In 1995, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying was revived for Broadway with Matthew Broderick in the Robert Morse part and Megan Mullally as his love interest, Rosemary. Before it opened there, the production tried out in La Jolla and I was invited to attend a performance and offer whatever criticisms I had. As it turned out, the criticisms I had turned out to be pretty much the same as the ones everyone had, which was to remove certain "improvements" to the book…
Like: Near the end when the schemes of Bud Frump were failing, they had Frump panicking and fleeing the building…and he ran into a non-working elevator and fell down the shaft. Thereafter, the actor playing Frump had a big Oliver Hardy-style bandage on his supposedly broken leg. I didn't understand what the point was of having the character break his leg and apparently no one else did, either. By the time the show got to New York, that was out. So was Robert Mandan, who was playing the Rudy Vallee part. I thought he was pretty great in the role but apparently the producers didn't.
Our video is a "sales reel" for this production made to push for group ticket sales. I believe all the stage footage was shot in La Jolla since Robert Mandan is in it. Also in there are Ernie Sabella, Jonathan Freeman and Lillias White plus other performers who did go with the show to New York.
For silly reasons, I saw it three times in Manhattan — once with Broderick and Mullally, once with Sarah Jessica Parker (soon to be Matthew's wife) as Rosemary and once with John Stamos as Finch and someone else as Rosemary. It was a pretty good show, all three times. This may give you some idea how good…