{"id":24249,"date":"2021-09-20T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T17:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=24249"},"modified":"2021-10-05T09:52:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T16:52:36","slug":"working-a-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/working-a-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"Working: a Musical: a review by Victor Cordell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The cast \u2013 Linda Piccone, Jomar Martinez, Ray D\u2019Ambrosio, Eiko Yamamoto, Izetta Fang Klein, Jason Mooney, Mai Abe in \u201cSomething To Point To.\u201d All photos by Henry Wilen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Few authors or media personalities from the last half of the 20th<\/sup> century are more associated with the common people in America than Studs Terkel.\u00a0 So broad were his credentials that he was inducted both into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame and the African American Writers Hall of Fame, despite being the heterosexual son of Russian Jewish immigrants.\u00a0 Terkel\u2019s hometown beat was a great laboring town, Chicago, the City of Broad Shoulders.\u00a0 From a lifetime of communing in his community and across the country, he produced powerful oral histories based on interviews, particularly \u201cWorking\u201d (1974) and the Pulitzer Prize winning \u201cThe Good War\u201d (1985).<\/p>\n

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Waitress Linda Piccone, customers Mai Abe, Ray D\u2019Ambrosio in \u201cIt\u2019s an Art.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Though the 1978 Broadway run by the musical based on \u201cWorking\u201d was brief, a 2012 revision has enhanced its appeal to regional theater. \u00a0Just imagine some of the changes in the workplace in those 34 years, such as the role of computer-based technology, outsourcing, employee mobility, evolving expectations for performance, and growing gap between haves and have-nots.<\/p>\n

Although the music in \u201cWorking\u201d isn\u2019t memorable, it works.\u00a0 Lyrics are poignant and collectively build a balanced view of working life that hits the mark. With an ensemble cast of seven enthusiastic and convincing performers, Palo Alto Players offers a production that touches on all the right emotions \u2013 expressing and eliciting joy, sadness, pride, anger, and reflection on what our country is all about.<\/p>\n

No plot line drives \u201cWorking,\u201d rather it is episodic – a thematic musical revue with songs from several composers and limited dialog to enhance the vignettes.\u00a0 These are stories of people prosperous and poor that paint a picture of American society through the occupations of its denizens.\u00a0 Working people are honored, especially essential workers.\u00a0 Unmentioned in the musical, but evident to lovers of the arts, is that the performers and creative people behind these artistic endeavors are the essential workers of our national culture.<\/p>\n

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Eiko Yamamoto, Linda Piccone, Izetta Fang Klein, Mai Abe in \u201cCleanin\u2019 Women.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Typically, the first criteria in assessing a person is what work they do, which sadly leads an observer in the song \u201cMillwork\u201d who sees a book in a laborer\u2019s pocket to ask with surprise \u201cOh, do you read?\u201d\u00a0 One motif of work that is emphasized is the need for recognition and pride.\u00a0 This is often depicted as doing something that everyone can\u2019t do or having results to show from your effort.\u00a0 You feel the self-esteem in \u201cThe Mason,\u201d a song in which a stone worker boasts that what he builds will last forever.\u00a0 You understand the skyscraper structural steel worker taking pride and being known for the courage to work in high places and producing tangible results.\u00a0 You know that the firefighter possesses bravery and has tales to tell of saving people from fiery death.<\/p>\n

At the other extreme are those who work in those \u201cjust\u201d jobs like just a laborer.\u00a0 One number that will tug at the heartstrings is \u201cJust a Housewife,\u201d a lament about how boring the work is and about always being defined by relation to others \u2013 someone\u2019s mother, someone\u2019s wife.\u00a0 Worse yet is the denigration in the media that makes housewives feel small.\u00a0 But the script flips for being just a waitress in the funny, bouncy \u201cIt\u2019s an Art.\u201d\u00a0 This hash slinger has an attitude like Flo from \u201cAlice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore.\u201d\u00a0 She views herself as a down-home philosopher and table-top artist who educates diners, considering her diners as spectators.\u00a0 So maybe it\u2019s not such a bad occupation if you have the right skills and approach it in the right manner.<\/p>\n

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Jomar Martinez as a caregiver, Eiko Yamamoto as a nanny in \u201cA Very Good Day.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

There are too many interesting stories to tell them all.\u00a0 But two countervailing themes can be sensed throughout.\u00a0 The sad side of opportunities lost is expressly addressed in the song \u201cIf I Could\u2019ve Been.\u201d\u00a0 But many workers who suffer menial jobs possess dignity and accept fate believing that the payoff from their labor will come in future generations as revealed in \u201cFathers and Sons.\u201d\u00a0 A philosophical coda concerns the notion that workers deserve acknowledgement and that contributions to success come from many, not few.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be fitting if every building publicly listed every person involved in its construction and every person who ever worked in it?<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking\u201d moves quickly and holds the attention from beginning to end.\u00a0 It contains great insights into the conditions of work and the psyches of workers.\u00a0 The production is well directed by Patrick Klein, and the visual elements from varied costumes (R. Dutch Fritz) to industrial set (Scott Ludwig) and dramatic lighting (Abby May) work well.\u00a0 One weakness is the sound system.\u00a0 On opening night, sound clarity suffered considerably in songs with multiple singers.\u00a0 In addition, artists lost sound in their microphones briefly several times.\u00a0 Acting is effective throughout, as the actors understand their roles and interact well with one another.\u00a0 Singing sometimes stands out but other times is a bit wanting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking,\u201d adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso from Studs Terkel\u2019s non-fiction book \u201cWorking\u201d with songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, and James Taylor, is produced by Palo Alto Players and plays at Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, CA through October 3, 2021.<\/p>\n

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Few authors or media personalities from the last half of the 20th century are more associated with the common people in America than Studs Terkel.\u00a0 So broad were his credentials…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-victor-cordell"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"