In the 1988 movie “Working Girl,” an assistant secretly stays at her absent boss’ apartment, ogles its opulence alongside her best friend and tries on a dress with a $6,000 price tag.
The new musical version of the beloved film re-creates this iconic scene with nine women onstage. They enter the glamorous dwelling with voluminous permed hair, shoulder-padded blazers and white athletic sneakers — the latter for commuting from the outer boroughs into Manhattan — and take turns admiring the tweed Chanel suits, silk Versace robes and vintage Hermes scarves. They then quick-change into fabulous metallic gowns and, with the help of LED panels and lighting cues, the bedroom transforms into a fashion runway of scintillating secretaries, singing and dancing in feminine revelry. And that showstopper dress? It now costs $7,000.
The moment epitomizes the approach of this adaptation, which begins its world-premiere run Tuesday at La Jolla Playhouse: take the most memorable parts of the movie and turn up the volume for the stage. The result: an unabashed celebration of women, theater and all things 1980s, led by the quintessential musician who embodies it all: Cyndi Lauper.
“I want the audience to be entertained — laughing, crying, standing up and feeling like they can do it all too,” Lauper said of the show, already extended through Dec. 7. “Not that you could go in your boss’ closet and wear her clothes, no! But that exciting feeling of living in the city in the ‘80s, being creative and not backing down.”
A corporate Cinderella story, the 20th Century Fox comedy starred Melanie Griffith as Tess, a tenacious secretary at a Wall Street brokerage firm who learns that her boss, Katharine, has taken credit for her business proposal. When a ski accident keeps Katharine out of the office, Tess poses as her superior to team up with Jack — an investment broker played by Harrison Ford — and pitch her idea to the top brass herself.
Directed by Mike Nichols, “Working Girl” was nominated for six Academy Awards, highlighting the performances of Griffith, Sigourney Weaver as the deliciously cutthroat Katharine, and Joan Cusack as Tess’ best friend Cyn. “The tacit recognition of the barriers that hold the Cyns and the Tesses back and the lack of condescension to them in the direction and in [the] script makes ‘Working Girl’ one of the warmest films that Nichols has touched,” praised The Times’ film critic Sheila Benson in her review.
Since the “Working Girl” plot is locked into the ‘80s — “If you tried to pass yourself off as an executive today, people would Google you and it’d be over!” joked director Christopher Ashley — the musical wholly embraces the era’s aesthetics in its costumes, choreography and, of course, its score. “Sonically, there was a lot of individuality at the time, with so many new sounds and genres,” recalled Lauper, a born-and-bred New Yorker who briefly worked as an office assistant before her career took off. (Lauper’s agent even encouraged her to audition to play Tess in the movie.)
With the launch of MTV, “the ‘80s was the first time we were watching music,” she continued. “Like, the first time we saw Annie Lennox in a boardroom in that suit with her fist on the table, looking right at us and saying, ‘Sweet dreams are made of this,’ oh my God, it stopped you. It wasn’t just her androgynous image or the color of her hair, which was awesome, but it was also the fact that, maybe for the first time, we were getting a real sense of who she was, because music videos were where the artists were in creative control. Anyway, there was a lot of stuff going on then, and we wanted all of it in the show.”
Lauper — whose debut theatrical outing, the 2013 Broadway hit “Kinky Boots,” won six Tony Awards, including for her original score — has been writing “Working Girl” compositions for a decade. To create songs for the five-piece band that fully represents the variety of the era’s music — electronic, hip-hop, hair metal and more — Lauper brought in her “Time After Time” co-writer Rob Hyman of the Hooters, Cheryl James of the rap group Salt-N-Pepa and Sammy James Jr., who co-wrote the title song for the film “School of Rock.” (Carly Simon’s Oscar-winning original song “Let the River Run” is not in the score.)
“Working Girl” is the latest hit comedy to attempt the jump from ‘80s movie to musical theater, following “9 to 5,” “Big,” “Beetlejuice,” “Footloose,” “Tootsie” and “Back to the Future.” Not all of these titles stuck the landing, critically or commercially.
“I think some musicals get caught in trying to recapture the exact lightning-in-a-bottle of the movie,” said Ashley. “We have the fortunate circumstance of Kevin Wade, the film’s screenwriter, passing this to us and saying, ‘Take what’s useful and remake what you need to.’”
The production stars Joanna “JoJo” Levesque as Tess, who is “a little rougher around the edges” onstage, said Levesque. “We lean into her working-class background because we’re really telling a story about class, the haves and the have nots. And in this time that we’re living in, that’s important to talk about.” (Yes, Tess still says her legendary line: “I’ve got a head for business and a bod for sin.”)
Likewise, Levesque’s co-star Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer teased that her Katharine has moments of hilariously frantic energy — a Kritzer character signature. Nevertheless, she remains as statuesque and merciless as Weaver was onscreen. “This is my third movie-musical adaptation,” said Kritzer, who originated roles in the “Legally Blonde” and “Beetlejuice” musicals. Each time, “it’s about figuring out how to make it different but still giving the audience what they want.”
Though Tess and Katharine are rivals in the show, seasoned stage actor Kritzer become a mentor of sorts to Levesque, the pop star who entered the theater scene with a 2023 stint in Broadway’s “Moulin Rouge!” and is originating a role for the first time. In rehearsals, they help each other incorporate key vocal influences: Lennox, Pat Benatar, Roxette, Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Blondie and Lauper herself. Onstage, the secretaries collectively echo that same women-helping-women attitude, which might inspire any young women watching.
“There’s so much beauty in Cyndi’s lyrics about dreaming big and using hope as a fuel,” said book writer Theresa Rebeck. “In the ‘80s, companies kept getting bought and split open, but our story celebrates that fight for opportunity and coming together to build something new. It was important then, and it’s important now.”
So will it all appeal to today’s working girls? “It’s been my experience that a lot of the kids like the ‘80s music,” said Lauper. “I’m always surprised to see how many kids are in my audience.”
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