Waterford High School : Coffee Break

"Coffee Break" from the Waterford High School production of Frank Loesser's "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying". Friday, May 11th, 2007, Waterford, Connecticut.
Since I love Frank Loesser's score for this show I'll take a long ride to see even a high school production. Good thing because this "Coffee Break" has to be one of the best ever. Excellent choreography and direction. Lighting, sets, costumes, all first rate. Great cast too, Smitty and Bud were particularly strong, as most amply demonstrated here...Did I mention the pit orchestra was very good? One of the best things about the score is how beautifully Loesser scrambled together different musical genres, it's a treat to hear good musicians perform it well. Frank wrote this song as a mambo, maybe the association of coffee with South America was the inspiration...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• waterford
• high
• school
• connecticut
• frank
• loesser
• how
• to
• succeed
• coffee
• break

[hprumchris]

not that good

at all

[crocostimpy]

Watch it again...

[Sagerious]

You're saying this was better than the Broadway Revival production??? I'm sorry this is great and all, but nowhere near the awesome caliber of Broadway. Good job though.

[crocostimpy]

Have you seen the 1995 Broadway revival clip?

[CostumerLouis]

Not really good - could use a lot more work.

Not a big fan of the set - seems a little childish.

Tempo of music too fast - seems like the actors aren't really understanding the lyrics.

It's a good high-school production... not a good version of this song.

I would rate this 4 out of 10.

[Bub1029]

@crocostimpy This is way too fast for the tension of the song to properly build up. The energy is too low and the choreography is, dare I say it, high school. Not to mention that they take strange grace notes that ruin the general grace notes of the song. I don't know what you mean by its being better than the broadway revivals version. You can't say that Matthew Broderick brings it down or anything either, because he may be a little bit wooden at times but Finch is also not in Coffee Break.

[abrahamjacobfriedman]

oh, man this brings me back, I'm the bud frump in this video. I can't believe we had working elevators!

[abrahamjacobfriedman]

oh, man this brings me back, I'm the bud frump in this video. I can't believe we had working elevators!

[mamasensei]

I liked the creative use of limited space - I don't know that this version is better than the M. Broderick revival (1995) video, seems unfair to compare a high school to a professional Broadway cast but it was very good and quite entertaining! Thanks for posting!

[shmurb28]

*sighs* this is good and all but i'm really sad not a single other production of this song other than the one on broadway includes the monkey thing.. i really did like that...

[philly26phan]

people keep saying that this is better than the one on broadway. I for one like the broadway version way better, but this is really good. I have never seen a high school beat broadway, and this is no exception

[NSArachnoSniper]

I know every single person up there :D Waterford High FTW

[crocostimpy]

Hey, youz guys, I don't know if you noticed but I posted the Coffee Break from SCSU a while ago. A friend of mine that worked on the production filmed it and gave me a DVD, I figured I'd let him post the rest.

[Piccolo13]

Oh wow, I never knew that. And yes it is a great set and it takes me back seeing it here :)