About the work
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a satirical musical comedy with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and a book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's best-selling tongue-in-cheek guide of the same name. Its 1961 Broadway premiere won the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama – a rare honour for a musical. Sharp and elegant, the show skewers the ambitions and hierarchies of corporate America.
Plot
The young window cleaner J. Pierrepont Finch discovers a how-to guide for getting ahead and resolves to follow its tips to the letter. With charm, audacity and perfect timing, he rockets up the World Wide Wicket Company from the mailroom to the executive suite. Along the way he outmanoeuvres rivals such as the nepotistic Bud Frump, manages the company boss J. B. Biggley, and wins the affection of the secretary Rosemary. With plenty of luck, slick self-presentation and very little actual work, Finch climbs rung after rung – until a botched advertising scheme nearly brings him down.
Cultural significance
The show is one of the sharpest yet most charming satires of bureaucracy, careerism and the American success myth. Songs such as the self-adoring "I Believe in You", which Finch sings to his own reflection, and the anthem "Brotherhood of Man" are classics of musical theatre. As one of very few musicals ever to do so, it received the Pulitzer Prize. The acclaimed 2011 Broadway revival starring Daniel Radcliffe proved the enduring relevance of its mockery of the business world.