{"id":79128,"date":"2018-06-27T20:04:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-28T00:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=79128"},"modified":"2018-06-27T20:04:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-28T00:04:34","slug":"how-to-succeed-at-muhlenberg-summer-music-theatre-featuring-frankie-grande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=79128","title":{"rendered":"‘How to Succeed…’ at Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, featuring Frankie Grande"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allentown, Pa. (June 25, 2018) \u2014\u00a0Big business means big laughs in \u201cHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,\u201d Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre\u2019s delightful sendup of corporate life playing in Muhlenberg\u2019s Baker Theatre, July 11-29<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018How to Succeed\u2026\u2019 defines musical comedy, and the cast is full of inspired comedians committed to landing the jokes\u201d says director Charles Richter. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be spectacularly funny and ntertaining
\nfor all audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Succeed\u2026\u201d is the story of a young window-washer named J.
\nPierrepont Finch, played by Broadway star, TV personality, and Muhlenberg alum Frankie Grande. With a whole lot of charisma and some dumb luck, Finch rises through the ranks of his company until he accidentally-on-purpose becomes a powerful business executive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cHe succeeds in spite of the fact that he has no experience or qualifications,\u201d Richter says. \u201cThat sort of gives us a retro look at what corporate culture was like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Finch is so amazingly complicated,\u201d Grande says. \u201cThere\u2019s this incredible sense of balance between being naive and being ruthless. He walks this line that\u2019s very fun to play. I\u2019m having a blast discovering who this character is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grande is known for his performances in \u201cRock of Ages\u201d and \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d on Broadway, as well as for his stint on reality TV series \u201cBig Brother\u201d in 2014. He was last seen at Muhlenberg in the 2013 MSMT production of \u201cCrazy for You.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankie is an extraordinary comic with an incredible voice and dance ability,\u201d Richter says. \u201cWe\u2019re having a great time making this play come to life in a dynamic, entertaining, and hysterically funny way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI come back to the college because I love Muhlenberg, and because I believe the theatre program is one of the strongest in the country,\u201d he says. \u201cThis cast is incredible, and being with Charlie and Karen is like home. It\u2019s so nice to be working all together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muhlenberg dance program director and founder Karen Dearborn choreographs the production, which features musical direction by Bryan L. Wade, scenic design by John Raley, costume design by Hunter Kaczorowski, and lighting design by Gertjan Houben.<\/p>\n

Several other Muhlenberg alumni have made the trip back to their alma mater to be a part of the production, including Aran Abilock Clemmons \u201917, Meredith Doyle \u201916, Zach Love \u201916, and Samantha Simon \u201915. Also joining the cast, MSMT mainstay Neil Hever \u201982, a veteran of the first-ever MSMT production \u2014 and many since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cast is a wonderful mix of Muhlenberg students, alums, and celebrated regional actors,\u201d Richter says.<\/p>\n

Doyle, who plays Finch\u2019s love interest and secretary Rosemary Pilkington, will be familiar to SMT audiences as last summer\u2019s Eliza Doolittle in \u201cMy Fair Lady.\u201d Zach Love, last summer\u2019s Colonel Pickering, plays zany villain Bud Frump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t played a villain in a long time, and never at Muhlenberg, so this has been a lot of fun,\u201d Love says. \u201cYou\u2019ll see a lot of familiar faces in this show, but the characters we\u2019re playing couldn\u2019t be more different from ones we\u2019ve played before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHedy LaRue has been one of my dream roles since I was 17,\u201d says Simon, who spends most of the year working at Walt Disney World. \u201cWhen I got the call, I was like, I will do it now. I don\u2019t care what work says. Charlie is the only person I\u2019d come back up North for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels a little bit like summer camp in the best way,\u201d says Abilock Clemmons. \u201cYou get to come back and do what you enjoy with your friends. Muhlenberg is kind of a home for me where I\u2019m welcomed back. It\u2019s a nice community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abilock Clemmons says he hopes audiences will get a kick out of the show\u2019s satire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people leave thinking about the gender construct of it all,\u201d he says. \u201cI hope they\u2019re able to laugh, but also think about how arbitrary these old-fashioned gender roles were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrank Loesser wrote the incredible score,\u201d Richter says. \u201cHis first big success was \u2018Guys and Dolls,\u2019 which celebrated the American dream: three kids, a nice house, a good job.\u00a0\u2018How to Succeed\u2026\u2019 is much more ironic about it. It\u2019s sort of prescient \u2014 it was written at the beginning of the \u201960s, and, by the end of the \u201960s, that whole value system had already\u00a0started to deteriorate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, \u201cHow to Succeed…\u201d is celebrated for its hilarious book (co-written by comedy legend Abe Burrows), clever lyrics, and memorable ensemble numbers \u2014 including second act showstopper \u201cBrotherhood of Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat number is already the best thing I\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Grande says. \u201dIt\u2019s gonna be really big. It\u2019s gonna be fierce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the audience laughs a lot,\u201d Richter says. \u201cI hope they\u2019re ravished by Frank Loesser\u2019s magnificent score, and I hope they will have gotten a great deal of pleasure from this jaundiced view of American life and values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying\u201d plays July 11-29<\/span>. Performances are Wednesday<\/span> through Saturday<\/span> at 8 p.m.<\/span> and Sunday<\/span> at 2 p.m.<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

An accessible performance is scheduled for Sunday, July 15, at 2 p.m.<\/span>, featuring open caption for hearing-impaired patrons, and audio description for visually impaired patrons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tickets for the first four shows are $35 regular admission. Senior tickets are $31, student tickets (ages 19-22) are $20, and youth tickets (18 and under) are $17. For the rest of the run, regular tickets are $41, senior tickets are $37, student tickets are $24, and youth tickets are $21. Groups of 15+ are $25 per person, $16 for students and youth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tickets can be purchased online at muhlenberg.edu\/smt<\/a> or by phone at 484-664-3333. Performances are in Baker Theatre in the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre and Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now in its 38th season, Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre was
\nfounded in 1980 by Charles Richter, Curtis Dretsch, and Jeremy Slavin, with the mission of offering Broadway-quality professional theater productions for the greater Lehigh Valley community, at affordable ticket prices. The annual festival will present its 83rd mainstage production this summer on the campus of Muhlenberg College.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is a highly selective,
\nprivate, four-year residential college located in Allentown, PA., approximately 90 miles west of New York City. With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2,200 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, sciences, business, education and public health. A member of the Centennial Conference, Muhlenberg competes in 22 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg\u2019s theater program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theater and dance. <\/em><\/p>\n

Information Provided By:
\nScott Snyder
\nMarketing & Development Manager
\nMuhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"… Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,1024,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-calendar-events","category-entertainment","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/SUSUCCEED.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}