Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre will open the season with “The Pajama Game" — a two-act comedy musical set in the 1950s focusing on corporate hierarchy, class struggle and romance, directed by former Broadway performers — this weekend.
Based on the novel “7½ Cents” by Richard Bissell, the book was later adapted into a musical format with the help of George Abbott. Harold Mortimer, associate dean of OU’s fine arts college, is the music director. The production is directed and choreographed by Sara Brians, associate dance professor at OU.
Brians grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in California, and began dancing at the age of 3. By 14, she knew her dream was to be on Broadway, and when she was a senior in high school she joined the Radio City Rockettes.
“I was very lucky to just audition and get offered a job doing it,” Brians said. “I took the job because I wanted to work professionally as a dancer, and that’s kind of how it all started.”
Afterwards, Brians made her Broadway debut in 2001 with the revival of “42nd Street,” which was nominated for nine Tony awards and won two, including Best Revival of a Musical. She also worked on “After the Night and the Music,” White Christmas,” ”Billy Elliot the Musical,” “Matilda the Musical,” “The Terms of My Surrender” and “The Hills of California” on Broadway.
Brians lived in New York City for more than 25 years, with a career as a dancer on Broadway and regional theater.
“I started doing my own choreography and was really mostly freelancing as a choreographer and director, with some teaching as well, dance of course, and I loved it,” Brians said.
Brians said when she saw the career posting at OU, it seemed like the perfect fit.
“I feel like I get to teach the things that I love to do, and I feel very lucky to be able to pass on the knowledge and experience that I have to my students, as well as create theater here at the university,” Brians said.
It’s Brians’ third semester at OU; she previously did the choreography for “Young Frankenstein” and “Company.”
Brians describes the musical as being full of comedy and satire, with serious undertones. The plot of the musical involves workers fighting against corporate management for a raise.
When the show was announced, Brians stepped up to direct because it’s not frequently produced and has huge orchestrations, big dance numbers and a seven-minute ballet.
“The show is originally, in 1954, choreographed by Bob Fosse, who’s a famous choreographer,” Brians said. “It was his first Broadway show, and so there is kind of a legacy of this show for those that are familiar with theater history in terms of, kind of, the importance and value of doing the style.”
While Brians is approaching the production through a contemporary lens that audiences expect, she said the atmosphere will reflect the 1950s with big band and orchestra sounds and costumes from that period.
“The set feels very retro in that 1950s way, but we are just leaning it a little bit toward what we think an audience today might see in the story,” Brians said. “Audiences today are different than they were in the 1950s. We're used to watching lots of streaming television and fast-paced stories that back in the 1950s we didn't have, you know, the internet and social media.”
Despite being originally produced about 70 years ago, Brians said its themes of workers rights, balancing personal passion versus work life and negotiating relationships are relevant today.
“It is about workers standing up to basically the corporate hierarchy,” Brians said. “Workers fighting for their rights and what they believe they deserve to earn in terms of a fair wage, so I do think it’s very relevant.”
In the midst of the story’s hardships, a romance develops between Babe Williams, head of the grievance committee and the union fighting for the raise, and Sid Sorokin, the new superintendent of the factory and part of upper management.
“The two of them fall in love with each other, but they’re at odds from a business perspective, so I think that can be very relevant in how we interact in our personal relationships and conflict that may arise as well, …” Brians said. “I think that this theme of negotiating and balancing a personal passion versus something in your work life, and how to balance and negotiate those kinds of relationships is a really important theme in the show.”
The costumes and set design play on the idea of binaries, including gender, as well as factory life, which is portrayed as geometric and rigid, while life outside the factory contains organic elements.
“I think what we are really achieving visually from a design perspective is a difference in color palette from when we’re inside the factory to when we’re outside, as well as texture and pattern both in the scenic design and the costume design, as well as even in the lighting design,” Brians said.
Her favorite part of the production has been working with actors on the comedy moments.
“It’s been just a delight to see the cast take really big and bold risks and just try things, and then from there we can kind of shape the scenes or the choreography, and it's been really thrilling to discover all of that with them,” Brians said.
“The Pajama Game” opens at 8 p.m. Friday at Elsie C. Brackett Theatre. There will be additional showings at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available online or at the Fine Arts Box Office inside Catlett Music Center.
This story was edited by Madisson Cameron. Brooks Davis, Tori Pham and Larkin Bock copy edited this story.
