‘Working Woman’ evaluate: Jojo Levesque could be the solely motive to see it

What do working ladies need? In line with the brand new musical “Working Woman,” based mostly on Mike Nichols’ 1988 movie, they largely need to sing spinoff ’80 pop songs and humor themselves with broad comedian shtick.

The query that vexed me as I left La Jolla Playhouse, the place “Working Woman” is receiving its world premiere, is why should musicals so usually cheapen their supply materials? The manufacturing, directed by La Jolla Playhouse outgoing creative director Christopher Ashley, makes musical comedy appear to be the crudest of artwork kinds.

I had excessive expectations for this present. The creators, Cyndi Lauper (music and lyrics) and Theresa Rebeck (e book), appeared ideally fitted to the job of turning this cinematic fairy story a couple of Staten Island secretary named Tess who fights for her place within the clubby world of company finance into a fascinating musical. However commercialism has received out over artwork, which is to say obviousness has run roughshod over subtlety.

I liked Nichols’ movie, written by Kevin Wade, when it first got here out. However I used to be reluctant to problem my first impression. I didn’t need to discover out that what I assumed was a terrific comedy was truly the product of a specific New York zeitgeist and an period of Hollywood moviemaking that’s lengthy gone. I hadn’t seen the film in 37 years once I watched it once more earlier than touring to La Jolla, and I used to be glad to find that the film has retained its freshness.

Nichols elicits magnificent performances from his leads, Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. I don’t know if I’ve ever preferred any of them as a lot as I do right here. A younger, trim Alec Baldwin, channeling John Travolta in “Saturday Night time Fever” and the Brando-Dean instance that paved the best way, performs a male-chauvinist heel with charming, hedonistic dedication.

There are missteps. Kevin Spacey chews the surroundings as a finance bro seeking to exploit Tess’ want to get forward. Joan Cusack is marvelous regardless of the rainbow eyeshadow and fireplace hose of hairspray that flip her character right into a cartoon.

Minor components are given sneaky dimension. There’s divine Olympia Dukakis as a personnel director who turns into Tess’ sly ally and Amy Aquino, who seems on the finish of the movie, lending grit to an assistant on an analogous upward trajectory. Nichols’ genius lies within the individualized textures he savors in characters who’re concurrently varieties and one-of-a-kind creations.

That contact of quirky singularity is all however lacking in Ashley’s generic manufacturing. Each the writing and the course deal with the characters like strolling gags. Nichols acknowledged that comedy is funnier when there are human contradictions and conflicts. Weaver’s Katharine, the villain of the piece who steals Tess’ ingenious enterprise thought, is as over-the-top as she is psychologically and morally cagey. She poses as a mentor to Tess, however she’s not about to let some lowly secretary preserve her from popping out on prime in a person’s world. Weaver masterly balances either side of the equation.

Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, who performs Tess, and Lesley Rodriguez Kritzer, who performs Katharine, are the standouts in Ashley’s solid. Levesque, who had a No. 1 music on Billboard’s High 40 Chart and has among the identical lonely striving as Griffith‘s unforgettable Tess, is the primary motive to see this manufacturing. Lauper’s lyrics permit Tess to get in contact with the sentiments behind her dream, her willpower to not be outlined by the place she’s from or how males hungrily have a look at her.

Sadly, her character not solely has to take care of a devious boss, a shameless patriarchy and the snobbery of the ruling class but in addition a musical that speeds via a busy plot with clownish strokes. Kritzer is disappointingly given comedian scraps that make her character’s reappearances at all times appear to be an after-thought.

The rating can be a assortment of unmemorable however weirdly familiar-sounding songs. Lauper received a Tony for her work on “Kinky Boots,” which has higher particular person numbers however equally lacks a compositional via line. Right here, the music doesn’t a lot inform the story as coloration within the ambiance with the identical heavy-handedness because the garish make-up and poufy hairdos of Tess’ fellow S.I. commuters on this — pardon the pun — ferry story.

Many of the songs for Tess appear as if Lauper wrote them for herself. At any second, Levesque appears liable to interrupt out into “Ladies Simply Need to Have Enjoyable.” Her vocal elaborations uncannily evoke Lauper’s. She would make the character her personal if solely the fabric would give her half an opportunity.

There are echoes of Run-D.M.C. and a few area rock thrives within the rating. Mick (Joey Taranto), Tess’ boyfriend, a galumphing wedding ceremony singer who seems to be as if he’s sporting a Van Halen Halloween costume, is saddled with embarrassing rock numbers that made me surprise if AI is likely to be able to extra originality.

Joanna “JoJo” Levesque and Anoop Desai within the musical “Working Woman.”

(Wealthy Soublet II)

Jack, the funding dealer who groups up with Tess in additional methods than one, is performed by Anoop Desai in a dashing however theatrically underemployed efficiency. At any time when he’s given a music, it’s a reduction that he’s not being missed but in addition a reminder that his character isn’t nicely built-in into Rebeck’s compressed and hasty e book.

The tweaks Rebeck makes to the plot don’t strike me as notably useful to the storytelling. Within the film, Tess gently fends off Mick’s proposal after she has walked in on him making love to a different lady. Within the musical, the dishonest scene entails a pal and occurs after she has matter-of-factly turned him down in public. As a substitute of tinkering across the edges, Rebeck ought to have spent extra time reimagining the present’s fundamental construction.

Joanna “JoJo” Levesque, left, and Ashley Blanchet within the musical “Working Woman.”

(Wealthy Soublet II)

Ashley Blanchet‘s Cyn, Tess’ greatest buddy (performed by Cusack within the movie), stands out from the secretarial pack. However this pivotal friendship is subordinated to the group dynamic. Tess strikes with a troop of kooky outer-borough ladies, leaving the musical with valuable few intimate moments of considerate stillness. Sarah O’Gleby’s hustling choreography compounds the sense of frenzy.

A picture of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is integral to the scenography of the collective AMP that includes Erica Jiaying Zhang. New York is projected all through the present, however the GPS coordinates are extra exactly these of an American musical that has misplaced its manner attempting to attraction to the bottom widespread denominator.