Monday, October 7, 2013

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: The Musical Experience

Hey Everyone!  For today’s post, I’d like to welcome a very special guest blogger, Megan.  Megan is my oldest friend (we literally new each other in diapers), and is currently a student at SCAD.  A few years back, right after my study abroad experience, we took a train into New York City and saw Daniel Radcliffe star in the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” 

Seeing the performance was an incredible experience for me.  As soon as I had heard the announcement on mugglenet.com that Radcliffe was going to be starring in a musical, I knew that I just had to see it.  And lucky for me, I had someone willing to go with me. 

If you were to ask me what my favorite song was in the entire performance was I would most definitely say “Brotherhood of Man.”  I just love the lyrics and I loved the dancing and energy that goes into each performance of it.  But, I do have other favorites in the show including, “Coffee Break,” “A Secretary is Not a Toy,” “Been a Long Day,” and “I Believe in You.”  I even had a painted sign that I made with a quote from, “I Believe in You,” hanging in my apartment in college.

Sadly, we didn’t get to meet Daniel Radcliffe, but we did get John Larroquette to sign our playbills and a few of the other dancers’ signatures as well.  Was I disappointed at the time given my slight Radcliffe obsession? Yes.  But I realized I was incredibly lucky to have even been able to go, and quickly got over it.

If you haven’t seen any of the performances from the cast then you’re definitely missing out.  I’ll link one of them below so that you can experience some of the magic.  Also, be sure to check out the Broadway Soundtrack for the musical (linked below).  It’s amazing!





And now, for your reading pleasure, here are our special guest’s thoughts for the day:

I’m not sure which of us discovered that Daniel Radcliffe was starring in a musical but we decided pretty much right away that we would figure out a way to get off work, get together and travel to go see the musical in New York City over the summer. 

Now I already had a little background into the show because I was a dancer in my middle school production of the show and had seen the movie before; Allison decided to go based on my opinion and of course he fact that Daniel Radcliffe was in it.  I’m not sure if any of you have seen it but if you have let’s face it, it’s hysterical; it is witty in both dialogue and lyrics.  When I was twelve I didn’t get every single reference or joke that was made but I caught onto enough of them that I enjoyed the entire experience.  It was incredibly different, both in seeing the play in its entirety and now being eighteen and catching all the jokes, seeing How to Succeed for the second time.  A Secretary is not a Toy in particular made a lot more sense- I knew when I was performing that there were things going over my head but I didn’t realize how much was CUT OUT until then.

Leading up to the play I was anxious to see how Daniel Radcliffe would do at a musical.  The other cast members like John Larroquette and Tammy Blanchard I was really excited to see live and perform but he wasn’t someone who had done anything like this before; plus I had seen a subpar version of Brotherhood of man as part of the promotion for the musical closer to the date we were going.   As it turned out I had nothing to worry about.  Radcliffe threw himself into the role of J. Pierrepont Finch completely.  His energy level had gone way up from the one performance I had seen his dancing, while certainty not the best on the stage, was raw and seemed larger than his small frame.  His singing had also improved quite a bit.  Unfortunately the CD, which I of course bought, was recorded months earlier to be ready for the opening of the show and his singing was nowhere near as good as when we got to actually see the play, so that part is a little disappointing but I listen to the CD all the time anyways…. like right now, or when I’m bored, or no other music is appealing to me, or really whenever. 

These songs are also extraordinarily easy to quote in everyday life- even if no one else gets it.  For example if I’m in a critique and someone has a huge ego and is being pretentious what pops into my head?

Big deal, big rocket,
Thinks he has the world
In his pocket.”

And how many times do my family and I sing this?

“Well, it's been a long,
Been a long, been a long,
Been a long day.”

Answer: All the time- pretty much every day.  The list goes on and on.




“Brotherhood of Man” performance on David Letterman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT33P-vzug8



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