Joey Taranto wasn’t always planning on Broadway.
“I was in my early 20s and didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life,” he told The RAGE Monthly. “But I knew I had to get out of New Orleans.”
He’d dabbled in special effects makeup, done some cosmetic work on the Upper East Side, and spent a lot of time feeling stuck. Then a friend called him out at karaoke.
“You’re meant to be a performer,” the friend said. “And you’re too chicken shit to go after it.”
Taranto took the hint. By 27, he was taking beginner workshops at Broadway Dance Center in New York. A year later, he booked his first show — Rent, in New Orleans — and three years after that, he made his Broadway debut, replacing Constantine Maroulis in Rock of Ages.
“I was fortunate enough to have some people who pointed a big, bold arrow in the direction I should head down,” he said.
These days, Taranto is originating the role of Mick in the world premiere of Working Girl at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, playing a brash Staten Island rocker with a wandering eye, big dreams, and what he describes as “painfully straight energy.”
“I’ve known many versions of this guy,” Taranto laughed. “From family members to friends along the way … Mick was not a stretch for me.”
Set in the 1980s, Working Girl is a stage adaptation of the 1988 film about corporate ambition, sisterhood and smashing the glass ceiling. Joanna “JoJo” Levesque plays Tess, the quietly radical heroine. Taranto plays the boyfriend she outgrows on her rise through Manhattan’s financial world.
But Mick isn’t just a one-note antagonist.
“He’s out for himself, but somehow still likable and goofy,” Taranto said. “And in a world full of Wall Street bros, he fits right in.”
Staging a new musical from scratch means long hours, script rewrites and musical adjustments on the fly, but Taranto says the energy in the rehearsal room has been electric.
“There’s so much camaraderie and love,” he said. “We take good care of each other, and also we’re just really freaking excited.”
That care radiates into the show’s central message, which, despite its late-1980s setting, feels strikingly current.
“At its heart, Working Girl is about ambition, risk-taking, breaking the rules,” Taranto said. “In any strong movement, whether it’s gay rights or women’s rights or equality, you need camaraderie. You need allyship. You need friends. You need people who are there along the way. And in this show, you definitely see that.”
It’s more than a message, but a philosophy the cast seems to live by. And even nearly 40 years after the film’s release, Taranto says the show’s themes still resonate.
“People will sit down and think, ‘Oh wow, in 37 years, some things haven’t changed at all,’” he said. “But you still have to find joy along the way. You can’t ever get lazy when it comes to equality.”
He credits JoJo’s performance with helping bring that nuance to life.
“There are moments where she [Tess] feels stuck in this oppressively male world,” he said. “And out of that discomfort comes so much growth and change. It’s beautiful to watch.”
Taranto came into the project through longtime friend and collaborator Cyndi Lauper, who wrote the show’s original music.
“I didn’t audition,” he said. “She called me one day and said, ‘Joey, I’m working on a new musical and I think you’re right for it. Can I play you the song?’ And before I could even answer, she was playing it.”
The two met while working on Kinky Boots and have stayed close ever since. “She’s been not just a mentor,” Taranto said, “but such a cheerleader for me.”
So what does he hope audiences — especially younger ones unfamiliar with the original film — take away from Working Girl?
“Hope,” he said. “If we band together for the greater good, we can effect change. It’s easy to stare into the darkness right now, but RuPaul once said, ‘It’s OK to look at the darkness, but don’t stare at it.’ That landed on me. And really, this show is about searching for the good.”
Outside the rehearsal room, Taranto stays busy with a side project that’s taken on a life of its own: a comedic true crime podcast called I Think Not, co-hosted with fellow Kinky Boots alum Ellyn Marsh. The pair recently wrapped a sold-out live tour.
“It kind of blew up a few years ago,” he said. “We’re still going strong.”
Whether he’s dissecting cold cases or embodying hot messes, Taranto is living proof that risk, resilience and karaoke can take you a long way.
Catch Joey Taranto in Working Girl, which runs through Sunday, December 14, at La Jolla Playhouse. Visit lajollaplayhouse.org for tickets and details.
Cyndi Lauper’s Soundtrack for the Strivers
If anyone can give Working Girl a voice, it’s Cyndi Lauper. Her music has always celebrated outsiders who find strength in being themselves, from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to “True Colors.” For this world-premiere musical, the Grammy, Emmy, and Tony winner brings her pop-punk sparkle and emotional honesty to a new score filled with wit, empowerment and plenty of attitude.
Having made history as the first solo woman to win a Tony Award for Best Original Score with Kinky Boots, Lauper channels that same fearless spirit into Working Girl. Expect songs that strut, soar and speak to dreamers everywhere.
True to form, she’s still the rebel with a cause, using her art and her voice to champion individuality, resilience, and the LGBTQ+ community that’s long claimed her as one of its own.