Is No One Interested in "Working"? — Page 2

Millwork is an astonishing song- stunned to see it dismissed.

I saw the Chicago production- thought it was pretty good. Certainly made a big impression on the audience. I wasn't blown away by the new songs but Fathers and Sons had an awful lot of the audience in tears.

I'm really excited for this! I just bought a ticket for the opening. I really love this show and hope this production is as good as it sounds.

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iluvtheatertrash: i made the conscious decision not to assume the formerly-stoner-boy character was gay because nowhere that i recall did he express his orientation. i agree that the Stefan component of his (under-developed, schizoid) personality was what we think of as stereotypically gay, but i never assume anyone under 25 is one thing or the other -- i know too many guys in their early 20s who are every bit as wispy, but unequivocally straight.

to quote my own grandfather decades after the 60s and 70s turned his world on its ear: everything's just all different with these kids today!

but, like i said in my original post, your assumption is altogether reasonable -- and, if correct, the character is highly offensive.

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So, wait, this production HAS a Playbill? I only ask cause I collect them for my binder(s).

Thanks, whatever. I should have been more specific; the show Working as a whole (text, music, lyrics, design, staging) was very much of its time in a wonderful way. It was a flop, but it affected the theatre community significantly. Those songs and monologues were heard at auditions for a few decades, and regional/amateur groups took it to heart for some time as well.

Of course it can be updated, just like Company and other shows that are significantly of their time can be, but they'll never achieve the same impact they had originally.

I'm not saying "never do revivals" (although I clearly feel that audiences, directors,and producers prefer them to new work these days); but I think it's advisable to remember that you can almost never catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Perhaps; I can't speak for the book, but if the song list posted here is accurate, then it would not be eligible for a Best Score Tony, were someone to try to produce it on Broadway. Not with only 2 new songs. Even with revised lyrics and orchestrations, most of the score is old.

That's sort of my point - if you want to do a new Working, why not do an entirely new Working? That would be a more impressive accomplishment.

Updated On: 12/4/12 at 10:05 AM

It is a strange comment, particularly considering how each of the songs is more or less written as an ideal cabaret-style, 1-act story. You may not aesthetically like "Nobody Tells Me How," "Housewife," "It's An Art," "Millwork," etc., but you can't say that they don't each tell full stories or create full characters.

This new Working "is" technically billed as a new show, for now: WORKING 2012. MTI licenses this version and the 90s version, though the original 70s version is no longer available at all (though the only missing song is Neat to be a Newsboy, and a few monologues- the 90s version is actually a fuller, longer show than the 70s apparently).

A labored musical about labor.

The original production was well directed and designed, which helped-- in part --- draw attention away from the mawkish, trite, material. Now, in a scaled-down production, it's all too keenly felt.

The songs now feel dated and sappy. Fathers and Sons is a mush overdose. The new songs are undistinguished.

In the good old days of musicals, people didn't grouse all evening long. They sang songs about life being just a bowl of cherries and the best things in life being free.

And musicals were better for it.

And audiences luckier, for sure.