Review: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Archangel Community Theatre
by David Glen Robinson

Archangel Community Theatre at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy in West Lake Hills has produced in its theatre facility the Broadway musical theatre show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  A production of musical theatre is perfect for showcasing a relatively new theatrical facility and a growing fine arts program, and St. Michael’s has achieved a spectacular success, albeit with a vehicle having a few deep-seated issues in its material.

How to Succeed. . .  is based on the book of the same title by Shepherd Mead, with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser.  The show book for the stageplay was written by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert.  ACT’s production was directed by Ivan Klousia, with musical direction by Jeannette Cannata-Grahmann. 

The play centers on a window washer who reads a book with the title of the show, and, finding inspiration in it, lands an entry-level job in the World Wide Wicket Company.  The near-rhyme between “Wicket” and “Wicked” is no accident. The corporation harbors self-serving games, unbridled ambition, and out-and-out corruption from the mailroom to the CEO’s office and the directors’ boardroom.  The Archangel production faithfully stages spectacular production numbers in each of these locales and others.  Credit for the adaptable set goes to scenic designer Douglas Mackie, with set construction by Chase Staggs.

The cast mixes local professional talent and student newcomers, and altogether comprises a very talented ensemble.  The Austin talent pool is barely sufficient to yield a critical mass of voices strong enough for musical theatre, but St. Michael’s has assembled good singers who harmonize well.

The strengths of this production lie in the production numbers.  With live music, singing, and dancing by the large cast, most of the songs created a stand-up-and-clap energy in the audience.  It must be noted, however, that some of the professional cast, knowing well how utterly visible everyone is on stage, nevertheless phoned in their movements.

Andrew Cannata in the lead role of J. Pierrepont Finch was not one of them.  As the success seeker of the story with the very face of impetuous youth, he leaped, skipped, danced, and sang in his Broadway voice from the mailroom to the boardroom.

Haley Smith played Rosemary, Finch’s love interest.  She has a strong voice that makes it all sound easy.  Her bio shows her cutting an impressive swathe through Austin musical theatre, and we hope to hear and see much more from her.

The best voice in the cast belongs to Kirk German, who could well be the best voice in any cast.  Enjoyable, too, was his full characterization of Bud Frump, Finch’s bête noir.  He played Bud with bespectacled nerdiness, although with strong movement values and motivations raunchier than any character in the American Pie movie series.  This reviewer has in the past noted German’s unrivaled playwriting work, but that was before hearing him sing.  Now his singing skills must be added to his list of front-rank talents.

Sarah Manna as Hedy LaRue brought into Wicket some extra koochie for CEO J.B.Biggley.  Ms Manna possesses incredible singing and acting talent, but ultimately she is miscast as Hedy.  The character is a bewigged, wiggling, overdone caricature of a 1950s sexpot.  Considering that the story has no other strong caricatures, one wonders if this was a deliberate attempt on the part of the producers to focus a negative light on the sexist and classist overtones and themes of the musical.  Alas, 21^st century ethical responsibility cannot be extracted from this beast.

The musical production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying premiered on Broadway in 1961.  The show enjoyed tremendous success then and in numerous revivals since.  But this is an old musical; it has resisted updating, desperately needed, because of the songs embedded at its core.   “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm” and the reprise, “A Secretary is Not a Toy,” “Paris Original,” and “Brotherhood of Man” are clear evidence of  insistent gender bias, corporate hegemonism, and class elitism.  Those were solid values in the 1950s, but ideas about entitlement and equality have succeeded them.  Even more illuminating is this musical’s naïve 1950s valuation of corporations as providers of opportunity and generators of wealth.  The musical has been described as a satire on American business, but the title is actually a seductive restatement of the American Dream. The plot resolutions and character outcomes stay on task to prove this.  Most Americans today actually believe there is no succeeding in business regardless of trying, and they have their experiencs of the Great Recession of 2008 to back them up.

St. Michael’s Catholic Academy nevertheless has given us a brilliant showcase of its fine arts program and impressive facility in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.  The ticket price is well repaid by the performances of the highly talented cast, who richly deserve every theatergoer’s support.  The flaws in the material are no fault of the cast, staff, and producers.

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How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
by Loesser, Burrows, Weinstock and Gilbert
Archangel Community Theatre

Performances will be at the beautiful Gloria Delgado Performing Arts Theatre on the Campus of St. Michael’s Catholic Academy 3000 Barton Creek Blvd. Austin, 78735

For Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/715663

For more information on Archangel Community Theatre visit us atwww.austinact.org