barclay was excellent.
 
KAREN:  Just think of the songs in this -- from "The Company Way" to "I Believe in You" to "It's Been a Long Day" to "Grand Old Ivy" -- a hilarious spoof of a college fight song

BOB: Absolutely.

KAREN:  I thought Brian Sears as J. Pierpont Finch or Ponty. The weak link, I thought, was Rosemary -- played by Natalie Bradshaw. But Rosemary is really an underwritten part -- she's the romantic lead but all the other women characters are more interesting.

BOB:  Especially Hedy LaRue who is Mr. Bigley's girlfriend.

KAREN: She's a former cigarette girl who is thrown into the secretarial pool. She is hysterical and I though Nicolette Hart made the most of it.

BOB: This is a very good production even if the play doesn't always hold my interest.

KAREN: And I really enjoy it. I love the take off on this earnestness about business. It runs through Nov. 28 at Goodspeed.

BOB: It is a typical excellent production. You will enjoy it.

KAREN: Go to Goodspeed to hear some good music and have a good time.
This review ran on WNHU-FM, 88.7 and www.wnhu.net through Nov. 25