How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is being performed as the Harrisonburg High School 2026 musical. This choice is rather unique- in previous years, the musicals of choice were more well known. For example, in 2023, Newsies was performed, followed by Cats and then High School Musical- all ever-popular musicals with recognizable soundtracks, the usual choices for high school plays. However, How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is both lesser known and older than previous musicals by at least 20 years.
Senior cast member Wren Hamner stated “I had never heard of it. Most people hadn’t heard of it, and if they had heard of it, they only knew about it because Daniel Radcliffe was in it.”
In the musical, Hamner plays two parts: a scrub woman and a secretary. Out of these roles, they state that the scrub woman is their favorite. “It’s a pretty small role, but that means you have a lot more freedom with it than you do with a role with plot relevance.” As for auditions, the musical audition was separated from the dance audition, each taking place on separate days, which Hamner finds was helpful. “I felt like I could prepare for those separately. I didn’t have to just go from one thing straight to the other,” Hamner said.
This musical also has a very large pit; something that previous musicals have not used. And with such a big crew, tech week is of utmost importance. What this means is that “I leave school at normal time, I come back here at four, and then I’m here till 9:30,” Hamner said. “But they feed us.” The cast and crew find ways to make these long nights more fun, including special nights, such as their very own soup night on February 4th.
“We have rehearsals every day, pretty much,” Hamner said. Of course, a musical is not without its obstacles. The snow week has set them back quite a bit, but they made up for it with online rehearsals (except for Monday, which they got off). The group is determined to make this show great, with a little help. “I think we have really good shows, partly because we have access to resources. Other schools don’t have a dance teacher who can do all of the choreography,” Hamner said. “We have more funding from the school board for sets and stuff, so our sets are bigger.” The set for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying is said to be fairly large and extravagant compared to previous years.
This choice, as unusual as it seems, is no doubt going to be interesting to watch with such a dedicated group of performers and crew. “It’s not the musical I would have picked, but we’re having fun with it,” Hamner said.
