Wilton's

It’s more than 50 years since the last major London production of Frank Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, his second greatest achievement after Guys and Dolls.  Now, the creative team behind The Toxic Avenger at Southwark Playhouse and Shock Treatment at the King’s Head are in rehearsal, bringing this Broadway classic to Wilton’s in a stylish revival that is bursting with life, energy and very contemporary, cynical humour.

Director, Benji Sperring, is relishing the opportunity to apply his signature style to such an iconic work from the era of big-band musicals. He admits “It is quite a tricky piece, being very much of its time, particularly in its portrayal of the gender stereotypes and office politics of the 1950s – very un-PC by today’s standards”.  Which is what made this musical such a tempting prospect for a man who believes the greatest source of learning for theatre today is the past and who founded Tarquin Productions in order to put a new spin on works that have rather been consigned to history. It is precisely those potentially dating elements that Benji gleefully picks up and runs off with in his own musical-comedy-with-added-anarchy sort of a way.  For him, this musical is all about the weird wackiness of the often unpleasant yet strangely likeable characters and his vision is very much one of cartoon and caricature. Which is not to say that there is no serious or relevant message for 2017 audiences. “With characters using nepotism and sociopathic tendencies to get to the top, there are definitely parallels with what is going on in the US right now. At the end of the day, we see how capitalism continues to screw all of us over and I believe that British arts and theatre have a duty to comment on that. If you can do it with great characters, great tunes and a tap routine, all the better.”


Marc Pickering takes the lead as J Pierrepont Finch

Which is exactly what Benji does, aided by a cast and creative team laden with awards, nominations and accolades too numerous to mention, several of whom have worked magic together under his direction before - anyone who saw Toxic Avenger will be happy to find Marc Pickering, Hannah Grover and Lizzii Hills reunited on stage with Ben Ferguson this time in the Musical Director’s chair. Suffice to say, there will be a roof-raising nine-piece band on stage to accompany such musical theatre royalty as Andrew C Wadsworth and razor-sharp dance routines choreographed by the inspirational Lucie Pankhurst. Meanwhile, we’re all oohing and aahing over glimpses of Mike Lees’ costume and set designs with colour-coded characters and a fun skewing of gender identity that we won’t spoil for you by revealing here.  Mike has created a heightened, stylised setting, unlike anything seen on Wilton’s stage before and which delights in the disconnect between the fast-talking, chain-smoking world of Mad Men chic and our charmingly distressed Victorian music hall.



 So. Can our hero triumph in the boardroom without becoming an unscrupulous monster? Can he live happily ever after with the girl of his dreams, even though she is, quite frankly, completely off her onion? Can the company glamour-puss keep her big secret and save her (and the Chairman's) reputation? Can anyone truly succeed in business without really trying? Find out between 8th and 22nd April. And don't forget to invite us to your next Big Launch.