How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at Southwark Playhouse. Photography by Pamela RaithWhilst director Georgie Rankcom’s update may not boast Matthew Broderick in the lead role of ambitious wannabe executive J. Pierrepoint Finch, their latest and bravest gender-bust reworking succeeds where Anyone Can Whistle (at the same venue last year) only partially convinced. The heavily stereotyped suit-wearing lotharios and curvaceous bimbos of the 1960s office secretarial pool respond well to their respective gender ambiguities and everyone has an absolute ball — both on stage and in the audience — as they witness Finch’s meteoric rise up the corporate ladder through departments and a succession of job titles.
Here Gabrielle Friedman assumes the lead role, with solid support from Elliot Gooch as the indulged and weasley Bud Frump and Tracie Bennett as top dog J B Biggley. Perhaps the biggest and most obvious crowd-pleasing role is Allie Daniel’s hopelessly-romantic secretary Rosemary Pilkington who steals every scene with understated campery, coquettish playfulness and comedy octave drops.
Despite the venue’s propensity for over amplification, issues with follows-spots and a lack of ventilation, the production gushes enthusiasm and charm resulting in a wholly enjoyable and thoroughly captivating spectacle which will certainly delight theatregoers. If only the venue’s once quaint (now tired) infrastructure, could be revitalised so that audiences (and performers) don’t have to bake through the show. There must be an investor out there somewhere, eager to be associated with and contribute to the continued success of this venue, which works so tirelessly to produce a constant stream of reimagined and thoughtfully devised work.
