The Show: 

Don’t have time for slowly working your way up through the ranks of corporate America? This 1961 musical based on a 1952 book and featuring the music and lyrics of Frank Loesser with book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is the self-help guide for any ambitious young reader looking for step-by-step instructions on how to rise from window washer to chairman of the board by sidestepping The Company Way. Enter window washer J. Pierrepont Finch. Watch and learn as he coolly brown-noses, cleverly schemes, and carefully manipulates office politics to propel him forward up the corporate ladder of World Wide Wickets. Unless a steaming boss’s nephew or a brewing office romance knocks him off step.  

The Production:  

Director Ed Como immediately sets the mood for the audience at Greasepaint Youtheatre’s production, as for our pre-show viewing entertainment we watch 1960s-era commercials playing on a screen surrounded by a television set piece. To start the show, the Book Voice (Alex Tuchi) replaces the screen as he begins to guide Finch on his way up from window washer. Boston Scott is terrific in the role of the eager, young go-getter as he schmoozes his succession of bosses, flirts with the top boss’s secretary Miss Jones (a hilarious Talia Khan who enjoys the flirting with more than a little interest), and trying not to get sidetracked by Rosemary. Tasha Spear is charming in the role with lovely vocals in Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm and I Believe in You.  

You can believe in everyone in this strong cast that includes Lexi Lewis amusingly melting Finch’s rivals off the corporate ladder as seductive Hedy LaRue, nerdy Jacob Shore as the obnoxious boss’s nephew trying to succeed in business with a bit of trickery and a lot of nepotism, Brit Reid as Rosemary’s friend Smitty who with Jacob leads the cast in a desperate Coffee Break, 25-year mail room veteran Griffin Siroky leading the praises of the tried-and-true Company Way, and Nicholas Hambruch as the knit-happy big boss Biggley showing a disturbing amount of school spirit with Finch as they Rip The Chipmunk.  

The cast as a whole does a great job with the singing and Laurie Trygg’s lively and comedic choreography highlighted by A Secretary is Not a Toy, Coffee Break, and topping it all off with an impossibly catchy performance of the Brotherhood of Man sure to launch Finch to the top.

Rob Hopper
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Executive Director
National Youth Arts

~ Cast ~ 

Featured Dancers: