By YVONNE HUDSON
A fresh and sassy new production of Stephen Sondheim’s iconic Company fascinated critics and audiences in New York after its development on London’s West End. Bobbie isn’t Robert, and some of the lead characters’ friends are now of different genders. Now, knowledgeable theatre folk will notice, but not much seems out of order for audience members who are new to this show.
The current national tour troupe is in residence at The Benedum Center through Sunday. A production designed to fit almost any size stage, Company is not so much about the technical but the personal. The sets are clever and showcase the troupe. Scenically, Bobbie seems to be boxed in, like her friends. Or is she?
The story is simple. Bobbie is turning 35. Everyone who knows her knows she’s having a birthday, and they are beginning to wonder why she is the only one in her cadre who isn’t married. It’s 2024 (not the year of the original production, 1970, when Bobby was a guy).
Bobbie sings about “all the crazy married people” and each couple among her friends. All are married save one pair of engaged gay men; these folks are quirky. As Bobbie makes the rounds, visiting and socializing with them, the quirks we witness could be enough to make Bobbie run from the altar. As a “singleton” in New York City, she dates, has a career, a “nice” apartment, and friends. Who could ask for anything more? So, as the voice-over in Sex in the City muses, “I couldn’t help but wonder…” about sex, dating, and why single people are made to feel like lepers. Carrie Bradshaw’s “wonderings” could be Bobbie’s inner monologue.
The songs carry the episodic plot, from the entire cast rendition of the title song as Bobbie’s birthday is celebrated through her time spent at the homes of the couples (“The Little Things You Do Together”), a date that turns into more (“Barcelona”), a night at a club, and, ultimately, Bobbie on her own in the first act (“Someone is Waiting” and “Marry Me a Little” and at the end of act two (“Being Alive”).
We watch Bobbie imagine some of the options. The charming staging for the orchestra’s ‘Tick Tock’ shows many Bobbies getting married, having a baby, cleaning up after her spouse in the bathroom, trying to manage her job, and more. There’s a beautiful bit when Bobbie looks into a tiny room like her birthday apartment, conjuring Alice in Wonderland and the limits of relationships.
Britney Coleman shines as Bobbie as if the part were written for her. On stage for so much of the show, she lets us in with reactions that her on-stage friends don’t see. We understand her increasing confusion while her friends continue to badger her about her age and lack of a husband. Coleman establishes Bobbie as someone we’d like for a friend, too, for she seems full of patience, courtesy, and passion.
Judy McClane is stellar and appealing as Joanne. McClane is spot on as the lead on “The Little Things.” The eleven o’clock number is hers, not Bobbie’s. McClane caresses the words and notes of “The Ladies who Lunch” like a glass of fine wine. Wrapped in a fur coat with her svelte legs crossed at a high-top table, she tells the story of those entitled, well-preserved ladies as she purrs and growls. Many have “owned” this song. On this tour, it belongs to McClane alone, and it’s worth the wait to savor her performance near the end of Act Two.
Many of the songs in Company are known for single performances outside of the whole show, having a place in cabaret, Sondheim reviews, and concerts by the artists who love his works. So, here we see the songs in his context with a new twist—the gender-swapping of many characters. Thus, actors who wouldn’t have otherwise not presented some fantastic songs get to take them one. This touring cast is outstanding. They display love and gratitude for the score. We believe they would be singing these great Sondheim songs somewhere else. Pittsburgh can be grateful this cast of 21 is right here, singing for us.
The premise of this new version, conceived and staged by the three-time Tony-winning director Marianne Elliott, poses the question. What is it that Bobbie’s friends think she needs or is missing? All the marrieds have let go of perceived “freedom”, as one wife says. But Bobbie’s friends are pretty entertaining when you get to know them; they are a lot like us!
Stephen Sondheim and George Furth‘s Company broke new ground in 1970 with its structure of vignettes of Robert/Bobby with his friends. A free spirit? A commitment-phobic? What was it about Bobbie in 1970 that made him like Bobbie in the 2020s?
Stephen Sondheim describes Company as “the challenge of maintaining relationships in a society becoming increasingly depersonalized” in his book Finishing the Hat. A gay man who didn’t initially put a gay character in the musical, Sondheim set up his audiences to ask why Robert/Bobby was so averse to marriage. There’s an irony that the composer approved and had input on this new take. And that by about a decade ago, same-sex couples could marry. Now Company‘s gender swap features a gay groom with cold feet (“Getting Married Today“). How times change!
Ultimately, the show isn’t only about marriage or even as Bobbie poses “Marry Me a Little“. It’s about “Being Alive,” as Bobbie sings in the final song. The chatting, wondering, and birthday party all boil down to the essence of life in NYC and everywhere. Survival in New York, however, is such a thing, and Sondheim was such a New Yorker. We get it, as Bobbie has the last word and the last scene. We don’t need birthdays to remind us of what’s important; we need one another at any age.
Let’s meet the ladies who lunch and raise a glass to living! L’Chaim!
Company Factoids:
Five Tonys honored the revamped Company, while the original production, directed by Hal Prince, garnered six wins from 14 nominations.
Two revivals were previously staged in 1995 and 2006.
The gender-swapped version opened on March 2, 2020. Broadway closed on March 12 in response to the COVID-19 virus. Company reopened on November 15, 2021, and Sondheim attended the show’s reopening night just 11 days before his passing.
Read Sharon Ebersons’s preview of Company here https://onstagepittsburgh.com/2024/04/12/companys-kathryn-allison-revels-in-in-revivals-new-take-on-characters/
TICKETS AND DETAILS
PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh‘s pressentation of Company runs through Sunday April 21, 2024 at the Benedum Center. Tickets at https://trustarts.org/production/86820/company
PNC Broadway in Pittsburgh is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Categories: Reviews
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