Theater Thursday - Company

We were given complimentary tickets to Company for review purposes. Any and all opinions expressed here are our own. 

What: Company

Where: Bernard B. Jacobs Theater

             242 W. 45th St.

             New York, NY

Who: Recommended for Ages 13 and Up

Me - Company was a really good show. I really liked the songs. Some of them I was familiar with before, and some I wasn't. If I had to pick a favorite, I would choose Getting Married Today. The way they performed it in the show was really fun. Some people even gave a standing ovation after that number. There were actually several standing ovations during the show. I never saw that before. 

The performances were excellent. Many of the performers I had seen before in other roles,  and I  enjoyed their performances then too. It was great to see so many great performers back on the stage where they belong. 

The set was fascinating. It was really interesting how they transitioned from scene to scene. All in all, it was a really engaging show and definitely worth seeing.

Mom - The current production of Company is a gender-flipped version of the show that was originally staged on Broadway in 1970 and has been revived on Broadway twice prior to now as well as produced in numerous other places in the United States and around the globe. While it is great to see the producers thinking outside the box to bring this revival that is both a unique production and a beloved favorite at the same time, it is a sad commentary on society that in the present day it is so much more believable that it would be an issue for a female character to be unattached in her thirties than a male character.

While most of the other characters remain the same, there is also one other character who has been gender-flipped. The cast is populated by couples who are friends of Bobbie and the female partner in one of these couples has been changed to a male subsequently changing the couple from a heteretosexual couple to a homosexual couple. This is something that probably would not have gone over well in the original production of the show but makes the current production even more modern and timely. 

    

Matt Doyle who plays Jaime the gender-flipped character is a showstopper in his hilarious turn in the amusing I'm Not Getting Married. That number is on the whole hysterical and one of the show's highlights. However, the show is on the whole filled with some of composer, Stephen Sondheim's best songs ranging from the emotional Being Alive and Sorry-Grateful to the catchy and fun You Can Drive A Person Crazy and Side by Side by Side.

Aside from Matt Doyle, the cast is filled with Broadway favorites including Katrina Lenk in the lead role as Bobbie as well as Christopher Fitzgerald, Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, the legendary Patti Lupone, and more. These actors have previously appeared  in a variety of showstopping roles including the title role of Evita, Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, Oogie in Waitress and many more. Accordingly, the cast is stellar and the performances are terrific. As the last Stephen Sondheim show to be produced on Broadway during the celebrated composer's lifetime, it's a fitting tribute.

And that's our view. Tune in Sunday for this week's Sunday Scoop.   

Photo credits: All Company production photos by Matthew Murphy