I was originally going to talk about The Murder at Haveshame Manor, which is a play I saw that went horribly wrong, but that actually happened to us during The Mousetrap… So, I figured I would talk about How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying instead. I had worked on this show before, so I was familiar with many of the aspects, and may have come into the show with higher expectations than I should have. To start, I very much enjoyed the group dance number choreography. The ensemble of actors, one of whom was actually the dance captain for the show, utilized the space they were in very well. During the large numbers, while it did feel a little bit condensed because of the size of the theatre, the actors were very well coordinated and there wasn’t any one person in the ensemble who was falling behind or not in sync with the rest of the group and I particular thought that the actor who played the nephew did a phenomenal job. Overall, the dance captain was very successful in achieving an entertaining spectacle during the dance numbers.
One aspect that I was disappointed by was the gender swapped casting. Instead of fully committing to the idea, there were only three, or so, characters who had been gender swapped, and because of this, it felt more like wasted potential than anything. Alex was talking about gender swapping the secretaries to be hot guys, and I think that would have been hilarious! However, with the swapped roles, they did not even change the key of the songs, and the lead actor particularly seemed to struggle with the low notes. It was hard for me to hear some of her lines in songs and that nearly ruined them for me. I found the acting to be okay and after I while, the Nephew’s bad American accent clicked with me and I found it funny rather than annoying, like I did at the start. Also, I think stunt casting is stupid in general, but regarding the lady who play J.B. Bigby, while she had an excellent stage presence, I don’t think that the choices she made were very good. There were specific moments, like Bigby being extremely jittery when interacting with his secretary, that seemed nearly identical to past Broadway productions that I (may or may not) have seen on Youtube and it felt like the audience was laughing at unfunny choices that she made, simply because they knew who she was. I am sure that she is a great actor, but I don’t think that this role suited her (business pun haha) very well. I am realizing that I have been very negative about the show, but I did have a good time. Oh… one more negative; the script drags in the first act and rushes in the second, but that was not the fault of the production. In general, I think the show succeeded in being entertaining, but it failed at its greater themes about gender relations and simply left me wanting more.
Theatre in London U of A 