Working Girl - La Jolla

[ggersten]

Posted: 11/1/25 at 9:39am

First preview was 28 October.

We are going to be close to La Jolla at Thanksgiving time and have thought about trying to get down to La Jolla to see this.  I don't do twitter so don't know if there are any early reports.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/1/25 at 10:54am

[bruzson]

Posted: 11/3/25 at 1:17am

Ashley should have taken the big win for ‘The Heart’ as Working Girl is as uninspired as they come. Poor book, awful lyrics,and a score where each song sounds like the other — but a game cast with the male lead (in a feminist show, go figure) being the standout.  Save your money. 

[FightTheDragons]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 3:39pm

I’m afraid this was yet another misfire from La Jolla for me — this venue has really struggled to put out consistently good material in the last year or two. 
 

The problems start with Ashley directing, though they certainly don’t end with him. I tend to find him bland and uninspired (Come From Away was a notable exception in this regard), and this was more of the same. It looks cheap, the blocking and staging is boring and mediocre, and there’s simply nothing inspired about it. 
 

That’s basically how the show is, too. You’ve seen this before. You have seen it done better and with more finesse and intrigue, with better songs and writing and performances. It’s a nothing burger of a musical. On performances, it’s just… hard to build a star vehicle around a mediocre actress. JoJo is trying her best here, and she’s not bad per se; she just doesn’t have the charisma to carry a show that asks her to be onstage for basically the entire thing. She sings it well, luckily. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Kritzer, who was in rather shockingly poor voice the night I saw it. This seemed uncharacteristic to me; I know her as a powerhouse vocalist, so she may have been having an off night or sick or something but she did not sound good. 
 

There’s not much else to say. It’s not bad, it’s not offensive, it’s just bland. The book is bland and the songs are bland and the performances are bland. I didn’t leave the show angry, I just left feeling nothing. Maybe that’s worse. 

Updated On: 11/8/25 at 03:39 PM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 4:13pm

Why is it so hard to make these new shows good? 
what a waste of everyone’s time.

[violetsandroses]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 4:17pm

 From the outside, it just seems like there's no oversight or critical feedback during these development periods for SO many of these new shows. Are investors and producers just not being honest enough after presentations? Or is it more that there's just not any "no" people hanging around to chime in. FWIW i was rooting for this one because i'm a fan of JoJo and Krtizer. I know they've been working it for a while too. 

[RUkiddingme]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 4:25pm

violetsandroses said: "Are investors and producers just not being honest enough after presentations? "

 

I think there's too much truth in that.

[FightTheDragons]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 5:13pm

Dolly80 said: "Why is it so hard to make these new shows good?
what a waste of everyone’s time."

A great question. Part of the problem is that some of these shows that ARE great just simply aren’t catching on, and that makes producers (rightfully) wonder if it’s not worth it to put soul into these shows. Regency Girls and Ride, two recent Old Globe shows, were miles better than almost everything I’ve seen at La Jolla, yet they’ve gotten significantly less buzz. Such is the business — some original ideas just don’t catch on and you get the sense that it’s not worth the effort. 

[bruzson]

Posted: 11/8/25 at 7:02pm

The program notes say they have been working in this for a decade or more. I agree it is a nothing burger and i think the creatives sensed that as  well by using hyperactive video projections that often had little to do with show. Razzle dazzle ‘em may work for Kander and Ebb but not Lauper