What would the Village People make of Stephen Schwartz's WORKING? The genre-breaking 1978 Broadway musical - based on interviews with a cross-section of the American workforce and featuring songs from Grammy winner James Taylor and, more recently added, Lin-Manuel Miranda - - gets its European premiere at Southwark Playhouse next June...
The European premiere of WORKING will open at Southwark Playhouse on 7 June 2017, with previews from 2 June, for a strictly limited season ending 8 July 2017.
WORKING is the extraordinary genre-defining musical from Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell) based on Studs Terkel’s best-selling book of interviews with the American workforce: Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.
This highly original and universal portrait of the American workday is told from the perspective of those that the world so often overlooks – the schoolteacher, the housewife, the fireman and the waitress amongst many – whose daily grind and aspirations reflect the truths of the people that make up a nation.
WORKING employs a range of musical styles and genres from contributing composers, including five-time Grammy Award-winner James Taylor and Pulitzer Prize-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, In The Heights). There are also songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers & Susan Birkenhead and Stephen Schwartz himself. Terkel’s book is adapted by Schwartz and his Godspell and Rags collaborator Nina Faso, with additional contributions by Gordon Greenberg.
WORKING first opened on Broadway in 1978, under the direction of Stephen Schwartz, with a cast including Patti LuPone, Bob Gunton, Joe Mantegna, David Patrick Kelly and Rex Everhart. The show has since undergone several revisions, with additional songs by Lin Manuel Miranda being introduced in 2009. WORKING was last performed off-Broadway in December 2012, under the direction of Gordon Greenberg (Holiday Inn, Guys and Dolls, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris).
The new London production of WORKING is directed by Luke J Sheppard (who directed Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, first seen at Southwark) and choreographed by Fabian Aloise. Casting is to be announced.
WORKING is being produced by up-and-coming theatre producers Jack Maple, Ramin Sabi & D.E.M. Productions. Stephen Schwartz said of his new producers:
“I am delighted that such a talented and distinguished theatre company will be presenting WORKING in London. I look forward to collaborating with them to ensure that the show is both entertaining and relevant to the contemporary British audience.”
