‘A winking look at the 1960s corporate world’

“Everybody knows a Frump,” Dane Bower said Thursday evening, construction tools in hand as he helped set designer Mike Wawrzynek transform the stage at Music Box Playhouse in Swoyersville into what Wawrzynek called “a quintessential corporate corridor.”

Now, by “Frump,” Bower didn’t necessarily mean someone with a sloppy appearance.

In the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Bud Frump is the no-talent, scheming employee who got his job through nepotism and who greatly resents the show’s protagonist, J. Pierrepont Finch.

“Actually, Frump and Finch are two sides of the same coin,” said Bower, who is directing the show, which opens Sept 13. “Frump is kind of the comic relief and the butt of a lot of jokes. If Frump is too likeable the audience might start to root for him instead of Finch.”

Oh, no doubt people will root for Finch, whose meteoric rise from window washer to high-level cororate position comes partly through luck and partly through his own cleverness. And charm.

“He’s young, bright-eyed and eager,” said Ben Steltz of Wilkes-Barre, who plays Finch. “He’s a quick thinker and fast talker, very good at living in the moment and saying what people want to hear.”

So after Finch finds out the boss attended Old Ivy, for example, it won’t be long before he joins him in singing the school’s fight song.

“He’s manipulative, but it’s not a bad manipulative. He does it in a charming way, and he almost stumbles into some of his success,” said Ericka Palladino of Exeter, who portrays Rosemary, the secretary who sets her cap for Finch.

“She just thinks he’s adorable,” Palladino said, explaining Rosemary’s attraction to Finch.

The show is “stylized for the time period” of the early 1960s, the actor said, explaining it was a time when Rosemary’s ambition was to marry an executive rather than to be come an executive herself. “I think it’s cool that things have changed,” she said.

“We are leaning into the satire,” pointed out Mike Wawrzynek, who plays Bratt, the company “yes man.”

“We didn’t make any kind of change (from the original script). It’s a little time capsule and we’re taking a winking look at the 1960s corporate world,” said Bower, the director. “It’s a skewering, lampooning look. The men are caricatures, over the top, and the ladies are the ones who really are in control.”

One of the ladies in this corporate world is Smitty, Rosemary’s closest friend at work, who knows all about Rosemary’s infatuation with Finch.

“Rosemary confides in her and she guides her through her traumatic struggles and brings her back to reality,” said Alicia Alaimo of Scranton, who plays Smitty.

Another lady is Hedy LaRue, played by Eyanna Wawrzynek.

“She’s very Marilyn-esque,” Wawrzynek said, comparing the character’s appeal to that of Marilyn Monroe. “She’s a bombshell, in the coolest, hottest way. She can manipulate all the men in the office to get what she wants.”

Eyanna Wawrzynek is also the costumer of the show, in charge of a colorful array of pink and yellow and orange dresses along with at least one pair of cats-eye glasses. “I want to make it look like Technicolor,” she said.

One outfit she didn’t have to supply is the suit worn by the boss, J.B Biggley. Jimmy Williams of Dunmor, who plays “old Money Bags,” had one suit at home that he needed for a previous job. Nowadays, he said, his day job lends itself to casual clothes and he’s glad. “I am definitely not a suit and tie kind of guy,” he said with a laugh.

Incidentally, in real life Williams and Steltz both work for HCL, a logistics company in Pittston, and Steltz is Williams’ supervisor. In the play, the positions are reversed with Williams playing the boss and Steltz playing Finch, the erstwhile window washer.

By the way, Williams pointed out in character as J.B. Biggley, “Frump isn’t my nephew. He’s my wife’s nephew.”

As for Hedy LaRue, “She’s my love interest. Don’t tell my wife.”

Cast members predicted audiences will enjoy the humor of the show. “There’s a lot of classic, musical theater slapstick silliness,” said Elisabeth Spencer of Wilkes-Barre, who plays another secretary, Miss Krumholtz.

The songs are fun, too, several cast members said. And you might notice, Jimmy Kraus of Wilkes-Barre said, that when Frump is the primary singer, the number is likely to be a reprise. “I kind of love that most of Frump’s songs are reprises,” said Kraus, who plays that part. “It shows he never has an original thought.”

“How to Succeed” will be presented Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons Sept. 13 through Sept. 29 at the Music Box Playhouse, 196 Hughes St., Swoyersville. For reservations, call 570-283-2195.