TCSDP brings ‘How to Succeed’ to the stage

THOMASVILLE- Thomasville City Schools Drama Program brings a prize-winning Broadway musical to Thomasville this weekend, as How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying hits the stage with an enthusiastic cast of nearly 40 student actors, singers, and dancers.

Curtain time is 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday nights at the historic MacIntyre Park Auditorium located on Glenwood Drive. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, and can be purchased at the door or in advance through the Thomasville Scholars Academy office.

Combining music, laughter and a dash of satire, the musical follows the journey of J. Pierrepont Finch, portrayed by Hogan Watson, who quickly climbs from lowly window washer to executive at the World Wide Wicket Company, using tips gleaned from the book How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Other lead players in the TCSDP production are Julia Sharp as Rosemary Pilkington; Kelon Vaughn as J.B. Biggley; Colin Connery as Bud Frump; and Laramie Stokes as Hedy LaRue. Rounding out the featured cast are Desmond Diggs as Gatch; Evan Ariail as Bratt; Janice Dong as Smitty; SarahRose Miller as Miss Jones; Zion Walden as Mr. Twimble; Athalia Knight as Miss Krumholtz; Brady Nichols as Ovington; and Marc Cramer as Wolly Womper.

A large, talented chorus provides a vital foundation for the action, and among the cast are six seniors taking their final bows, including Watson, Vaughn, Ariail, Dong, Connery and Senmiyon Mincey.

With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, the popular How to Succeed originally opened on Broadway in 1961 and captured seven Tony Awards, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Successful Broadway revivals were launched in 1995, starring Matthew Broderick as Fitch, and 2011, starring Daniel Radcliffe.

TCSDP’s spring production is directed by Casey Dyksterhouse, with choreography by Allison Bundrick and Sydney Ellen Rawlings and music by Alison Grimes.