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THEATER REVIEW: ‘Working’ shows a company getting on its feet

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

When you’re a theater critic, your job is to work at a place where almost everyone has come to be entertained.

You do prep work, learning what you need to about the show and who is putting it on. Then you arrive at the theater, notebook in hand, ready to see the show and write about it — tell people whether you think it’s good or not and how it fits into the grand scheme of things.

Studio Players’ Working is an intriguing night on the job. First, it’s a musical I have been aware of for years but never seen.

The show, which had a brief Broadway run in 1979, was adapted by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso from Studs Terkel’s book of interviews with people about their jobs. It has some great tunes, but it has often been a problem to coax a cohesive production out of the script.

Studio’s production is a new venture as the troupe has partnered with the new theater program at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. That means there’s a little veteran talent on stage and a lot of these performers are in the spotlight for the first or second time.

So that’s the night on the job, with more possibilities than usual. How will the show actually be, and how will the student actors acquit themselves?

Director Tim X. Davis has come up with a neat conceit, setting Working at a bar — appropriately named Studs’ — where the various characters gather after a day on the job. Overall, it works, stretching credibility only a few times. Though Margaret Healey sings the stay-at-home mother’s bittersweet song beautifully, it’s hard to imagine her very conservative suburban character actually waltzing into a bar with construction workers, prostitutes and firemen at 5 p.m.

One of the main challenges to the actors is that this setting requires a lot of business by actors that are not in the spotlight. Most handle the extraneous action, like chatting or ordering a beer, quietly, but a few are a bit distracting.

Some of the actors are clearly still learning their way around a stage, particularly singing in front of an audience. Adam Luckey, one of Lexington’s foremost stage actors, buoys the cast with some fine moments.

But there are also numerous winning moments of discovery, which is something you love to see as a critic.

Zack Hightower, for instance, has a great monologue as a clearly off-kilter former newspaper employee, and earlier in the show, he and Zach Dearing deliver Brother Trucker, the production’s first showstopper.

Chris “Lito” Tamez and Carolina Fernandez also have some lovely moments, and native Venezuelan and UK voice student Fernandez turns heads with Un mejor dia vendra.

Jeremy Brown shows great range in only his second role, playing flashy parking attendant Al in the first act and a cop-turned-fireman who has seen a lot in the second act.

With a lot of new actors on stage, this show has more potential than usual to improve over its four-weekend run. As the actors get comfortable on stage, the “Am I in the right place?” glances might give way to fuller performances.

As it is, Studio and BCTC’s Working is a nice show that might be rough around the edges, but is ultimately moving and insightful in its portrayal of the American working.

Seeing it gets you to thinking about your own job — why you do what you do, what it accomplishes and how you feel about it.

My job today is to say Working is a good show with some new talent that we might hear from later, and it’s worth checking out.

Now my work is done, and I feel like going back around the corner to see if Studs’ is still open. Reach Rich Copley at (859) 231-3217 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3217.