This is a simple story of a young man who climbs to a position of great power and of the girl who loyally hangs on during his climb and eventually wins him. In this wonderful musical satire on the Organization Man, his success is due neither to hard work nor any other ancient prescriptions for success. He gets ahead by following the simple rules in a book called How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Our hero, J. Pierrepont Finch, runs into many obstacles and overcomes them like a modem, comic Seigfried: there's his rival, the boss's nephew, the mailroom trap, the office wolf, the office party, the dangerous secretary, the board meeting, jealous executives and, of course, the big boss himself.

From the first coffee break to the last elevator load on Friday night, office life is never the same once "Ponty" Finch settles in for the trip to the top.

"Crafty, conniving, sneaky, cynical, irreverent, impertinent, sly, malicious, and lovely, just lovely"

_ New York Herald Tribune

"Stings mischievously and laughs uproariously ... It belongs to the blue chips among modern musicals." - New York Times

IPFW Department of Theatre 1998-99 Season

Welcome to Satire at Its Best

Welcome to the IPFW Department of Theatre and the fifth year of our American Classics Summer Theatre. We are very proud of our work and feel that all of our productions are of first-rate quality. All of our faculty and staff endeavor to bring you top-notch entertainment and to make sure your visits with us are always memorable occasions.

This summer's production is a very appropriate one as we approach the millennium. It is an important and satiric statement about our culture in the not-too-distant past when individuality was sacrificed to the demands of the corporate structure. It is a musical that intentionally sets out to make us laugh at ourselves and our foibles in the 1950s and early '60s. It is also a warning of what we could become if we "played it the company way, and if we pledged to the company "sweet conformity." When How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying opened on Broadway in 1961, so many Americans viewed themselves and their country through rose-colored glasses. Of course, their vision was somewhat myopic.

Big business was held in high esteem--even though the Peter Principle, nepotism, hypocrisy, greed, and ineptitude were apparently as widespread as they are today. No one seemed to mind or even noticr that the executive boardroom was the exclusive province of white men and that a woman's place was in the home. The age was characterized by working women joining the secretarial pool just long enough to snag one of those executives for a husband. Women were stratified in the secretarial pool. Men could leapfrog over them from the mailroom into executive roles, but the women were really the ones who were running the company.

In 1961, when Rosemary sang "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm," it's likely that many audience members nodded in agreement, except the number was not meant to be taken seriously. Like everything else in the show, the song is a spoof. Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows wrote a musical that is virtually--and proudly--devoid of heart, sincerity, and sentiment. How to Succeed is a scathing attack on everything. Loesser and Burrows were quite hip people. Everything is satirized in the piece; nobody is exempt. But there is a tendency in these politically correct times to think that if you portray something, you're promoting it. I think, however, that anytime you do a classic musical like How to Succeed you create a dialectic by interjecting a contemporary point of view, so that on some levels it becomes a window to the times we live in.

Thank you for being our guest this evening and please make the IPFW Department of Theatre your first entertainment option. If you have any suggestions for how we can improve our operation don't hesitate to call me at the department office, 219-481-6551 .

Larry L. Life, Chair/Artistic Director IPFW Department of Theatre

Featuring Invited Community Guest Artist Larry Wardlaw

Larry Wardlaw is vice president of Asher Advertising Agency, Inc. A former vice president of marketing and communication for the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce and a veteran of local theatre and other arts organizations, Wardlaw brings to his clients more than two decades of public relations, communications, and marketing experience in both the public and private sectors.

This IPFW theatre graduate is actively involved in a number of community efforts. He is former president of the Civic Theatre Board and a member of the Mayor's Historic Preservation Review Board. Wardlaw currently teaches public relations at IPFW. Having been active in the very early days of the IPFW Department of Theatre, he returns to the IPFW stage for the first time since graduating in 1971.

The invited community guest artist series was created to feature outstanding artists in the Fort Wayne area who are highly visible and willing to work patiently and cooperatively as members of acting ensembles. They are people who give generously of their time to both IPFW and the Fort Wayne community. First and foremost, they are outstanding role models for our students as disciplined and committed professionals.

Featured Faculty Guest Artist Craig A. Humphrey: Bud Frump, Costume Designer

Craig A. Humphrey is an associate professor of theatre and resident costume designer for the IPFW Department of Theatre. He is also associate chair of the department and head of the design program.

