HOW TO SUCCEED... Dated?- Page 2

[Almira]

Posted: 3/15/11 at 4:37pm

This is where we diverge in what is worth exploring satirically.

Today a satire about corporate culture has bigger fish to fry than (while still important) sexism, nepotism and ambitious window washers.

In 1961, that might have enough, but today we can only WISH those were the worst things corporate culture contributed to the world.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/15/11 at 4:41pm

The thing that I think directors have never fully tapped into is that at that time period, learning by reading books was popular. You could succeed in business by reading a book, you could become a French chef by using a book, you could make friends and influence people by a book, you could become a champ in the bedroom by reading a book.

There's always a focus on the office, its politics and its procedures, but productions fail to highlight the "success from a book" phenomenon.

Posted: 3/16/11 at 4:06am

I think it is dated, but I also think it's such a solid, well done show/score that you can still appreciate it on that level, if that makes sense. There are some dated shows that for me just don't work with modern audiences as anything but maybe a nostalgia piece if the audience knows something about the times. Other shows, like H2$, still have enough of, God all this sounds so backhanded but, "crowd pleasing" moments that it just works. (But no, compared to Guys and Dolls, which of course people always compare it to, it doesn't work quite as flawlessly as G&D, at least usually, does). I do think that it holds up better than Promises Promises, a show that (I somewhat guiltily admit) sentimentally I prefer.

[mallardo]

Posted: 3/16/11 at 5:03am

The only really "dated" number in the show is Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm and that was dated from the start - deliberately so. Almost everything else pretty much still applies. The Company Way could still be an anthem in most corporate offices I know.

[billyboyA]

Posted: 3/16/11 at 9:03pm

Duh! Of COURSE it is - that's the freaking CHARM of it!!

You'd better not see the new film of Jane Eyre. Charlotte Bronte is a bit dated...

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/16/11 at 9:14pm

'Charm' to you is 'Corn' to me.

[billyboyA]

Posted: 3/16/11 at 10:59pm

Then you belong in Los Angeles, where they update everything to new by demolishing and destroying the old.