It was a fairly strong concert, though director Gordon Greenberg's supposed Brechtian take was weak. It consisted essentially of a stage manager reading lighting cues for the first two minutes, after which the Brechtian influence thankfully disappeared.
It wouldn't suprise me if the main impetus behind this benefit concert was to see whether WORKING could be revived as a commerical revival. After all, this took place at the Zipper, where Greenberg's successful revival of JACQUES BREL will close this weekend.
For the most part, I find WORKING to be an intriguing but rather weak and depressing show. It's like a lackluster GODSPELL in a way. Both consist of some pretty great songs, intermixed between, in the case of GODSPELL, improvisational Bible sketches, and in the case of WORKING, depressing monologues about being an American worker in the 1970s.
To be revived, the show needs to be revised considerably not just in terms of text, but also conceptually. Frankly, I'd add new songs and axe the monologues altogether. But please, if Greenberg does a revival, tell him to drop that whole Brechtian gimmick.
Still, for the purposes of this Monday night benefit concert, I had a rather good time. The cast was quite decent, particularly Mary Testa performing "It's an Art" and Jeb Brown performing "Fathers and Sons."
Comments (1)
Brel is still open and the WORKING monologues are taken from real text.