Grand Forks Theatre: Fun Stage Musical Continues After Theatre-Packed Weekend

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

Last weekend Grand Forks playgoers had no fewer than four live productions to choose from. There was a one-night professional touring production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the final weekend of the Community Theatre’s production of “The Odd Couple,” the only weekend of Red River High School’s staging of “Twelve Angry Jurors,” and the opening weekend of the University of North Dakota’s fall musical, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”

This week the UND Theatre Department will be celebrating its centennial with alumni reunions and various activities that include a Thursday night stage interview with noted character actor and UND alum Sam Anderson (7:30 pm at Chester Fritz Auditorium), plus two more performances of “How to Succeed in Business” on Friday night (7:30 pm) and Saturday afternoon (2:00 pm) on the main stage of the Burtness Theatre on the UND campus. The Sam Anderson appearance is part of UND’s “Great Conversation” series, and is free of charge. The play is $20 for adults and $10 for students with ID.

Although Both the plot and production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” may be firmly set in 1961 when the show first hit Broadway, its deeply satiric commentary on social values and corporate practices holds up with hilarious timelessness. Director Emily Cherry has compared it to the TV series “Mad Men,” but its all-too-real and outrageously funny caricatures may make the comic strip “Dilbert” just as apt a comparison.

The music and lyrics of Frank Loesser (“Guys and Dolls”) provide great opportunities for singing and dancing that make it a fine selection for UND’s new degree program in Musical Theatre. Happily, they found a uniformly enthusiastic cast to pull it all off, with voices that range from good to excellent and an irrepressible energy from all the leads down to the chorus. And to compound the script’s irony, UND’s dean of the business school, Dennis Elbert, was enlisted to read the voice-over passages from the book that gives the show its title.

Tyler Rood is great as window-washer J. Pierrepont Finch, who follows the instructions in a self-help book to rise from a corporate mailroom to one promotion after another on his goal towards ultimately running the company. Along the way we see all the corporate politics, backstabbing, and scheming, as well as workplace attitudes and social mores of the time, few of which have changed.

Often stealing the show is Philip Muehe as Finch’s nemesis Bud Frump, nephew of the boss, who throws himself into the role with abandon. Daniel Walstad makes a fine corporation president, with Erin Barta and Emily Wirkus giving strong support as Finch’s romantic interest and her more cynical girlfriend. Tyler Sheeley personifies the corporate yes-man as head of personnel and BreAnna Fialla revels in her ambitious sexpot who has eyes and more for rising executives.

And while only on stage for the last five or ten minutes of the show, Chris Hunt’s chairman of the board immediately dominates the stage with his magnificent singing voice, powerful stage presence, and flair for no-nonsense comic camaraderie.

Except for the concluding “Brotherhood of Man” number, the songs themselves may not be as memorable as other stage musicals, even Loesser’s own “Guys and Dolls,” but all are catchy and many can connect well with modern audiences, like “Coffee Break” and “A Secretary is Not a Toy.”

Costumes, props, staging, music, and acting all combine to make this one of UND’s best overall musical productions in a long time.
In a very different mode, Red River High School turned from its well-known and loved tradition of elaborate stage musicals and broad, lively comedies to put on the classic and often intense 1950s drama “12 Angry Men,” although modified slightly to become “12 Angry Jurors” with its predominantly female cast. The dramatic script is set entirely in a jury room where a diverse collection of jurors debate the verdict of a seemingly open-and-shut case of a troubled teenager accused of murdering his abusive father. From an eleven-to-one “guilty” vote, the one juror voting “not guilty” gradually tries to convince the rest that the evidence provides a definitely reasonable doubt.

A strong ensemble cast was led by Walter Criswell as the thoughtful, initially dissenting juror number eight, and Charlie Rerick as juror number three, who has deeply personal issues that make him the longest holdout for a guilty verdict. All of the young actors did fine jobs portraying the characters of many different ages and backgrounds, from an impatient businesswoman and a pre-occupied advertising exec to the immigrant store owner to the bigoted bully to the slum-raised woman all-too-familiar with the environment that led to the murder, and others.

Director Rich McFarlane used Red River’s thrust stage to good advantage, providing the unfortunately small audience with a fine production of an American classic of the theatre, and giving the student actors a good opportunity to exercise their dramatic talents.

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If You Go: Last Chance to See

What: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Where: Burtness Theatre, UND
When: Fri, Oct 22, 7:30pm; Sat, Oct 23, 2pm
Info: (701) 777-2587