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HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS
WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
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How to Succeed in
Business Without Really Trying was first staged over 30
years ago. In Broadway's current revival,
Matthew Broderick
plays J. Pierrepont Finch, an ambitious window-washer who
achieves his aspirations of becoming a lion in the business
world by following the guidelines of his trusty handbook.
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The Story...
Matthew Broderick stars in
How to Succeed in Business Without Really
Trying.
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How does a window washer climb the corporate ladder and become a vice president? Without really trying, of course. Using
sage and comic advice from a dog-eared paperback entitled,
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (the
voice of Walter Cronkite), J. Pierrepont Finch
(Matthew Broderick) lands
a job in the mailroom of the World Wide Wicket Company in New York
City. There, he meets his nemesis, Bud Frump and a lovely secretary
named Rosemary. Frump is a snobbish nebbish and nephew to World
Wide Wicket president J.B. Biggley. Frump's jealousy of the slick
Finch causes him to devise schemes to usurp our hero. Meanwhile,
Rosemary has romantic designs on Finch, which also threaten to
compromise his meteoric rise in the company.
Using his trusty handbook as guide, the well-meaning but slyly
self-promoting Finch proceeds to finesse his way to the top of
the heap -- grinning and winking all the way. Corporate politics
have never been so amusing as in this delightful musical adaptation
of advertising executive Shepherd Mead's 1952 satire.
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Behind the Scenes...
Matthew Broderick stars in
How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
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How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying originally opened on Broadway on October 14, 1961, and ran for 1417 performances -- the longest running of Frank Loesser's musicals. It was the winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Prior to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows collaborated on Guys and Dolls, which recently completed a record-breaking 2 1/2-year run as the longest running and most successful revival in Broadway history. Frank Loesser, a songwriter for stage and screen, wrote the music and lyrics for Where's Charley? (1948), The Most Happy Fella (1956) and Greenwillow (1960). He wrote the score for the film Hans Christian Andersen (1953) and won an Academy Award for the song, "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter (1949). Abe Burrows co-wrote the librettos for Loesser's other films, Can-Can (1950), Silk Stockings (1955) and Cactus Flower (1965).
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was
originally produced by La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, California.
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