Actor Daniel Radcliffe will turn 22 during his run in the new revival of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (on July 23, to be exact). If he wanted to, he could probably turn 23 and still be in it -- the show fits him like a glove and audiences are eating it up. Heck, they cheered the chorus girls the night I caught it and you just know an audience is having fun when they start applauding loudly even before the movie and TV stars appear for their curtain call.
For the record, Radcliffe is trying and does succeed pretty darn well -- and without grading him on a curve. He moves well and his adequate voice is okay enough for the not-so-vocally demanding role of that corporate schemer J. Pierpont Finch. ("F-I-N-C-H," as he so helpfully makes clear to all and sundry.) Matthew Broderick was the last person to lead a revival of the show on Broadway and they pair off well together.
Neither is a born singer but the great score by Frank Loesser is easy on the lead. Both have charm to spare (something Radcliffe reveals here more than ever before) and an easy complicity. Neither is terribly tall, which is especially useful for our hero now; he may be running rings around the competition as he rises swiftly to the top of the World Wide Widget company ("www" which gives the whole show a modern flair), but he's also small. Even though he's smarter than anyone else, you can't help feeling he's an underdog.
The show -- rather sexless in an interesting way - feels as modern as ever, despite silly concerns about songs like "A Secretary is Not A Toy." Looking out for yourself, seeing a company as a stepping stone rather than a home, seeing your coworkers as competitors instead of friends, being so focused on career you don't even bother with a personal life -- sounds familiar, doesn't it?
It helps when the tale of a window washer rushing up the ladder of success is filled with fun numbers like 'Coffee Break" and "Rosemary" (in which our hero unexpectedly discovers romance, only to soon put it aside while he leaps ever higher).
Radcliffe's Broadway debut was in Equus, in which he showed a certain amount of stage presence despite being cast as a rough, country lad, a role he most certainly was not suited for. He's grown tremendously here and owns the stage rather charmingly, right down to mouthing "cheers" during his curtain call.
Two other crucial roles don't score highly. Rose Hemingway is okay as the secretary who loves him and longs to keep his dinner warm (in New Rochelle!), but certainly doesn't put her stamp on the role or ever get beyond a vague niceness. Worse, the main foil for Finch is supposed to be the boss's nephew, Bud Frump. He's the corporate climber we're supposed to dislike -- our hero gets by on his wits and sucking up (cleverly) while Bud just complains to his mother, who is the sister of his boss's wife. But Christopher J. Hanke fails to nail almost any of the humor in his part. He's a handsome fellow but his voice is so-so and his delivery poor. Lines that should kill just sort of peter out, though he has a good physical command of his body and does well in the dancing.
The other key roles are much better. Emmy winner John Larroquette makes his Broadway debut in solid form as the boss, J.B. Biggley. Without overplaying it, he milks every laugh out of every line he's given. Director and choreographer Rob Ashford even makes smart use of Larroquete's height compared to Radcliffe in the rousing Act One tune "Grand Old Ivy." His mistress is played by Tammy Blanchard, who also shows wise restraint in a part that can be pure caricature. Their romantic number together -- "Love From A Heart Of Gold" -- gets by purely on the chemistry of the two. As a bonus of sorts, Larroquette's voice is so modest it makes even Radcliffe's singing seem robust.
MIchael Park (who was exceptional in this season's excellent new play Middletown) does strong work as a corporate exec and deserves bigger roles in the future. And Ellen Harvey has a blast as Miss Jones, especially with her warbling on "Brotherhood Of Man" (inserted perhaps to give some vocal spark to the big dance finale in which Radcliffe shined as a hoofer but obviously could not belt out over that chorus).
I keep coming back to the idea that the best actors didn't overplay roles that can be rather broad. Perhaps it has to do with the sleek, Sixties-mod look of the sets by Derek McLane and excellent lighting by Howell Binkley for this How To Succeed. They create a vivid, genuine corporate world, as opposed to what I remember as a more cartoonish feel for the Broderick revival. (Which I also enjoyed.) It has the feel I imagine the new musical Catch Me If You Can will be shooting for.
Ashford's strong staging and choreography are filled with grace notes and clever touches, from the mailroom clerks passing around packages with their feet to the hilarious "Grand Old Ivy" (in which Radcliffe pantomimes playing football and is carried backwards in slow motion to amusing effect) to that rousing climax "Brotherhood Of Man," in which our hero really delivers on his toes, thanks to very clever moves that show him off to the best possible effect.
And yet, the dancing overall was solid but not spectacular. So how can a show where the male lead isn't really a singer and the female lead didn't wow and the main villain underwhelmed get three stars? Hey, that's the beauty of live theater. A great show delivering on the technical front with panache and boasting one of the more tuneful scores in Broadway history can be a lot of fun, especially with a charismatic lead, powerhouse vocals or not.
And if Radcliffe chooses his next role wisely -- a romantic comedy or flat-out farce, I think -- he will continue to grow as an actor and keep packing them in. Just like How To Succeed surely will. And when he steps away from the show (as inevitably he will) and they need to find a replacement, might I suggest Neil Patrick Harris? (You can see Harris in a concert version of Company at LIncoln Center April 7-9.)
