Grisetti, O’Hurley Star In Freud Playhouse's HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS... 5/11-23

Marcia Milgrom Dodge, whose critically acclaimed production of "Ragtime" transferred from the Kennedy Center to Broadway last fall and is nominated for six Helen Hayes Awards, will direct and choreograph the Reprise Theatre Company production of the 1962 Pulitzer Prize winner "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Josh Grisetti will star as Finch. Grisetti won the 2009 Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Lortel, Drama League, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for starring in the hit off-Broadway revival of "Enter Laughing" last year, and John O'Hurley, who recently played King Arthur in "Spamalot" in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as J. B, Biggley. Simon Helberg, a regular on CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" plays Bud Frump and Reprise veteran Vicki Lewis, star of NBC's "Newsradio" and "Three Sisters" plays Smitty. "How to Succeed" will preview on Tuesday, May 11 and open on Wednesday, May 12, and continue through Sunday, May 23 at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Single tickets are available for "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and for the current Reprise production "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" at www.reprise.org or through the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101. "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" plays at UCLA's Freud Playhouse March 16 through March 28.

The New York Times began its review of "Enter Laughing" saying John Grisetti was "born to play the lead .... Delivering a smashing comedic performance." Variety said that he "brings to mind Ray Bolger ... who looks like he has been studying with Mark Rylance." Previously Grisetti appeared in numerous roles with O'Hurley in the Las Vegas "Spamalot," and then was cast as the older Eugene Morris Jerome in the ill-fated Broadway revival of "Broadway Bound" that was to have been directed by David Cromer.

John O'Hurley came to be known to audiences by playing a fictional version of the catalog celebrity John Peterman on "Seinfeld," and later helped finance and is part owner of the real J. Peterman Company. Seven years later he was a contestant on the first season of "Dancing With the Stars." He was the host of the revival of "To Tell the Truth," "Get Golf" with the PGA Tour, "Family Feud," the Annual Purina Dog Show, and has starred on Broadway and tour in "Chicago." His book "It's Okay to Miss the Bed on the First Jump" was a New York Times Bestseller, followed by "Before Your Dog Can Eat Your Homework, First You Have to Do It."

Simon Helberg plays Howard Wolowitz on the current CBS series "The Big Bang Theory," and was previously in cast of "MADtv;" last year he appeared as Rabbi Scott Ginzler in the Coen Brothers Best Picture Oscar Nominee "A Serious Man."

Vicki Lewis, who also appeared in the Fox sitcom "Till Death," and Disney's "Sonny With A Chance," as well as recurring roles on "Seinfeld, "Home Improvement," and "Murphy Brown" and many others, is a frequent stage performer - and has appeared in four previous Reprise Shows: "My One and Only" "City of Angels,"
"I Love My Wife" And "Two by Two." She has appeared on Broadway in "Damn Yankees, "Chicago," and "The Crucible." Lewis won the 2007 Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in Michael John LaChiusa's "Hotel C'est L'Amour."

Susan Dietz, Producing Director of Reprise Theatre Company, said, "We are excited by the personnel that we have assembled for our ‘How to Succeed.' Marcia Milgrom Dodge found all of the potential in the recent Broadway revival of ‘Ragtime', and in "Seussical,' which most believed would never have a life. She is highly in demand, and we are thrilled to have her helm this production.

"Broadway's loss is our gain - as Josh Grisetti was originally scheduled for the revival of Neil Simon's ‘Broadway Bound'; and we get this brilliant newcomer - who's first big New York part garnered him the Theatre World Award and four other nominations. John O'Hurley is one of Broadway's funniest guys - a very handsome man who can play characters that have heart, while spoofing themselves.

"And Simon Helberg, who is very very funny, is one of the stars of the current CBS series "The Big Bang" and Vicki Lewis, one of Reprise's most unforgettable performers, is here as Smitty."

The follow up to "Guys and Dolls" from author Abe Burrows, composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, and producers Cy Feuer and Ernest H. Martin, "How to Succeed" is one of the great hits of American musical theatre - a outright satire on American business of the era that is now the subject of "Mad Men," one of the most influential television series of our times. When "How To Succeed" closed its original Broadway run at 1,417 performances, it was the fifth longest running musical in American theatre history.
Variety said Dodge's revival of "Ragtime" "not only feels trenchant and timely but its multistrand story is delivered with fresh clarity and emotional immediacy. This is big-brain, bold-strokes musical-theater storytelling at its most vibrant." Her 2006 Theatreworks/USA production of "Seussical" continues on its national tour, helping establish the property for future productions. The director and choreographer of dozens of musicals, she is highly associated with The Kennedy Center, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Bay Street Theatre and Sacramento Music Circus.

