This Spring, the Revere Players will sing and dance their way up the corporate ladder. An ensemble cast will perform the 1961 Broadway hit musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Shepherd Mead.
The musical follows J. Pierrepont Finch, a window washer in New York, who finds a book called How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He uses the tricks that he learns from the book to scheme his way from working in the mail room to become the chairman of the World Wide Wicket Company.
Sarah Pine, the Director of Revere Players, described the musical as a comedic satire that pokes fun at 1960s corporate America.
“The idea is that there is this man, Pierrepont Finch, who wants to be a corporate mogul. He wants to succeed in business, but he doesn’t actually want to do anything to do that. The show is all about his adventures trying to climb the corporate ladder without actually having to do any work. So high jinks ensue. And there is a love story, because it is a musical so of course he falls in love with his secretary,” Pine said.
Finch will be played by Senior, Bane Thurman, who described his character as looking like a seemingly unassuming and normal man, but after finding his book shows himself to be a cunning businessman.
“He is a really interesting character, because you can tell that he is not malicious or unkind or anything like that. But you can also tell that he is fast, he is quick, and he is not afraid to step on other people’s toes to get what he wants,” Thurman said.
J.B Biggley, Finch’s boss and president of the World Wide Wicket Company, is played by Junior Nicholas Ghiorghie, who describes Biggley as a corrupt and cutthroat businessman, who has no moral compass.
“I am the head of the company and I am this sleazy businessman type of guy who has an affair with one of the secretaries,” he said.
As Finch progresses up the corporate ladder, he meets his love interest, Rosemary Pilkington. Senior, Saumya Mahajan, is cast to play the female lead Pilkington, a secretary at the World Wide Wicket Company who is eager to be a dutiful, stay at home wife to Finch.
“Her instant reaction upon seeing the main character, Finch, is that she is madly in love with him, so her whole story revolves around trying to get him to make that move. She always dreams of her life in New Rochelle, and her friends tell her that she is going to be married to this executive and he is going to be at work all day and she is never going to see him, but she is happy to keep his dinner warm,” she said.
Pine described how she noticed that the students were having trouble getting into the frame of mind to play such corrupt characters.
“Stepping into that mindset of these corporate characters who only care about money and getting ahead is not pleasant. So getting into that mindset of that we are here to satirize and make fun of these people, not glorify them. I think there has been a mind shift thing that has been tricky for the kids to get into this gross corporate world,” Pine said.
Mahajan echoed this sentiment, saying they are struggling to get into their character given the time period and some of the more outdated social norms of the 1960s.
“I think that there are also the challenges that it is not something modern and that said in a time they obviously we were not alive for. It has a lot of different ideals, culturally and socially than what we are used to. So it is just throwing yourself in that time period to feel grounded in what we are saying and understand why we are saying what we are saying and how these interactions work,” she said.
Pine, who is responsible for choosing which plays or musicals Players perform, described why she selected this musical.
“Last year, our musical was something really kind of fluffy and light. It was Cinderella, it was a more classic kind of piece of musical theater, like the true golden age of Broadway. The year before that we did Mamma Mia which was much more contemporary. So I was looking for something that was going to be in the 60’s [or] 70’s, because we had not done anything kind of in that genre yet,” Pine said
Performing in a musical has proven to be a challenge for the actors.
“I think the most challenging part so far is actually the vocals and performing my songs for the character. I focus so much on singing, because that is my main concern right now. I find it hard sometimes, at least in this stage in production, to perform the songs rather than just sing them,” Thurman said.
“I think for me, because I was never a singer before Players, it has always been that singing is the most challenging part,” Ghiorghie said.
As the director of the production, Pine understands what it takes to overcome these challenges.
“Some of that is just going to come with time. I think as we rehearse it and start to put the pieces together we can see the point of the show. I think that is just going to come with time. It is flexing the muscle like anything else,” Pine said.
While it is still early in the production process of the musical, the cast are hopeful and excited that this one will be another success.
“I think that when you are on the inside of the play it is always a little bit stressful because you are thinking about all of these moving parts and how it is going to come together. But what I have always seen in every single one of our shows is that we put so much effort and so much dedication and time that we are left with a product that we are really really proud of. I do not think the show is going to be any different,” Mahajan said.
The play debuts on Thursday, April 10th at 7:00 PM with performances each day through Sunday, April 13th. Performances will be held at the Revere High School auditorium. Tickets are available on the Revere High School website.
