Studs Terkel's Working (Broadway Theatre Archive) [DVD]

I saw this show when it originally aired but remembered it being better than it is. It's not bad, but if you're looking for a great production of "Working" seek out a theatre company doing the original version, not the updated one. It's not bad, and some of the performances are really quite good, but as a whole, it doesn't "speak" to me the way the stage version did. Not sure if it's because it was produced for television as a TV show, with "real people" being interviewed by Studs, of if it's the 1980's slickness, but rather than just sharing these stories/vignettes, they've tried to telegraph how the viewer should feel. Once again, I liked it, but I've seen two stage productions I liked more.

This PBS production for American Playhouse is basically just a filmed version of the songs and monologues that make up the Broadway musical WORKING. Unfortunately, the film lacks most of the energy or the excitement of the live version. There are still some wonderful performances, most notably Rita Moreno as the Waitress singing "It's An Art", Eileen Brennan as the tired factory worker, Barbara Hershey as the prostitute, Patti Labelle as the cleaning woman and Barry Bostwick as the steelworker singing "Fathers & Sons". Overall, the acting is stronger than the singing (except for in Labelle's case,where the opposite is true) and the actors, while well cast, are not helped by awkward transitions and poor directing.The big cast musical numbers that open and close the show are totally lacking in energy, mostly due to the fact that they are stagnant (no musical staging), probably because the director didn't know how to film movement.This is only interesting for those who want to have a record of the material (songs and monologues) that comprise the show.It would be nice if someone were to film a stage production of this show and edit it properly. That would make for a much more interesting viewing.

I can never understand why so many film versions of musicals are cast with people who can't sing. With the exception of Rita Moreno and Patti LaBelle, this movie version is performed by people whose singing voices are painful to listen to. Even James Taylor is disappointing. Granted, the majority of the cast is made up of a lot of gifted and recognizable character actors, but it's a musical! News Flash: There will be singing involved!!!!I had always wanted to see this musical, but as far as I know it has never been performed professionally in my area, so I was really excited when I learned there was a film version. I just finished watching it, and my ears are practically bleeding! I paid around $20 for it, which was about $19 too much. Now I see that the price has gone up to over $40! Anyone who shells out that kind of money for this amateurish and painful production will certainly regret it. One of the most disappointing musical adaptations I have ever seen. A complete waste of my time and money.

I teach a class where we read Studs Terkel's WORKING, and this video of the Broadway play based on the book is quite well-done. It helps my students to understand the lives of the workers much more than the readings along - especially with jobs that no longer exist….

Again, I have this show to peruse and use the music for my shows. It's a great show and the purchase was right on.

Studs Terkel's WORKING premiered on the PBS series "American Playhouse" on 4/13/82 and is hosted by the author. Its cast of over two dozen features many familiar faces:RITA MORENO - a waitress proud of her people skillsJAMES TAYLOR - an often lonely OTR truckerCHARLES DURNING - after early retirement and his wife's passing, his life had no directionSCATMAN CROTHERS - this parking lot attendant since age 16 thinks nothing of providing bad service to poor tippersEILEEN BRENNAN - millworker resigned to her boringly repetitive job and the arthritis it gave herBARBARA HERSHEY - beautiful call girl believes all women are societally trained to be 'hustlers'BARRY BOSTWICK - steelworker laments that unlike an author or artist he'll leave no legacyPATTI LABELLE - 4th generation cleaning woman is certain her daughter's life will be differentBETH HOWLAND ('Vera' on TV sitcom  ALICE ) - housewife who frets that women's libbers frown on her choice to raise a familyAdditionally, we meet:A newsboy (Billy Jayne) who loves tossing papers into bushes; a chirpy switchboard operator (Edie McClurg); an ex-cop-turned-fireman (Matt Landers) that's happy to help people; the editor of a newspaper (Barbara Browning) and a 'pacifist' copyboy (David Patrick Kelly) dismissed because of eccentricities who dreams of "killing them all;" a gas meter reader (Charles Haid) with a hobby of catching housewives in the nude; a migrant worker (Fausto Barajas) handing out anti-grape literature in front of a grocery store to annoyed housewives who then intentionally BUY grapes; employees of that supermarket; a schoolteacher (Barbara Barrie) angry that her teaching methods of 3 decades ago are now considered passé; and a telephone operator (Lynne Thigpen) wishing she could comfort lonely callers.The management-worker dynamic gets explored when a corporate executive (Jay Garner) asks a secretary (Vernée Watson) to do her former clerk typist job. In hostility, she purposely makes a mess of his letter so that the man will never ask her to type again.Songs interspersed throughout express by turn: bemusement, misery, pride, loneliness, resignation, longing, confusion, uncertainty, etc.-- almost as many emotions as there are types of work.

Eileen Brennan's flat-out stupefying performance as an assembly-line mill worker in the dead-center of this wonderful (and non-dated0 production is alone grounds enough for the powers that be to start making accessible ALL--not some of--the great Great Perfrormances/American Playhouse productions from the 1980s and 80s on PBS. Like Mrs. Cage w. Anne Bancroft, or Ragtime, which probably started Audra MacDonald on her unstoppable rise. Or Blue Window, with its stunning overlap of voices and stories from different apartments--which is, I'll admit, as inadequate a description of Craig Lucas' script as calling the David an underdressed weightlifter. And by "available" I don't mean at $200++ which is the going price for some tapes of the Negro Ensemble Theatre version of J.E. Jones ' King Lear. I've acquired a small treasured cache of a few of the plays available but as always it's the ones that got away...Here, Barry Bostwick, Patti Labelle, and Rita Moreno's hilarious one-take version of a multi-tasker--the whole cast of WORKING reminded me why I'm going to keep on hunting. But the powers that be could make it easier.