What better way to celebrate the life and work of Stephen Sondheim than a unrivaled production of his1970 hit Company. The musical, which opened earlier this month, is a gender bender interpretation. Male roles are played by women and vice versa. The show was first staged in London a few years ago and was set to open on Broadway in March 2020 before Broadway shut down.
My only quibble with Company is the role of Bobbie, played by the multi-talented Katrina Lenk. She was sensational in the drama Indecent and superb in The Band’s Visit, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical. However, in Company, while front and center throughout the show, her performance takes a backseat to the outstanding featured performers. Ms. Lenk is the thread that links the scenes, but she comes across more as a passive, curious observer.
The show opens as Bobbie, still unattached, is “celebrating” her 35th birthday. Her married friends - no single persons are in sight - are throwing a surprise party for her. That event is the springboard for a series of non-linear storylines involving Bobbie that chronicles the ups and downs of married life, dating, and divorce.
The music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim is one of his finest. He received the first of his six Tony Awards for Best score with the show. They are delivered with confidence and aplomb by the first-rate cast. Every song is a memorable gem. They include such classics as the title number, "The Little Things You Do Together," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy, " "Another Hundred People," and "The Ladies Who Lunch."
George Furth’s book, with its uncompromising lens on the institution of marriage and relationships, was fresh and bold in 1970. Over 50 years later, it still feels contemporary. Furth’s work can be meditative, poignant and very funny. The musical’s structure of unconnected vignettes gives the show an episodic quality that takes a few scenes to get accustomed to.
The top-notch actors and actresses are led by Katrina Lenk who, despite my misgivings with her portrayal, does bring an appropriately jaded, questioning outlook that stands in contrast to the sunny and sometimes somber disposition of her married friends. Every one of the featured players deliver a highly accomplished performance. Three of them are notable standouts - Jennifer Simard is hysterical as the seemingly health-conscious Sarah. Matt Doyle is uproarious as Jamie, the overly anxious and jittery husband-to-be, who gets to sing the demanding tongue twister of a song “Getting Married Today.” Patti Lupone is outstanding as Joanne, Bobbie’s boozy friend who oozes sarcasm and enmity. Her rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch” rivals that of the original Joanne, Elaine Stritch.
Director Marianne Elliott and set designer Bunny Christie utilize sliding sets and doors that open up to materializing rooms to give the production an Alice in Wonderland feel, both suggestively and literally. It lends the show a surreal-like quality that helps interweave the storyline together. Elliott, who’s guidance of such dramas as War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, were inventive and lively, self-assuredly shapes each scene to be engaging and dynamic.
Company is not a musical with big production numbers. Nevertheless, Choreographer Liam Steel makes judicious use of dance to augment and enhance scenes, providing a creative use of movement in the show.
Company, providing audiences a chance to revel in a Stephen Sondheim classic, performed by a superlative cast.
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