His most recent works at IPFW include directing Into the Woods and The Fantasticks, acting in Uncle Vanya and The World Goes 'Round, and designing for Into the Woods, The Boys in the Band, Marat-Sade, Funny Girl, The World Goes 'Round, West Side Story Dracula, Hello, Dolly!, A Chorus Line, A Flea in Her Ear, and The Glass Menagerie. He will direct The Hot L Baltimore next spring.

Humphrey has worked off-Broadway as assistant costume designer to Laura Crow on the Circle Repertory Theatre Production of Lanford Wilson's Burn This. He has designed costumes in Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. His experience includes designs of Bedroom Farce for Chicago's Touchstone Theatre, The Normal Heart for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre, and six seasons with Theatre-By-The-G rove.

Locally, he has directed Once Upon A Mattress and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Arena Theatre and has designed for Red, Hot, and Cole at the First Presbyterian Theatre and for L'Histoire du Soldat at the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Humphrey has an M.F.A. in costume design from the University of Massachusetts and a B.F.A. in theatre performance from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Time: 1961

Setting: the World Wide Wicket Building, New York City

Musical Numbers
Act I
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying ………..Finch
Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm………..Rosemary
Coffee Break ………..Frump, Smitty, and Chorus
The Company Way ………..Twimble and Finch
The Company Way (Reprise) ………..Frump, Twimble, and Chorus
Rosemary's Philosophy………..Rosemary
A Secretary Is Not a Toy………..Bratt, Frump, Miss Krumholtz, and Chorus
Been a Long Day ………...Smitty, Rosemary, and Finch
Been a Long Day (Reprise) ………..Frump, Biggley, and Hedy
Grand Old Ivy ………..Biggley and Finch
Grand Old Ivy (Reprise) ………..Biggley and Pinch
Paris Original ………..Rosemary, Smitty, Miss Jones, and Girls
Rosemary………..Finch and Rosemary
Rip the Chipmunk....................Biggley and Finch
Finale--Act One ………..Rosemary, Finch, and Frump

Act II
Cinderella, Darling ……….. Rosemary, and Girls
I Have Returned………..Frump
Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm (Reprise) ………...Rosemary
Love From a Heart of Gold………...Biggley and Hedy
I Believe in You………..Finch and Men
I Believe in You ………..Rosemary
Brotherhood of Man………..Finch, Womper, Biggley, Miss Jones, and Men
Hallelujah ………..Girls
Finale ………..Entire Company

Cast
J. Pierrepont Finch: A young, ambitious window washer...Brian J. Porter
Rosemary Pilkingtor: A secretary...Jocelyn Romanak
J.B. Biggley: President of the World Wide Wicket Company...Larry Wardlaw
Bud Frump: Biggley's nephew...Craig A. Humphrey
Hedy La Rue: Biggley's girlfriend...Anna Mossburg
Miss Jones: Biggley's secretary...Brenda Porter
Smitty: Rosemary's friend and Bratt's secretary...Jane Rebekah Frazier
Bert Bratt: The Personnel Manager...Justin T Herber
Mr. Twimble: Head of the Mailroom...Dan Marrero
Mr. Catch: Head of the Plans and Systems Department...Kirby A. Volz
Wally Womper: Chairman of the Board...Dan Marrero
Benjamin Burton Daniel Ovington: New Head of the Advertising Department...D.L. Jacobs
Office Personnel:
Mr. Jenkins...Tracy Collins
Mr. Tackaberry...William David Andrews
Miss Krumholtz...Melissa Hershberger
Mr. Toynbee...Maurice Turner
Company Policeman/Coffee Boy...Gary L. Reed
First Scrubwoman...Orene Colcord
Second Scrubwoman...Becca Atherton
Secretaries...Cassandra Holst, Emily Nill, Cynthia La Pan, Rachel Fox, Shannon Driscoll

ORCHESTRA
Conductor...John C. Hermes
Flute/Piccolo...Nancy Drew
Clarinet/Saxophone...Sue Devito
Trumpet...Kevin Drew
Trumpet...David Sapp
Trombone...Ed King
Piano...Valerie S. Matthews
Bass...Jody Smith
Percussion/Drums...Sean McBryde

Click to subscribe to greenroom

Search: Books Popular Music Classical Music Video	Enter keywords...