Promises, Promises

What do you get when you fall in love? 

According to the musical Promises, Promises, the main answer to that question is that it depends on whom you ask, and when.

I checked out the show while in San Francisco the other night. Promises, Promises is the the story of Chuck, a sweet young "worker bee" in a huge company who is looking for a nice girl but also searching for a way to quickly climb up the corporate ladder. He accidentally finds one by allowing some of the male executives the use of his apartment for their secret trysts with the cute, young members of the secretarial pool. Also there's Fran, a waitress at the company cafeteria who is in over her head with a mysterious romance. Chuck likes Fran, Fran likes someone else, and everyone is trying to score in some way or another.

Although set in 1968, (the year it originally debuted on Broadway), the story and premise is still relevant today due to the fact the sexual revolution was already in full swing at that time.  Also in many ways the life of a corporate employee in a large city is much the same now as it was then with office politics, gossip, and booze filled holiday parties!

I can relate to Chuck, especially when I was his age, filled with blind enthusiasm and ambition, before learning the meaning of balance in life, and equally to Fran, having had a mysterious relationship of my own many years ago and being further in over my head than I realized.

This type of production is one of my favorites, held in a mid size theater, in this case the San Francisco Playhouse. With a live orchestra and a cast of proven talent that has worked together before, this production was able to walk the line between humor and poignancy without becoming either too farcical or maudlin.

Jeffrey Brian Adams is Chuck, who is the kind of guy a girl might not immediately notice as handsome because he is shy with too much of an eagerness to please. Monique Hafen quietly exudes the youth and slightly waning optimism of her character, Fran. Her angelic but soulful voice brings magic to the musical numbers. Johnny Moreno, who reminds me a bit of Raul Julia, plays the powerful Mr. Sheldrake as a man who is enjoying his position of power as CEO perhaps a little too much as he treats the company as his own personal kingdom. Corrine Proctor, is wonderful as Marge, a likeable but vulnerable woman trying to stay one step ahead of despair with a sense of humor and a playful veneer.

Ray Reinhardt is perfect as the wise cracking and all knowing doc next door who has seen it all and realizes most of his sage advice falls on the deaf ears of young adults. Steven Shear, Joseph Estlack and Rudy Guerrero as the company executives are so likeable and enthusiastic you forget what cads they can be! Morgan Dayley, Kathryn Fox Hart and Leah Shesky are lively and fun as dancing secretaries, making the most of their confined roles in the show just as their characters had to do back then in the gender repressed corporate culture of the time.

Johnny Moreno, Monique Hafen, Jeffrey Brian Adams

Promises, Promises is a musical first produced on Broadway in 1968, Book by Neil Simon and Music Burt Bacharach and based on the film The Apartment by Billy Wilder, (1960).

Promises, Promises....San Francisco Playhouse through January 10 

SFPlayhouse.org