Just watched the HOW TO SUCCEED preview video, and ...

I think I'm ticked off about it, because he's buried a Pulitzer Prize -winning score under so much rubble, and he gives his actors no chance to act, react, or think about the lyrics during a song. They're too busy with all the "business" and disjointed steps to do anything other than get through it. It's so disconnected from the material! Ashford choreographs like he's never seen a stage musical before. Or never seen a good one, at least.

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The COFFEE BREAK number in the clip has me boggled, why is Hanke smiling with a full cup of coffee and why are the women climbing all over the men?

The COFFEE BREAK number in the clip has me boggled, why is Hanke smiling with a full cup of coffee and why are the women climbing all over the men?

The number has been re-staged as a "battle" over the last cup of coffee in the machine, a battle which Hanke's Frump ultimately wins.

I was disheartened to read that several younger posters here said they didn't think the score was all that good when they saw the show. Or it wasn't memorable, etc.

At first I thought it was just a sign of the changing times and tastes. Or that maybe (even though I found it hard to believe), this score just wasn't aging very well.

Now I see exactly what they mean! They weren't given any chance to hear it. They were too busy being distracted from it at every double-turn by Rob "Look at me, I'm dancin'!" Ashford. No one in these clips is selling the score, they're selling the choreography instead, with every ounce of energy they have, because that's what it takes to execute it.

And if this revival is someone's first exposure to the show and Frank Loesser's brilliant work, I can see (sadly, not "hear") exactly why they feel that way.

But it's a damn shame it turned out this way.

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'Who keeps hiring [Ashford]?'

Broadway producers. Ashford's been the principal choreographer for 7 Broadway shows, and associate choreographed and been the dance captain for another 7 of them. Also the Donmar Warehouse in London has hired him as its associate director.

'Who thinks he's good?'

Tony nominators. Ashford's gotten 5 Tony nominations for his choreography, and won once for 'Millie.' He also has 3 Drama Desk nominations (winning for 'Cry-Baby') and 5 Olivier nominations for his choreography/direction. And he won an Emmy Award for his choreography for the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Though the video clips give you some visual sense of Ashford's work in 'How to Succeed,' you're not seeing them in context of the work, nor are you hearing the audience go wild with laughter or joy, especially during 'Brotherhood of Man.' I guess this is technology at work. You no longer need to see a show in person to make a fully informed opinion. You just watch a few video clips, and trash someone's career in seconds.

If you've never liked any of Ashford's work, so be it. Everyone's entitled to his own opinion. But Ashford is doing something right: Producers keep hiring him; audiences flock to his shows (except 'Cry-Baby'), and he wins awards. At least he's figured out 'How to Succeed' on Broadway.

'[The younger people] didn't think the score was good.'

It wouldn't be the first time that the score hasn't been fully appreciated. I love the Loesser score, but for the record, the Tony voters back in 1962 didn't give the Tony for Best Composer to Loesser, even tho' 'How to Succeed' won for Best Musical. He was beat out by Richard Rodgers ('No Strings').

haha, exactly. He upstages his own actors very frequently! And I do think it's a bit of an unleashed ego sort of thing. There's no one to say, 'No Rob, we DON'T actually need background dancers popping up behind the couch during 'Rosemary.' It's supposed to be a sweet and intimate realization of love, and a shadow chorus really doesn't need to be onstage during that song.' But there's no one to do that here.

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H2$ is one of my all time favorite shows, and with this creative team and the star, I didn't have much hope for this production.

Watching the video, the choreography is what bothered me the most. Especially with "How To" and "Grand Old Ivey". In "How To" it's supposed to be about Finch just walking in the crowd in a business, showing he's at the bottom with all of them. But he's just standing there while they do very strange dance moves behind him. It looks like a community theatre production there. In "Grand Old Ivey", I didn't mind it as much, but where the f*ck did the football players come from??? It makes no sense!! There would be no "flashback", because Finch has never actually been there, and I highly doubt there are football players just wandering around the office. Just REALLY confuses me.

I do like what he did with "Coffee Break", but there are just other numbers that look so bland and cheap.

Daniel looks okay in the role. He looks like a 15 year old next to all the others in the show. I don't care for his look, but he seems to be charming in the role and his american accent seems solid.

Rosemary looks and sounds absolutely perfect. I always thought that if the Rosemary doesn't make me fall in love with her, she doesn't do a good job. This girl is just perfection from what I've seen.

I've always found that Ashford over-choreographs things to the hilt in order to distract people from noticing that he cannot direct actors to save his life.

I don't know how many times he has to repeat that formula in a musical before people take stock and stop hiring him. He's been able to hide behind stars who audience are inclined to love no matter what in both PROMISES, PROMISES and HOW TO SUCCEED... (I'd offer a similar explanation as to why his production of STREETCAR did so well in London, since Rachel Weisz would have been stunning with a cardboard box directing,) but he can't get away with that trick forever.

If LEAP OF FAITH taught us anything, it's that he places all of his emphasis on dance (however inappropriate) and none of it on developing the story. It explains why his choreography is never conducive to the narrative within his shows. It's just flashy for the sake of being flashy.

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Updated On: 3/26/11 at 12:23 PM

best12bars, you have made my day. The overrated Ashford and his undeserved success have been driving me crazy for years now. I loved his work on the opening number of THE WEDDING SINGER and CURTAINS was okay (if a bit raunchy for a show-within-a-show set in the 50s), but I wish you had seen the OKLAHOMA-inspired disaster that was LEAP OF FAITH. His pretentious dream ballet-style opening killed the show before it even started, as a bunch of confused actors wandered around the stage doing ballet moves their limbs could not comfortably execute.

I'm also one of the few who strongly disliked his production of PARADE, where the lifeless choreography mostly consisted of marching around in a circle. He didn't understand the material at all, evidenced when he had the factory girls double as the women Governor Slaton flirts with during "Pretty Music." We'd just seen Leo Frank leer at them in "Come Up to My Office," so "Pretty Music" couldn't help but seem icky as a result. It was also unclear whether they were even playing the factory girls or random women at the party, since the actors had only been used as factory girls until that point in the show. Then at the end of the hanging scene, he had the lynch mob take Leo's body down and carry it away, when it's documented fact that they left it hanging there to make a statement. How would anyone have found the body if it had been removed? Total miscalculation.

It has nothing, however, on "Turkey Lurkey Time," which was exactly as you describe. Katurian also hits the nail on the head - "no motivators and no individual expression" indeed. Comparing it to the Bennett original was depressing.

I didn't hate the HOW TO SUCCEED video and am willing to give it a shot, but "Coffee Break" and the opening number seemed particularly cringe-worthy. I have no idea how Ashford got to where he is today, but at the maximum he is an inept choreographer, NOT a director.

Overkill-

Rose Hemingway's performance as Rosemary was the best part of the production for me. I was amazing that Ashford just let her stand center stage for 'Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm' and get out there. It was one of the few moments in the show where we were really allowed to pause and see the character and the wonderful score.


Also I thought of another instance of overcompensation in choreography. It wasn't really shown in the preview, but all during 'Been a Long Day,' the actress playing Smitty was basically getting thrown about by the cluster of people in the elevator. What Daniel and Rose were singing basically got no laughs or attention at all because of whatever madness was going on behind them.


And yes, Daniel did look extraordinarily young at times. It wasn't really an issue until the scene where he's getting seduced by Hedy, but at that moment I was getting vaguely rape-y undertones.

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Yeah, you'd think "Happy To Keep His Dinner Warm" would include a line of office ladies doing calisthenics or some other nonsense behind Rosemary. Maybe Ashford was home sick the day they blocked it.