'Company' revival could drive a critic crazy

‘COMPANY’: Katrina Lenk. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

COMPANY
Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Marianne Elliott
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
242 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), https://companymusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

The latest Company revival could drive a critic (and purists) crazy with British director Marianne Elliott’s new, often confusing and very European spin on this masterpiece that has never needed tampering. Why? It is the quintessential New York musical, a show renowned for its simplicity, sophistication and gorgeous score, featuring classics like “Being Alive,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “Another Hundred People,” “Getting Married Today” and others. What’s offered here is a 21^st century perspective to dust off the narrative cobwebs and dated dialogue and make it relevant in 2021, but the score by Stephen Sondheim (who died last month) is so timeless that there was no need for a major overhaul here More than 50 years have passed since Company first premiered on Broadway but much of the overall premise of the show rings true today. Manhattan is still a maddening, overcrowded insane world with millions of people, and it’s still so easy to feel alone when you’re single. This is certainly one of Mr. Sondheim’s greatest works, if not the best. George Furth’s original book was—dare I say it?—ahead of its time back in 1970 when Company premiered on Broadway. Many aspects of the show—tiny Manhattan apartments, expectations about getting married, the hustle and bustle of the New York City subway—are still relevant today. Company is both an all-American musical and a paean to New York City, but Ms. Elliott’s interpretation (a hit in 2018 in London) has diminished many of the charms of the original show.

Director Marianne Elliott’s biggest change to the story is swapping the gender of lead character Bobby. Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit) plays Bobbie, a single Manhattan woman celebrating her 35^th birthday. Ms. Lenk has a great voice and an effervescent stage presence, but she appears too bland and emotionally distant for audiences to root for her, and this is problematic since the original Bobby was always the least interesting character in Company.

Marianne Elliott did such a superb job with the 2018 Broadway revival of Angels in America and the 2014 British import The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so it is disappointing that she has added too much European-style excess here, from a scene showing Bobbie in the rain to various characters running through Bobbie’s bedroom during the “Barcelona” number in act two. The last revival in 2006, starring Raul Julia as Bobby, was also very minimalist and featured gimmicky touches from another British director, John Doyle. Remember how John Doyle had the actors play instruments onstage in the revival of Company and, in 2005, Sweeney Todd? One of the changes that truly works is changing a straight couple to a gay couple. The character of Jamie (originally Amy) is played with manic exuberance by Matt Doyle as a gay man about to marry his partner Paul (Etai Benson). Mr. Doyle truly stops the show with his outstanding rendition of “Getting Married Today.” He displays all the nervous emotions of wedding-day jitters that both men and women, straight or gay, can relate to, and Mr. Doyle should certainly be a front-runner for a Tony Award in a few months.

Another standout is Tony nominee Jennifer Simard as Sarah, the diet-crazed woman married to recovering alcoholic Harry (Christopher Sieber). Fans of Patti LuPone will not be disappointed with her take on the glamorous, acid-tongued Joanne, Bobbie’s oldest and dearest friend who loves to talk about her many husbands. Ms. LuPone is her usual over-the-top self, belting out one of the show’s most famous songs, “The Ladies Who Lunch,” with her famous tough-diva pipes.

Scenic designer Bunny Christie mostly fills the stage with Neon-lit boxes and Mylar balloons in an attempt to make the show more contemporary, but doing so takes away some of the show’s New York accent. Anyone who has at least studied the 1970 original remembers the set was actually a character in the show. Walter Kerr wrote in his 1970 New York Times review that the set by Boris Aronson “at first looks like the prison setting for ‘The Last Mile’ [but] becomes a breath-taking mobile, an interlocked Tinker-Toy of rippling platforms, sighing elevators, spun-glass spindles for dances to chin themselves on.” In this revival, the set designs look nothing like New York City and could be Anywhere, USA.

Despite this revival’s many shortcomings, it is worth seeing Company simply for the score resurrected one more time to truly appreciate the late, great Mr. Sondheim and hear all the beautiful songs by the last of the great Broadway songsmiths.

Edited by David NouNou
Published December 12, 2021
Reviewed at December 11, 2021 press performance.