Welcome to a new Musical Theatre Monday! This month, alongside my Sitcom Tuesday look at The Big Bang Theory, I want to share something of tangential note — with subscribers who comment below to alert me of their private, non-commercial interest. It’s an audio from the 2010 LA Reprise! production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (1961), which featured a star-studded cast including Howard himself, Simon Helberg.

Now, I don’t need to extol the virtues of How To Succeed In Business to this crowd. We all get it. It’s a frequently revived lampoon of early 1960s corporate culture that was especially trendy about 15 years ago (when last on Broadway), during the height of Mad Men’s popularity. But with a comic distortion of a specific time and place — from a book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert — Succeed has nevertheless cultivated a timeless appeal. In addition to offering a sterling Frank Loesser score, the show has also been regarded as a window into the fascinating 1960s, and particularly the optimistic JFK years — in part, because of Kennedy’s own interest in the cast album, posthumously entrenching this title in the media landscape associated with his era. And yet, despite its revivability largely stemming from this (somewhat mythical) belief in its true reflectivity, it’s really Succeed‘s consciously satirical wink that has maintained its legitimate vitality, playing into modern audiences’ tendency to condescend to its comedy (adjust to it from a perceived advantage), as we inherently do with all works of the past. This has afforded the show regular opportunities to re-assert its entertainment value, regardless of how genuine, versus in-on-the-joke, it’s presently believed to be.

I’ve been privately studying (and writing) a lot about the 1960s lately, so this show has been top of mind. As for this 2010 production, I featured it here because Helberg (who was on hiatus between the third and fourth seasons of Big Bang) played Bud Frump and was also joined by a few other sitcom vets, including NewsRadio’s Vicki Lewis as Smitty, Seinfeld’s John O’Hurley as J.B. Biggley, and Lou Grant himself, Ed Asner, as the voice of the narrator. With a cast like this, it was perfect fodder for this blog. And I’m happy to share a clip of the audio below — Vicki Lewis and Simon Helberg leading the ensemble in “Coffee Break.” Enjoy!

Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned tomorrow for more Big Bang!