Theater Review: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette. Photo by Ari Mintz

How Radcliffe Succeeds in This Business with a Little Trying
By Lauren Yarger
Another Hollywood star is packing them in on the Great White Way as Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame takes the stage as J. Pierrepont Finch in the 50th anniversary revival of the Tony and Pulitzer-Prize-Winning How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

“Isn’t he adorable?” and “Look, it’s Harry Potter!” fans in the audience say as Radcliffe shows that he has what it takes to be the leading man in a Broadway musical, even if he can’t rely on the magic in his wand. Instead, he appears to be relying on some hard work to prepare for the show and it has paid off in the form of his skillful execution of Rob Ashford’s (although overkill) choreography moves. The young sorcerer -- I mean actor -- appears to defy gravity with a few physical moves.

I’m happy the fans are cheering. Too often Hollywood stars come to the stage hoping their charm will carry them, and instead, it appears Radcliffe is trying very hard to do his best. His singing voice is adequate, if not as strong as we normally expect on a Broadway stage, but he’s not alone. Ashford, who also directs, has cast weaker vocals across the board. The result is that Radcliffe’s lack of vocal ability doesn’t stand out, but we never hear any of the tunes and lyrics by Frank Loesser given full justice. David Chase provides the musical direction and pleasant arrangements.

The story (book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstick and Willie Gilbert) follows Pierrepont as he climbs his way out of a window-washing job up the corporate ladder at World Wide Widgets with the help of a guide titled “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (voice narration for the book is provided by CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper). He quickly impresses the CEO’s secretary Miss Jones (Ellen Harvey), executive Mr. Gatch (Nick Mayo) and starts getting promoted.

Along the way, he also impresses a couple of secretaries, Smitty (an engaging Mary Faber) and Rosemary Pilkington (Rose Hemingway), who quickly decides that she’d like to be Mrs. J. Pierrepont Finch. “Ponty” doesn’t really notice Rosemary, though, so fixated is he on following his guide and finding just the right bits of information he needs to get ahead. He angers screw-up Bud Frump (a fun Christopher J. Hanke), who is the nephew of their boss, J.B. Biggley (John Larroquette, making a solid Broadway debut), and who doesn’t hesitate to call his mother to complain when Ponty gets the praise instead of him. Bud even tries to sabotage Ponty by placing him in a compromising position with Biggley’s mistress, Heddy LaRue (Tammy Blanchard) and by contributing a bad advertising idea when Ponty is made head of that department. Can Ponty get out of the mess, find true love and avoid the wrath of Board Chairman Wally Womper (Rob Bartlett)? I’ll bet you can succeed in answering that without even trying.

Derek McLane designs a set of varied-colored, multi-level honeycomb panels to create an environment for the worker bees of WWW, lighted by Howell Binkley, who also gives a nice spotlight touch to Ponty's successes up the corporate ladder.

Catherine Zuber creates the 1960s-style clothes, which are a mix of attractive and sometimes disappointing. One suit and hat combination on Radcliffe gives the appearance of a little boy playing dress up rather than a man headed for the board room and in a scene where all of the women show up for a party wearing the same dress, it’s hard to believe that even one would select such an unattractive get-up, never mind all of them.

Also disappointing is a rather sexist undertone to how the women are depicted. Rosemary has little ambition other than to be a devoted wife “Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm.” The guys sing “A Secretary is Not a Toy” and the secretaries sing about wanting to be Cinderella. OK, this is the 1960s, so maybe that’s period, but we have to wonder why this type of show is being revived so often. There’s one dance number that is sexist and distasteful even by today’s standards. And there’s only one person of color – a chorus woman – in the show. Is this supposed to depict the state of corporate America in he ’60s (again is this really something worth reviving) or is this an unfortunate lack of 2011 diversity?

At any rate, the Harry Potter fans are applauding wildly. Radcliffe deserves their admiration for his efforts and Larroquette deserves it for some delightful comedic timing. He looks as though he succeeds at it without even trying.

The show plays at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available at http://www.givenik.com/show_info.php/Masterworks/273/individual.

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