THE 2010-2011 THEATER SEASON (ratings on a four star system)
Angels in America revival at Signature *** out of ****
Arcadia with Billy Crudup *** 1/2
Between Worlds/Entre Mundos * 1/2
Beautiful Burnout at St. Ann's Warehouse **
Blood From A Stone ** 1/2
The Broadway Musicals Of 1921 at Town Hall ***
Devil Boys From Beyond **
The Diary Of A Madman with Geoffrey Rush at BAM ***
Double Falsehood **
The Dream Of The Burning Boy ** 1/2
Driving Miss Daisy **
Elf *
Elling **
A Free Man Of Color ** 1/2
Gatz ***
Ghetto Klown ***
Good People with Frances McDormand **
The Grand Manner **
The Great Game ***
Gruesome Playground Injuries ***
The Hallway Trilogy: Nursing **
The Hallway Trilogy: Paraffin ***
The Hallway Trilogy: Rose ***
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying ***
The Importance Of Being Earnest ** 1/2
The Interminable Suicide Of Gregory Church *** 1/2
John Gabriel Borkman * 1/2
La Bete ** 1/2
Les Miserables ***
Lombardi **
Macbeth with John Douglas Thompson **
The Merchant Of Venice *** 1/2
Middletown ***
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore *
Mistakes Were Made ** 1/2
Nixon In China *** 1/2
The New York Idea **
The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at BAM ***
Other Desert Cities **
Our Town with Helen Hunt ***
The Pee-wee Herman Show ***
The Road To Qatar *
Room ***
The Scottsboro Boys ****
Small Craft Warnings zero stars
Three Sisters (w Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard) *** 1/2
Timon Of Athens at Public with Richard Thomas ***
The Whipping Man **
Wings **
Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown **
AT THE NEW YORK MUSICAL FESTIVAL
Blood Ties ***
Fellowship * 1/2
Fingers and Toes ** 1/2
Frog Kiss *** 1/2
The Great Unknown ** 1/2
Nighttime Traffic **
Our Country *
PopArt *
Shine! The Horatio Alger Musical ** 1/2
Show Choir **
Tess: The New Musical **
Trav'lin' ***
Without You *** 1/2
*****
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.
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HAPPY TO KEEP HIS DINNER WARM is also among the dated, sexist songs who's offensiveness you deem "silly". Nice of you to erase a half century of battling for sexual equality with the word "silly."
"Ellen Harvey has a blast as Miss Jones, especially with her warbling on 'Brotherhood Of Man' (inserted perhaps to give some vocal spark to the big dance finale"
Have you EVER listened to the original cast album, or seen the movie (which preserves forever Robert Morse's magnificent, unmatachable performance)? Miss Jones warbling was "inserted" by Frank Loesser in the original. It has ALWAYS been part of the number - ALWAYS!
You want a "silly" concern? Okay, here's silly: In the first Harry Potter movie, Daniel liberates a snake from the reptile house in a zoo. Now Daniel opens on Broadway, and, the same week, a cobra "escapes" from The Bronx Zoo. Coincidence? I think not!
There. That's silly. 50 years of feminist gains are not.
And while I don't doubt Radcliffe is good in the role, surely there was at least one American actor in New York who could have toplined in this quintessentially American role. (Not one word have you written on whether Daniel has successfully concealed his British accent so utterly, utterly wrong for the role.)
But it is nice to have Loesser's great score being perfomed again, even if the sexism now grates rather than amuses.
For Heaven's sake, Netflix the movie and see for yourself. If you haven't seen Robert Morse play this role, you haven't seen this role. You don't even have to wait for the disc. Netflix will stream it right into your computer (I just checked. It will stream). You could be seeing it right now, instead of reading this, and see what was originally intended, since it preserves the Broadway performances of most of the original cast (Sadly, Charles Neslon Reilly does not play Bud Frump in the movie.), and all the Bob Fosse choreography is preserved as well.
Without realizing it, you identified what's still creepy about HAPPY TO KEEP HIS DINNER WARM: "there's no sense they deserve or even want better." That's just it, OF COURSE they WANTED better, OF COURSE they DESERVED better, but not in this show. There is not one female excutive in the show. Most of the women are smarter than the men (But not the boss's sexpot, of course), yet they are content to receive less pay and recognition? No, that was the myth the show never questions. "De slaves, Dey like being slaves. Security! Dem Damn Yankees ruined deir lives by freein' 'em."
Radcliffe may bring off an accent, it's still a quintessentially American role which should be played by an American, at least in America. (I could see Radcliffe playing it in the West End. He wants to play Boradway? Fine. Play a Brit, as he did in EQUUIS) NPH is a good casting idea.
But Watch HOW TO SUCCEED the movie. Robert Morse stamped the role as surely as Brando stamped Stanley Kowalski. No one else can touch him. (and I've seen several others try.) He's in MAD MEN for a reason. (That Robert Morse is also one of my favorite human beings, a truly classy, thoughtful gentleman in every way, helps.)
Another suggestion for his replacement: Zac Efron. (Might be too pretty, but he's certainly a triple-threat.)
He has to figure out what BradPitt did with his career to not get stuck in the Pretty Boy roles...
Which tend to emasculate...lead actors.
He's already made some interesting professional choices. It will be fun to see what's next for him. I know my kids, who are all huge Harry Potter fans, would get a kick out of seeing him on stage. I'm sure there are a lot of similar young fans discovering musical theater in New York this spring and summer.