Musical Preview: Working

This year in Bethany theatre, the shows have revolved around real people. In the fall, we put on The Star on My Heart, which was about award winning chemist and holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher. The spring musical is called Working, and it is based off of Studs Turkel’s book, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

We are doing the 2012 revision of this show, since the book was written in the 70’s and some of the jobs in the original show don’t exist anymore.

The musical is a compilation of monologues and songs about various jobs, including a waitress, a publicist, and a stay home mother. It is put together to show the struggles that each of these people face, as well as pride that they have doing what they do. Each character in the musical was a real person telling their story to contribute to the book, hoping to highlight America’s workers. The show is less like a musical and more like an anthology or collection of vignettes, because it doesn’t have a distinct plot.. The entire show takes place over the course of a work day, and shows the characters talking or singing about their jobs. Although the stories are distinct,themes of pride and hard work radiate throughout this show.

This show was composed by Stephen Schwartz, who has composed other musicals such as Wicked and Godspell. The 2012 revision has a few pieces written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who has written and composed musicals such as In the Heights and Hamilton (Yes Hamilton is great but he has written other things). It has big names behind it, and is full of catchy songs and touching moments.

This is a musical you certainly do not want to miss. Show dates are March 1st-4th. Keep watch for show times and ticket information on Bethany’s website The cast and crew list is as follows.

Cast