The '70s Broadway musical Working is different to almost all other Broadway shows - it's a collaboration show, with music by different theatre composers, with almost no story.

In the early ‘70s, Stephen Schwartz had three straight smashes with the rock-infused Godspell, Pippin and The Magic Show. He then stretched his artistic frontiers with the tender The Baker’s Wife, set in France. What next? Schwartz read Studs Terkel’s Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do. Not only that, Terkel used everyone’s real name to make it a genuine documentary. Schwartz saw musical possibilities. But instead of solely providing the score, he shared those duties with one old pro (Mary Rodgers of Once upon a Mattress), one new pro (Micki Grant of Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope), and two up-and-coming writers - Craig Carnelia and Susan Birkenhead, both of whom, in a healthier musical-theatre climate, would have been household names by now.

The result - Working. Working was very much a review, and the problem with a review is that as you get to find something out about a character through a song, the show moves on, and you see nothing else about them. There's no story, no real character building.

And this is where this recording fails. The songs are nice to listen to, but that's where it ends. It's a halfway house between a pop album and a cast recording. You never feel it's a good fit in either camp.

That's not to say there isn't some worthwhile recordings on here. 'It's an Art', by Schwartz, and sung by Lenora Nemetz was a highlight for me, as was 'The Mason', sung by David Patrick Kelly. Stalwart Patti LuPone also features on the album, but in very a very minor role.

All in all, it's an important part of the Broadway 1970's recording library, but one that for me doesn't really hold much interest.

5

Ian Gude