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Mar. 28th, 2011 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo when I was around nine or ten, I spent every night for a period of months unable to fall asleep unless I was listening to the soundtrack of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. (I'm pretty sure this was after my Cats tape melted from overuse.) I don't know why nine-year-old Becca picked How To Succeed in Business, and I don't know what kind of assumptions about the adult world were thusly driven into my subconscious via sixties satire, but I had sort of forgotten all about that period of my life until I went to see the Broadway production last Thursday and got struck with enormously intense feelings of deja vu.
But you guys don't really want to hear about that, you want to hear whether little Dan Radcliffe can sing and dance! Which, I won't lie, is a large part of the reason why we went. (I am quite fond of Dan Radcliffe; he's definitely grown into his acting, and he seems like a sweetheart, and also when he was little he had a really strong resemblance to my little brother, which has lessened with age but not entirely disappeared. This means that a.) I have these weird sort of fuzzy older-sister feelings about him and b.) my brother has spent much of his life very bitter about the accident of birth that prevented him from having a British accent. He could have been Harry Potter, guys!)
Anyway, the answer: Dan Radcliffe is never going to be a great singer, but he can certainly carry a tune well enough to carry a show. And, guys, he actually can dance! During his first big dance number he looked sort of energetically awkward, but it worked for the show - it's during a bit where he's supposed to be completely faking it in order to win the favor of the Big Boss - and I was like "well, okay, good for Dan Radcliffe and the directors, they found a way to work with his talents." But then came the finale of the second act, and I had to reassess my assumptions, because dang. You go, little Dan Radcliffe! Cavort around that stage!
I say 'little' advisedly, by the way, because another thing that actually worked hilariously well for the show was the fact that every other male character was at least a head taller than our star. During all the "imitate the boss" scenes he just looked like an endearingly smug mini-me!
Other things I was impressed by:
- "Coffee Break," which I actually did not remember and am shocked at myself for doing so, because it is clearly the best song in the show. Lyrics: "If I can't take my coffee break, SOMETHING INSIDE ME DIES!" Truer words were never sung. Anyway, they basically choreographed it like a zombie movie, with haggard-faced cubicle minions and secretaries staggering around after the one last cup of coffee, and it was hilarious
- the guy playing Bud Frump, The Boss' Nephew and Our Hero's boot-licking blackmailing rival for corporate power, who took such enormous glee in being thoroughly evil that I found it all sort of endearing. I'm rooting for you, Bud Frump!
- "Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm," which as a song is a large part of the reason I can deal with the genial sixties sexism of the show as a whole ("A Secretary Is Not a Toy," OH DEAR), because - well, really, you know, How To Succeed in Business is kind of an awfully dark show underneath the light candy-coated cheer? If played right, "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" basically points out that the fantasy married life of a sixties working girl is probably going to lead to empty disappointment, and the whole rest of the show points out that the fantasy corporate life of a high-ranking executive is just as superficial and empty, but it's all good, you can just sing a cheery song about the brotherhood of man and pretend everything's working out great! Which is really kind of sharp, for a show that was in fact written in the sixties without the benefit of hindsight. It's a much peppier and more hummable Mad Men. (I don't actually watch Mad Men, but I'm okay with peppier and more hummable.)
Okay, that's enough analysis for the moment.
Things I was less impressed by:
- last summer I saw Promises, Promises, that other satirical sixties musical that recently opened on Broadway, and oh, how unsurprised I was to find that the director was the same guy, because at least 50% of the staging and choreography was ripped straight from that show. I realize it probably saves money to reuse the same costumes, but the fact that they're both set in the sixties doesn't mean they have to be identical!
But you guys don't really want to hear about that, you want to hear whether little Dan Radcliffe can sing and dance! Which, I won't lie, is a large part of the reason why we went. (I am quite fond of Dan Radcliffe; he's definitely grown into his acting, and he seems like a sweetheart, and also when he was little he had a really strong resemblance to my little brother, which has lessened with age but not entirely disappeared. This means that a.) I have these weird sort of fuzzy older-sister feelings about him and b.) my brother has spent much of his life very bitter about the accident of birth that prevented him from having a British accent. He could have been Harry Potter, guys!)
Anyway, the answer: Dan Radcliffe is never going to be a great singer, but he can certainly carry a tune well enough to carry a show. And, guys, he actually can dance! During his first big dance number he looked sort of energetically awkward, but it worked for the show - it's during a bit where he's supposed to be completely faking it in order to win the favor of the Big Boss - and I was like "well, okay, good for Dan Radcliffe and the directors, they found a way to work with his talents." But then came the finale of the second act, and I had to reassess my assumptions, because dang. You go, little Dan Radcliffe! Cavort around that stage!
I say 'little' advisedly, by the way, because another thing that actually worked hilariously well for the show was the fact that every other male character was at least a head taller than our star. During all the "imitate the boss" scenes he just looked like an endearingly smug mini-me!
Other things I was impressed by:
- "Coffee Break," which I actually did not remember and am shocked at myself for doing so, because it is clearly the best song in the show. Lyrics: "If I can't take my coffee break, SOMETHING INSIDE ME DIES!" Truer words were never sung. Anyway, they basically choreographed it like a zombie movie, with haggard-faced cubicle minions and secretaries staggering around after the one last cup of coffee, and it was hilarious
- the guy playing Bud Frump, The Boss' Nephew and Our Hero's boot-licking blackmailing rival for corporate power, who took such enormous glee in being thoroughly evil that I found it all sort of endearing. I'm rooting for you, Bud Frump!
- "Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm," which as a song is a large part of the reason I can deal with the genial sixties sexism of the show as a whole ("A Secretary Is Not a Toy," OH DEAR), because - well, really, you know, How To Succeed in Business is kind of an awfully dark show underneath the light candy-coated cheer? If played right, "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" basically points out that the fantasy married life of a sixties working girl is probably going to lead to empty disappointment, and the whole rest of the show points out that the fantasy corporate life of a high-ranking executive is just as superficial and empty, but it's all good, you can just sing a cheery song about the brotherhood of man and pretend everything's working out great! Which is really kind of sharp, for a show that was in fact written in the sixties without the benefit of hindsight. It's a much peppier and more hummable Mad Men. (I don't actually watch Mad Men, but I'm okay with peppier and more hummable.)
Okay, that's enough analysis for the moment.
Things I was less impressed by:
- last summer I saw Promises, Promises, that other satirical sixties musical that recently opened on Broadway, and oh, how unsurprised I was to find that the director was the same guy, because at least 50% of the staging and choreography was ripped straight from that show. I realize it probably saves money to reuse the same costumes, but the fact that they're both set in the sixties doesn't mean they have to be identical!
