Theater: The Key to Success

Ladies and gentlemen, the World Wide Wicket Company is back in business. And J. Pierrepont Finch is once again trying to reach the top of its corporate ladder without breaking a sweat.

Lazy boys like Ponty Finch wouldnt expect to find much support in hard-driving, ambition-fueled Seattle until Seattleites come to realize everything Finch knows about getting to the top he read in a self-help book. Seattle loves self-improvement as much as it loves standing in line for coffee, so How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying should be the hazelnut syrup in our civic latte.

Gracing the 5th Avenue Theatre stage for the first time, How to Succeed revisits the same period and social conventions that made TVs Mad Men the go-to topic of water-cooler chat for several years. Its a time of male privilege, buxom secretaries and unabashed sexism and if it wasnt a satire of corporate America, it would be as dated as surplus cheese.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical comedy debuted on Broadway in 1961, featuring songs by Frank Loesser and a book by Abe Burrows. A smash hit, it ran for three and a half years 1,417 performances and has been reprised on Broadway twice, in 1995 and again in 2011.

The 5th Avenue Theatre production features Seattle audience favorite Eric Ankrim as Finch, the opportunistic slacker eager to get ahead while expending as little effort as possible.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
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The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., Seattle;
206.625.1900; 5thavenue.org