Rye Country Day School students, faculty, and staff performed the musical “Working”, based on the 1974 book by Studs Terkel, to packed houses at the school’s Dunn Performing Arts Center earlier this month. The show featured a cast of 31 onstage and another 30 behind the scenes to tell the stories of what Terkel described as “the extraordinary dreams of ordinary people.”

 

Rye Country Day School students, faculty, and staff performed the musical “Working”, based on the 1974 book by Studs Terkel, to packed houses at the school’s Dunn Performing Arts Center earlier this month. The show featured a cast of 31 onstage and another 30 behind the scenes to tell the stories of what Terkel described as “the extraordinary dreams of ordinary people”.

 

In 1977, a musical adaptation of “Working” by Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked”) and Nina Faso appeared at the renowned Goodman Theatre in Chicago, with songs from a number of artists, including Mary Rodgers (“Once Upon a Mattress”), Craig Carnelia (“Sweet Smell of Success”), and Grammy-winner James Taylor. In 2007-2008, additional interviews were conducted, and in 2012 Lin-Manuel Miranda (“In the Heights”) readapted the show, which will have its off-Broadway debut this weekend.

 

In an ironic twist, the timing of Rye Country Day’s annual musical was changed this year from winter to fall in an effort to avoid weather-related disruptions. Then, a hurricane arrived.

 

 

Director Alexandra London-Thompson praised the remarkable efforts of cast and crew, noting they had “persevered through Sandy, long power outages, gas shortages, and more,” to be the first to present this newest adaptation.