Working Girl Musical at LJP Makes You Want to Get Up and Dance!

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt.

 

The World Premiere of Working Girl, with Joanna “JoJo” Levesque as Tess McGill seated in center and NYC background projection by Hana S. Kim.   (Rich Soublet) 

 

We really did feel like dancing to this hot new musical at La Jolla Playhouse that’s loaded with songs by the great Cyndi Lauper and has great singing and moves by all the performers onstage.

Based on the popular 1988 movie, it’s the story of a smart and ambitious young secretary whose one dream in life is succeeding in business. But Tess McGill has three strikes against her: 

She’s a woman in the male dominated world of high finance, she’s only a secretary, and she’s from Staten Island, which as any New Yorker knows, is a far cry from NYC. 

Her biggest problem turns out to be a new female boss, who offers Tess a collaborative relationship and responds encouragingly to her brilliant idea for a merger, but then cuts Tess out, and claims the idea is her own.

Bad things keep on happening, but since this show, like the original movie, is a comedy, Tess’s drive, plus the helping hands of her best friend and other co-workers who become her accomplices, manage to make her dream come true in the end.

And we loved Hana S. Kim’s imaginative projections, which greatly enhanced the look of the production, but as we were unable to get any photos, you’ll have to go see for yourself.

This Working Girl could use some weight loss: the songs all have the same high-energy level, and a few could be eliminated, along with a fair bit of the script by Theresa Rebeck, since making it shorter than 2 hours and 20 minutes would make it sweeter. But the show, like Tess herself, has real possibilities, and we wish it well.

This is the final production directed by Christopher Ashley, who has been LJP’s wonderful Artistic Director for 18 years and is now heading off to New York. He will be missed but we wish him well too.

And happy Thanksgiving to working girls everywhere! May you be appreciated for all the good things you do!

Working Girl
La Jolla Playhouse
Mandell Weiss Theatre
Closing Dec 14, 2025 

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net