No better example of that arduous journey is the new revival of the Stephen Sondheim 1970 musical "Company." In 2018, British director Marianne Elliott had an idea to bringing back the show but updating it to 21st Century standards. Flipping the lead of single guy Bobby to a single gal Bobbi. Switching out several of the married couples and installing one gay match-up. And making the show's words a bit more contemporary/
This new rendering debuted in London in 2018 and the goal was to bring it to Broadway in March 2020 with an opening on composer Sondheim's 90th birthday.
March 2020? Yep, screech. Hit the brakes. Right in the middle of their previews, the show was shut down with the rest of us.
Calendar pages flying off forward, "Company" finally saw its latest incarnation in the Fall of 2021. And that was still bouncy. Cast members shuttled in and out with COVID. Creator Sondheim saw a preview of it in November and promptly died a week later. And who knows what else could happen?
Well, effectively, the bad times have ended for this production. It's won a bunch of Tonys and all are deserved. I've seen about five editions of "Company" in my life. Until now, the 2011 NY City Center version with Neil Patrick Harris was my favorite. But the switching out and the re-imagining and the updating by Elliott and her team have made this current "Company" my absolute favorite.
First of all, the staging is imaginative and so contemporary. This show, 50 plus years old, feels brand new with music that sounds like it was written yesterday. Sets and locations fly around the stage magically with ease. And the box that serves as Bobbi's NYC apartment provides the claustrophobic setting that matches the character's feeling about all her married friends.
Does the gender switch work? Yes, for the most part. There's one number "Grateful/Sorry" where the husbands tell Bobbi of their views of marriage that was a bit uncomfortable and would make more sense for them to share with a male Bobby. But the rest of it works.
The famous song sung by a prospective bride..."Not Getting Married"...is now sung by a male who is going to be wedding his husband. Almost mystically, this all works thanks to the amazing work of Matt Doyle as the bride. He won the Tony for this performance and it was a landslide for sure.
The cast is superlative. Katrina Lenk as Bobbi has a few spotty moments and you would hope for her to be a bit more forceful, most notably in the signature "Being Alive" number. But, that's a small quibble to an overall very good performance.
"Company" is well known for housing the famous "Ladies Who Lunch" song which has been a guaranteed standing ovation for some older Broadway diva. In this case, it's Patti LuPone's turn and she puts a slightly different spin on it. Most of the time, the song ends with some actress bellowing and screeching like a speeding subway train pulling into the yard. In this version, LuPone never really leaves her bar stool. Does she belt it out? Yes. Does it sound like chalk on the blackboard at the end? No. And a grateful Len nods his head in approval.
I can't recommend this rendition of "Company" enough. Now if we can only get rid of these damn masks....
Dinner last night: Spicy chicken and shrimp with pineapple at the Cheesecake Factory.
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