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A CurtainUp 
Berkshires Review
Berkshires Review Company
By Elyse Sommer
| Someone to hold you too close, Someone to hurt you too deep, Someone to sit in your chair, To ruin your sleep, To Make you aware Of being alive. . . — from Bobby's big finale, "Being Alive." |
It took the vision of director Harold Prince to shape George Furth's collection of one-act plays into something that would shatter the conventions of the plot driven musical. A show driven by a concept -- the struggle to connect and commit -- rather than a tightly knitted plot; songs that instead of moving the story forward, commented on its characters. That groundbreaking musical, Company, was composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim's first big success. It won 6 Tony Awards, and has been much revived and recorded and many Sondheim devotees have memorized every song and seen every production they could.
These Sondheimites and anyone who's never seen Company, will want to catch Julianne Boyd's spiffy production which opened last Friday at the Consolati Arts Center. As with previous revivals Ms. Boyd invests this one with her gift for capturing the original creative vision within her own always up-to-the minute perspective. She has assembled a talented and energetic team of performers. All do full justice to Sondheim's varied rhythms and the at once touching and funny lyrics and George Furth's vignettes about a group of New Yorkers determined to pull their thirty-five-year-old bachelor friend Bobby into their two-by-two Noah's Arc world.
Robert Bartley is a personable Bobby, who is understandably confused by his friends' double messages about marriage. Even as they tell him marriage is wonderful, they make him spectator to their own troubled relationships. No wonder Bobby can't gather the will to blow out the candles on the cake they present to him at his thirty-fifth birthday party.
From the overture with its insistent " Bobby, Bobby, Bobby baby, Bobby bubi, Robby, Robert darling . . ." coming out of Bobby's answering machine to Bobby's final move towards self-awareness with "Being Alive", his married and about to be married friends, as well as the three potential Miss Rights in his life emerge as fully rounded characters.
Kathryn Kendall epitomizes the funny-sad quality in everyone. Her Sarah knows how to throw a karate chop but not how to stick to her diet, just as her husband David (Larry Cahn) periodically forgets his pledge never to drink again. One of the show's comic highlights, a musical panic attack before an impending wedding, has Brandy Zarle as Amy deftly navigate hysteria and the impossible tempo of "Getting Married Today. "
The older couple, Joanne and Larry, are beautifully portrayed by Alison Bevan and David Brummel. The only disappointment about Ms. Bevan's on target "The Ladies Who Lunch" is that since she is seated very close to the musicians during this number, the instruments at times drown out the priceless lyrics. Since this space has no orchestra pit to avoid such problems, perhaps Ms. Boyd ought to consider moving the musicians to the rear of the stage for her next musical.
The look of the show is just specific enough to scream New York, but without being locked into a particular time. Becca Ayers, is a delight as Bobby's hip girl friend Marta. Her peppy rendition of the quintessential New York song, "Another Hundred People" makes it hard to believe that this number was almost dropped from the show. Erin Gilliland as another of Bobby's girl friends is deliciously dumb as April the dumb airline hostess who must leave his bed to fly to "Barcelona. "
Stephen Sondheim and George Furth hoped that Company would give the audience something to make them laugh all night and then stay awake the rest of the night thinking about it. Add to that weeks of humming the by now classic songs and fast forward to summer 2000 when Ms. Boyd and her energetic team have once again done exactly that.
LINKS
Sondheim at CurtainUp
Saturday Night (Sondheim's never produced show, presented last season off-Broadway A Little Night Music (at Barrington Stage)
Marry Me A Little (popular on the regional circuit)
Putting It Together -- on Broadway, with Carol Burnett
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street a much heralded production in DC
Some Other Barrington Stage Musical Reviewed by CurtainUp
Mack & Mabel
Cabaret
A Little Night Music
| COMPANY Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by George Furth Directed by Julianne Boyd Starring (in alphabetical order): Becca Ayers, Robert Bartley, Alison Bevan, Pamela Bob, David Brummel, Larry Cahn, Michael J. Farina, Erin Gilliland, MaryleeGraffeo, Kathryn Kendall, Gary Lindemann, Christianne Tisdale, Brandy Zarle, Kurt Ziskie Musical Director: Darren Cohen Choreographer: Linda Cholodenko Set Design: John Coyne Lighting Design: Jeff Croiter Costume Design: Louisa Thompson Sound Design: Jim van Bergen Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including 1 intermission Barrington Stage at Consolati Performing Arts Center Sheffield, MA (513) 528-8888 http://www.barringtonstageco.org 6/21/2000-7/16/2000; opening 6/24/2000 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on 6/24 performance Musical Numbers Act One Overture/ The Company Company/ The Company The Little Things You Do Together/ Joanne, Amy, Paul, Peter, Susan, Jenny, David, Larry Sorry-Grateful/ Harry, David, Larry You Could Drive a PersonCrazy/ April, Marta, Kathy Have I Got A Girl For You /Husbands, Wives Another Hundred People/ Marta Getting Married Today /Woman, Amy, Paul, Guests Marry Me a Little/ Husbands, Wives, Robert Musical Numbers Act Two Side By Side By Side/ Robert, Husbands, Wives Poor Baby/ Wives Barcelona/Robert, April The Ladies Who Lunch/Joanne Being Alive/ Husbands, Wives, Robert Background Notes
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