For "How to Succeed," Dodge is exploring a very different American story - one which lovingly pokes fun at corporate America, with a book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. Burrows and Loesser based the show on the best selling "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" by Shepherd Mead, written as a "guide book" of how to climb the company ladder of modern American business.

"How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" follows the rise of J. Pierpont Finch, who uses his pocket sized handbook (not surprisingly titled "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying") to climb the corporate ladder from lowly window washer to high-powered executive. On the way, he tackles such familiar but potent dangers as the aggressively compliant "company man," the mailroom, the boss' whiny, nepotistic nephew, the office party, backstabbing co-workers, a gigantic (and rigged) international television reality show, caffeine addiction (through that most sacred of office institutions, the coffee break) and, of course, true love.

The score includes such Frank Loesser standards as "I Believe in You" and "Brotherhood of Man." The original production, which brought Rudy Vallee back to the stage, featured Charles Nelson Reilly and later Michele Lee (who was featured in the film), and made a star of its unconventional leading man, Robert Morse. In 1995, Matthew Broderick starred in the show's only Broadway revival; Sarah Jessica Parker was a later cast member of that production.

Walter Kerr, in the Herald Tribune said, "'How to Succeed' is crafty, conniving, sneaky, cynical, irreverent, impertinent, sly, malicious, and lovely, just lovely." New York Times critic Howard Taubman wrote, "Big business is not likely to be the same again. It belongs to the blue chips among modern musicals. Let Wall Street and Madison Avenue tremble as the rest of us rejoice."

About Reprise Theatre Company

Since its inception in 1997, Reprise Theatre Company has been a focus of the Los Angeles musical theatre community, producing productions of great American musicals, and a wide variety off concerts, staged-readings, special events and outreach programs. In May 2007, Jason Alexander became Artistic Director and he
was joined by Susan Dietz, Producing Director.

Since its inaugural production of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Promises, Promises," which starred Mr. Alexander, Reprise has brought to the stage vibrant productions from all eras of American musical theatre including the Gershwins' "Of Thee I Sing" and "Strike Up the Band," Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," and Rodgers and Hart's "The Boys from Syracuse" and "Babes in Arms," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel," as well as Richard Rodgers' later "No Strings." The "Golden Era" has been well represented - Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg with "Finian's Rainbow," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe with "Brigadoon," Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green with "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town," Irving Berlin with "Call Me Madam," Robert Wright and George Forrest with "Kismet," both of the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musicals "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," Johnny Mercer and Gene dePaul with "Li'l Abner," Jule Styne with "Bells are Ringing," and Frank Loesser with "The Most Happy Fella" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Musical theatre reached a new peak of popularity in the sixties, along with new creative talents, and Reprise has presented shows by many of them including Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt with "The Fantasticks," Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with "She Loves Me," Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot's "Hair," Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone with "1776," Charles Adams and Lee Strouse with "Applause," Stephen Schwartz with "Pippin," Cy Coleman with "On the Twentieth Century" (libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), "City of Angels" (lyrics by David Zippel), and "I Love My Wife" (libretto by Michael Stewart), Jerry Herman with "Mack and Mabel," Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's "Once on This Island," and four Stephen Sondheim musicals - "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Company," "Sweeney Todd," and "Sunday in the Park with George."

Many of the great stage performers working today, as well as those who make their residence in primarily in Los Angeles, have appeared in Reprise shows including Scott Bakula, Christine Baranski, Brent Barrett, Orson Bean, Jodi Benson, Stephen Bogardus, Dan Butler, Len Cariou, Carolee Carmello, Vicki Carr, Patrick Cassidy, Anthony Crivello, Jason Danielely, Lea DeLaria, Cleavant Derricks, Manoel Feliciano, Rodney Gilfry, Kelsey Grammer, Harry Groener, Bob Gunton, Sam Harris, Gregory Harrison, Mimi Hines, Judy Kaye, Jane Krakowski, Marc Kudish, Ledisi, Vicki Lewis, Judith Light, Rebecca Luker, Eric McCormack, Maureen McGovern, Joey McIntyre, Donna McKechnie, Andrea Marcovicci, Marin Mazzie, Julie Migenes, Karen Morrow, Burke Moses, Kelli O'Hara, Ken Page, Robert Picardo, David Hyde Pierce, Larry Raben, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Roger Rees, Charles Nelson Reilly, Cathy Rigby, Alexandra Silber, Douglas Sills, Rex Smith, Brent Spiner, Lea Thompson, Steven Weber, Lee Wilkof, Marisa Jaret Winokur, Lillias White, Fred Willard, and Rachel York.

 

Need more Los Angeles Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Winter season, discounts & more...