By BOB HOOVER
Head to the South Park Theatre and turn your watch back 60 years. It’s 1961, the Steelers practiced across the street at the South Park fairgrounds, boys rubbed Wildroot Cream Oil on their crew cuts, folks ate dinner at Stouffer’s, and the Pirates were World Champs, briefly.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, a musical comedy by Broadway veterans Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, was an unsubtle parody of America’s big corporations, but with the usual plot: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl.
It’s as sexist as they come, raunchy as the era would allow, and stuffed with cliched characters who sing songs of inspiration like “I Believe in You” and “Brotherhood of Man.”
Based on the self-help book of the same name, the show sends ambitious window washer J. Pierrepont Finch (with Brady J. Opel as Finch in this evening’s performance) climbing into the offices of the Worldwide Wicket Company, where his paperback guides him quickly to the top. It helps that every man from President J.B. Biggley (Joe Joyce) on down is an idiot.
South Park Theatre’s ambition is as big as Finch’s in producing such a complicated show with a large cast that fills the small stage with big dance numbers directed by Ashton Gutherie and music conducted by Carmen LoPresti. The performance lasts nearly three hours with an intermission.
Sets by Sabrina Hykes-Davis, costumes by Robert Hockenberry, and sound by Joe Eberle brought color and a real 1960s feel. Set changes were a little clunky, and the sound occasionally drowned out the singers, but the cast, clearly enjoying their roles, carried on.
Standouts were Rachel Parsons as Rosemary, Finch’s love interest, Carina Iannarelli as sexpot Hedy Larue, Emma Brown Baker as Smitty, one smart secretary, and dance captain with Hope Anthony as Bigley’s secretary Miss Jones.
Standing in at this performance for Ben Nadler, a lanky, often disheveled Brady J. Opel’s portrayal of Finch lacked the calculating nature required for the character. Joe Joyce’s Bigley seemed to be a bit lost onstage at times.
Otherwise, South Park Theatre largely succeeds with How to Succeed and earns a Diners Card for taking on this challenging musical.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at South Park Theatre (located on Brownsville Road and Corrigan Drive in South Park) has performances now through July 13, 2025. For tickets, visit: https://keystone.profiledevelopers.com/fmi/webd/Stellar%20Tickets
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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