Once upon a time (like, the 1970s), pop music and show music were as dissimilar as Bluegrass and Baroque, making it unsurprising that the songs performed in Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso's musical revue, Working, should lean toward the Broadway tropes of that era. In the production playing at Water Tower Place in 2011, however, audiences got to hear the stage manager call the cues to start the show and watch, with their own eyes, the precise mechanics involved in "putting on" a play. It's now 2019, however, and we're in a storefront located on the northern border of The City That Works, where Theo Ubique's Cabaret Theater's expunction of showbiz-fizz is evidenced in every note of the music accompanying the series of verbal self-portraits based on Studs Terkel's oral history of the men and women who built this metropolis. Not only does the configuration of the room permit the characters to stroll among the real-life playgoers seated at cocktail tables, blurring the lines between staff and spectators, but the orchestra is spread across the front of the stage so we, ourselves, can see their nimble fingers weave intricate melodies, while brooms and bicycles appear at our very elbows. Instead of spoiling the stage magic, though, bearing witness to the gritty nuts-and-bolts WORK that goes into its creation merely enhances our appreciation and empathy: when a socialite describing herself as "a fundraiser who dresses well" confesses to hustling money for her charitable causes employing techniques as calculating as those of the prostitute (who also defends her choice of occupation), for example, or a firefighter explains that he resigned from the police force—where his duties sometimes mandated a pretense of hostility—to take a job where his sole purpose is saving lives, or a mason points with pride to the section of a skyscraper he helped build, or a restaurant-delivery boy revels in the fresh air and exercise that make his day. These are glimpses behind the scenes that you take home with you. Don't forget to tip the parking valets and cab drivers.
