Entertainment

Terkel-inspired musical a show for all times

Posted March 02, 2011 10:00 pm

Barbara Vitello

Michael Mahler, left, E. Faye Butler, Juan Gabriel Ruiz, Emjoy Gavino, Gene Weygandt and Barbara Robertson star in the revised version of “Working.”

You are not what you do.

Average American Joes and Janes make that abundantly clear as they share their life stories in the revised, reinvigorated, still-resonant production of “Working,” which opened Wednesday at Chicago's Broadway Playhouse.

Their words were first recounted 37 years ago in interviews Studs Terkel conducted for his 1974 book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.” Those conversations reveal people whose job titles don't come close to reflecting the complexity of their lives, and they are vividly rendered in affecting, intimate detail in Gordon Greenberg's beautifully directed production, which boasts a marvelous cast of hardworking Chicago area veterans.

Adapted for the stage by composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked,” “Godspell”) and director Nina Faso, Terkel's paean to working men and women opened at the Goodman Theatre in late 1977 and went on to a brief, undistinguished run on Broadway the following year. Revised in 1999 and again in 2008 (with the addition of Terkel-approved interviews), the 2011 incarnation is a nimbly refashioned show. It unfolds, like its predecessors, as a series of discreetly linked scenes featuring some of the original pop-infused songs by Schwartz, James Taylor, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, along with a pair of noteworthy additions by “In The Heights” composer/lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda.

It all feels contemporary and organic — with the 21st century references and Miranda's fresh-sounding tunes slotting in seamlessly with the originals, which remain as meaningful today as they did 30-plus years ago during another economic downturn. “Working” works because the needs and desires it examines are timeless. Every generation has a need to contribute and be recognized for that contribution. Every generation desires respect. Parents from every generation work to improve the lives of their children, just like their parents did before them.

In fact that sentiment recurs throughout the show. A feisty cleaning lady (E. Faye Butler in a showstopping role she was born to play) scrubs floors so her daughter won't have to. A steelworker (the great Gene Weygandt in a touching “Cats in the Cradle” moment) recognizes he may not be able to improve his own lot, but he can improve his son's.

But don't imagine for a moment that “Working” is some kind of syrupy celebration of the working class. There's nothing saccharine about this show. The characters are resolute, resigned but never self-pitying. And they are portrayed with absolute honesty by Greenberg's stellar cast playing multiple roles.

There's showstopper Barbara Robertson's dynamo of a waitress — a service provider who's never servile, and the enthusiastic delivery boy (winningly played by the versatile Gabriel Ruiz, a young actor to watch), thrilled to work for a fast-food joint. The disarming Michael Mahler plays the twangy truck driver who'd rather be on the road than almost anywhere else. Butler is a wistful housewife who seems to yearn for more; Ruiz is the aging stonemason, secure in the knowledge that what he builds will endure, and Mahler is the firefighter, who takes comfort in the knowledge that his efforts ensure that life goes on.

Immigrant caregivers (Ruiz and Emjoy Gavino) provide comfort to the very young and the very old, while retiree Joe (the pitch-perfect Weygandt) occupies himself with small tasks and memories, wishing he were working still. Lastly there's the millworker (a haunting, achingly real performance by Emjoy Gavino in the show's most elegiac number), who supports three kids doing dangerous, backbreaking work because “when it's all you know how to do, it's what you do.”

The action unfolds on Beowulf Boritt's two-story set consisting of the actors' dressing rooms transformed by scrims and evocative projections into cookie-cutter office cubicles, a stately townhouse and a bustling eatery.

Terkel passed away in 2008, but his presence is palpable, particularly at the beginning when a chorus of voices echoes from the ancient reel-to-reel tape recorders.

Listen closely. It's America singing.