Society’s definition of success has long been measured in the currencies of wealth, status, power and prestige. The threads of capitalism are so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives that we can sometimes mistake power for responsibility, prestige for accountability and influence for merit. It is a particularly pertinent distinction at a moment when the world’s most powerful democracy is once again led by a businessman, and popularity, power and status are increasingly treated as interchangeable with competence, responsibility and merit.
What is the premise of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying?
It is within this uncomfortable landscape that How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which premiered on Broadway in 1961, could find renewed relevance. The musical follows J. Pierrepont Finch (Jake Speer), an ambitious young window cleaner who uses a self-help book to manipulate his way into a job at the World Wide Wicket Company and climb the corporate ladder. As he becomes entangled with Rosemary Pilkington (Georgia Laga’aia), rival Bud Frump (Max Macdonald) and company president J. B. Biggley (Simon Burke), Finch’s increasingly audacious schemes satirise workplace politics, unchecked ambition and the uncomfortable reality of success in a world that rewards the shameless and self-interested.
What are the highlights of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying?
The production shows considerable promise from the outset. Director and choreographer Cameron Mitchell establishes a visual language for this high-octane world in an early number that emphatically captures the desperation of needing a coffee break, leading with absurdity while revealing the fragility beneath this corporate world. That promise returns in “Brotherhood of Man”, the production’s most exuberant number and a showcase for the ensemble’s energy, comic timing and choreography. It brings together many of the show’s strengths: Speer’s confidence, Burke’s commitment to playing Biggley’s guileless incompetence, and Wayne Scott Kermond’s charm and sprightliness as the Chairman of the Board. Together, they give the production heart and offer a glimpse of what it might be at its fullest potential.
Visually, the production is equally assured. Christine Mutton’s costumes do much of the work of establishing the period and giving the production a strong sense of style, while Peter Rubie’s lighting effectively heightens Finch’s duplicity. Dominic Foffani’s simple building set creates an appropriate playground for J. Pierrepont Finch’s seemingly uncontested ascent up the corporate ladder. At its best, the production is a showcase for ensemble performance, with the cast creating the show’s most humorous and jovial moments.
Why is How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying a 3-star production?
This is a production still finding its tone. The promise of these moments is ultimately what makes the production’s shortcomings so apparent. At its core, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying has a premise ripe for satire: a man who succeeds not through competence or integrity, but through manipulation, nepotism and an unwavering commitment to his own advancement. Its skewering of misogyny, corporate politics and the self-interest of powerful white men offers abundant material for contemporary audiences to interrogate. Unfortunately, the production rarely commits fully to the heightened, irreverent tone that would allow that satire to land. What is left behind is, at times, an unwelcome glorification of the very tenets the show seeks to interrogate.
The songs are intended to carry much of the show’s comedy, but few leave a lasting impression beyond their immediate gag. Frank Loesser’s music and lyrics often function here as vehicles for comedy or ruminations on a feeling rather than opportunities to deepen the characters or advance the narrative. They rarely sharpen the satire or meaningfully progress the plot, making much of the musical material feel somewhat disposable. This leaves considerable weight on the performances, which exist in this production at markedly different levels of theatricality.
Some actors approach the material with an earnestness that risks obscuring its absurdity, while others lean so heavily into caricature that their performances become cartoonish. The female storylines are surely designed to mock the way women are treated within this world, but the production plays these moments so earnestly that the satire becomes difficult to distinguish from the behaviour it intends to ridicule. Neither approach is inherently misplaced in a musical with such broad strokes, but without a consistent tonal framework, they sit awkwardly beside one another. The result is a production that seems unsure whether its characters should be laughed at, empathised with or taken at face value.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying has some of the ingredients for something sharper: a talented ensemble, a visually confident production and a premise that remains remarkably relevant. Instead, the satire is delivered too lightly, and what could have been astute social commentary is rarely pursued with enough bite. In a musical about the ease with which manipulation can masquerade as merit, this production never quite finds the confidence to make that irony its central point.
