A Musical From the book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Stephen Schwartz & Nina Faso
Songs by Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers and Susan Birkenhead, Stephen Schwartz, James Taylor
Dance Music by Michele Brourman

Patricia Cullen, Jodi Carlisle, and Debra Jean Rogers

The characters in Working are non-fictional characters.  Their names have been changed, but their words have not.  Even in the case of song lyrics, the writers have tried to remain as faithful as possible to the character's original words.
 

• All the Livelong Day (I Hear America Singing): Words by Walt Whitman; Music and additional lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
• Neat to be a Newsboy, It's An Art,  Fathers and Sons:  Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
• Lovin' Al, If I Could've Been, Cleanin' Women:  Music and lyrics by Micki Grant
• Just A Housewife, The Mason, Joe, Something to Point To: Music and lyrics by Craig  Carnelia
• Millwork, Brother Trucker: Music and lyrics by James Taylor
• Nobody Tells Me How: Music by Mary Rodgers; lyrics by Susan Birkenhead
• Treasure Island Trio: Dance music by Michele Brouman
• Un Mejor Dia Vendra: Music by James Taylor; Spanish lyrics by Gracelia Daniele  and Matt Landers

Several years ago, when my adventure began, gathering material for the book, I had no preconceived notion of how people felt about their jobs.  I was vaguely aware of an undercurrent of restlessness and discontent, of grievances, spoken and unspoken.  What I was searching for was something more specific: the thoughts and feelings of these people in their own words.  What I discovered, aside from attitudes, was a buried language.  The lingo of "ordinary" people is quite extraordinary, once the conditioned cliches are cut away.  There is a rough beauty to the talk, at times touching the poetic.

What's the theme of Working, the book and the musical?  It's about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.  Perhaps immortality too, is part of the quest.  To be remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of these heroes and heroines.  In a sense, they were speaking for all of us.

During my three years of working on the book, I was something of a prospector; I may have, on more occasions than I had imagined, struck gold.  I was constantly astonished by the extraordinary dreams of ordinary people.  No matter how bewildering the times, no matter how dissembling the official language, those we call ordinary are aware of a sense of personal worth, no matter how demeaning their jobs may seem.  Their spirit transcends.

Studs Terkel