When it comes to musical theater classics, I get nostalgic about great shows like “Guys and Dolls,” “The Music Man,” “Oklahoma!” and “Gypsy,” which have stood the test of time.
But I don’t feel the same about the 1961 musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which returned this month in a new production that opened Saturday at San Diego Musical Theatre.
Robert J. Townsend as J.B. Biggley, left, and Autumn Kirkpatrick as his mistress, Hedy La Rue, in San Diego Musical Theatre’s “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” (Karli Cadel)
The Frank Loesser-scored musical satirizes the rat race of American corporate life, and that part of the show still holds up 65 years later. But the women characters in the musical’s book, which was written by three men, are embarrassingly out of date.
The secretaries at the musical’s World Wide Wickets company happily accept sexual harassment, infidelity, sexism and neglect in the hope of a wedding ring. Maybe that’s how life was for working women in the 1960s, but it’s hard to laugh about it these days.
But plot aside, director Omri Schein and choreographer Xavier J. Bush have done a terrific job bringing a sense of playfulness, creativity and exuberance to the show’s many big-cast song-and-dance numbers.
That potent energy helps, since like many shows of its time, “Succeed” is about three hours long, with intermission.
Schein directs the show with tongue firmly planted in cheek, so there are many amusing sight gags (like an atrocious comb-over wig). He has also fielded a multitalented 22-member cast who perform to a recorded score.
Frankie Errington leads the cast as Finch, a cunning window-washer who uses a self-help book to scheme his way to the top. Errington has an endearing likability and a sense of mischief, but more aggressiveness and overconfidence would better suit the character.
Jasmine January gives a sweet, starry-eyed performance as Rosemary, the ever-patient secretary who loves Finch despite his indifference to her feelings. Zane Camacho has a larger-than-life clownlike energy as Finch’s nemesis, Bud Frump, a mail-room clerk who got his job via nepotism.
Autumn Kirkpatrick steals every scene she’s in as Hedy La Rue, the bubble-headed mistress of company president J.B. Biggley, also wonderfully played Robert J. Townsend.
Music director Richard Dueñez Morrison coached the singers, who perform to a recorded score. Mike Buckley designed the ’60s wallpaper-like scenery, with period costumes by Patricia Lutz, lighting by Sammy Webster and Joshua Heming and sound by Jordan Gray.
“How to Succeed” is the first show San Diego Musical Theatre is presenting in its newly designed auditorium. The stage area has been widened, and new, wider and more comfortable seats have been installed in the expanded seating rows.
‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through March 1
Where: San Diego Musical Theatre, 4650 Mercury St., Kearny Mesa
Tickets: $49-$69
Info: 858-560-5740
Online: sdmt.org