How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a satirical musical comedy that won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for drama for Frank Loesser (music and lyrics) and Abe Burrows (book). Burrows also directed. Bob Fosse and Hugh Lambert did the choreography—that is, created the dances. The musical opened on Broadway on Oct. 14, 1961, and became one of the biggest hits of the 1960’s, running for 1,417 performances.
How to Succeed is a comedy about big business in the United States. The musical was based on a satirical book of the same title by American author Shepherd Mead that was published in 1952. The show traces the rise of young and ambitious J. Pierrepont Finch from window washer to chairman of the board of the World Wide Wicket Company. The show satirizes office politics and intrigues, which it sees as essential elements of life in American corporations.
The musical is also a love story, portraying the romance between Finch and Rosemary, an office secretary. Other main characters include J. B. Biggley, the corporate president, and Bud Frump, the president’s nephew and Finch’s chief rival. Loesser’s score produced the popular songs “Brotherhood of Man” and “I Believe in You.” The stars of the original production were Robert Morse as Finch, Rudy Vallee as Biggley, Bonnie Scott as Rosemary, and Charles Nelson Reilly as Bud Frump. Morse and Vallee repeated their roles in the motion-picture version in 1967.
See also Loesser, Frank; Fosse, Bob.
