By Annette Hinkle
It may not be the case elsewhere, but in the United States, for better or worse, what people do for a living is typically how they define themselves in the world.
Jobs are considered more than just a way to pay bills and put food on the table. Careers define character and depending on where a worker is situated along the social continuum, can build confidence, or just as easily destroy it. A garbage man, a cab driver, a soldier, a mailman, a CEO — all offer strong statements about an individual’s station in life. Often, an occupation is how an individual is remembered, and even more often, how they’re forgotten.
The notion of jobs and the people who do them is the focus of “Working: A Musical” now being offered by Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center. This production is directed and choreographed by Michael Disher and is based on the 1974 book by Studs Terkel in which he interviewed workers of all income and class levels to tell the story of the jobs they do day in and day out, year after year. The book was adapted for the stage by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso and the music, which was recently updated, includes songs by a number of composers, including Schwartz himself as well as James Taylor.
As a piece, “Working” isn’t the deepest musical ever to hit Broadway, but the script, which is based closely on Terkel’s interviews, offers moments of tender insight and eye-opening ambition on the work week of Americans across the spectrum. With a strong cast of 17 local actors and four talented musicians (Karen Hochstedler, Claude Soffel, Mathew Mazanek and Matthew Fitzgerald), the Center Stage production offers a worthwhile diversion coming as it does at the height of the silly season on the East End — this veritable playground of the upper echelon. Many of the people we meet over the course of the evening are the very types who toil to keep the rich and famous housed, clothed and well-fed.
Here is Mike Dillard (Seth Hendricks) the ironworker who intentionally puts a ding in a piece of metal in an attempt to leave his minor mark on the world. He notes that the man in the fancy car who parks in the underground garage he helped build may not think about him. But sometimes Dillard says he thinks about that man. Then there is Grace Clement (Vay David) who toils in a luggage factory doing the same 40 second move on the line day in and day out. Her song “Millwork” (one of the James Taylor numbers) is a poignant reminder of the unseen and unsung heroes of the production line — and is a testament to the years these workers spend in repetitive back breaking work.
The plot structure of “Working” can best be described as a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive story line, and the production is loaded with musical numbers as it moves from one worker to another and their respective monologues and songs. For example, after 40 years on the job, third grade teacher Rose Hoffman (Mary Ellen Roche) laments the changes in her profession, including the demise of corporal punishment. She fondly remembers one student, Babe Secolli (Kasia Klimiuk), now a cashier at the local supermarket. We soon meet Babe who reveals with pride the speed with which she does her job. She’s much quicker than the part time clerks – including Juanita Nunez (Anita Boyer), the daughter of migrant workers who offers “Un Mejor Dia Vendra,” a song about her parents’ anonymity in the fields. Then there’s the most unsung and poorly paid worker of them all — the stay at home wife and mother represented by Kate Rushton (Paula Brannon) who sings “Just a housewife.”
Giving people an opportunity to offer insight into their working lives is an interesting premise for a play, and it illustrates just how deeply Americans are tied to what they do. It’s not just pride or contempt — also revealed here are the coping mechanisms many employ to survive their jobs. The waitress, Delores Dante (Bethany Dellapolla), sees the diner as her personal stage while Joe Zutty (Richard Koerner) the retired widower fills his lonely and idle time as best he can.
But ultimately, this play is at its best when it focuses not on what these people do, but what they hope for in the next generation. The most revealing moments come when workers pledge to break the cycle. Maggie Holmes (Pamela Morris) the Irish immigrant vows in “Cleanin’ Women” that her own daughter will not be the next in a long line of faceless female floor scrubbers. In Stephen Schwartz’s number “Fathers and Sons” the men of the company sing of being heroes to their young sons — until the day the boys grow up and see their dads for what they are — or rather, are not. The heartbreak of not being all their children once thought they were is very moving. But for these men, the drive to do what must be done in this moment for the betterment of those to follow trumps all. It’s a patriarchal act of self-sacrifice that has defined the term “working in America” for as long as there’s been an America. And it’s also as primal an impulse as humans can have. In the end, “Working: The Musical” is the very embodiment of that ideal.
“Working: The Musical” also features actors Claude Soffel, Paul Alexander, Michael Contino, Holly Goldstein, Tina Marie Realmuto, Amy Rowland, Ken Rowland and Robert Smith. Shows are Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. through July 31 at the Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane, Southampton. Tickets are $25/$35, (students $12/seniors $20. Call 287-4377 to reserve.
Top: Vay David as Grace Clements singing "Millwork." Tom Kochie photo.
