Sunday, September 4, 2016

In Honor of Not Working: Working!

 Based on the Studs Terkel book,
"Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day And
How They Feel About What They Do" from 1974.
Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso adapted the tome into "book" form,
and more than enough composers/lyricists
 were brought in to create:
James Taylor (hey, it was the 70s!), Mary Rodgers, Craig Carnelia, 
Micki Grant, Susan Birkenhead, and Schwartz.

 The original production began in Chicago,
appropriately enough as that's where Studs was based.
Then Broadway 6 months later,
where it bombed big time: 24 performances?
Above, Jennifer Haering singing "It's An Art"
from that first Chicago production.

 But that wasn't the end.
Working is one of those musicals that have been adopted
as a perfect high school and college show.
40 characters played by (traditionally) 17 actors.
It gets lots of people ON THE STAGE, doing lots of stuff. 
Above and below, 
pics of multiple "workers", "waitresses",
and different set perspectives. 




Studs Terkel:
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian, actor, 
and host of a 45 year long radio program
on WFMT out of Chicago,
on which he interviewed Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan,
Leonard Bernstein, Dorothy Parker, and others.
1912 - 2008

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