Company, the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in New York, is turned on its head in Elliott's revelatory staging, in which musical theatre's most iconic bachelor is now a bachelorette. At Bobbie's 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn't she married? Why can't she find the right man? And, why can't she settle down and have a family? This whip smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim's best loved songs, including "Company," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "The Ladies Who Lunch," "Side by Side," and the iconic "Being Alive."
With a new take turning our beloved bachelor into a bachelorette, director Marianne Elliott breathes a new life into the staging of this beloved script, giving it its well-deserved 21st-century makeover. It’s Bobbie’s 35th birthday party and with that comes the barrage of probing from her friends: when will she finally settle down with a man and start a family? COMPANY takes you on Bobbie’s journey to find the answer, asking the audience to think about what it means to be married, to be single, and to be alive.
It doesn’t help that the script pairs a passive Bobbie against a crew of colorful couples, ramped up to outsized caricatures in this production. The supporting company superbly grounds their absurdity. The brilliant Matt Rodin deftly navigates the dizzying dread and breakneck pace of “Not Getting Married Today,” now sung by groom Jamie hours before he weds Paul, and unexpected jump scares courtesy of Marina Kondo’s operatic priestess of love and Elliott’s effective staging hams up the number to showstopping proportions. Jacob Dickey finds an earnest sweetness in Andy, the handsome, simple minded flight attendant dating Bobbie. Judy McLane as Joanne, clad in sumptuous furs and sequins designed by Christie, delivers a commanding “Ladies Who Lunch” draped on a barstool and wielding her vodka stinger like a cynical dagger as a warning to those who, like Bobbie, sit on the sidelines watching — but never fully living — life.
Videos