Company (Broadway) Review
Review of the 2021/2022 revival of Company on Broadway.
I bought a ticket to Company spontaneously as I bought tickets for Dear Evan Hansen and Phantom of the Opera, and I honestly knew nothing about this revival beforehand. It was after the ticket I went on a downward spiral, as I realized Jonathan Bailey had originated the role of Jamie on West End, as well as the fact this won the most Tony Awards not even a week after I was confirmed to see the show.
My boss and coworkers—I work in theatre—also raved about this adaptation, and since I had only ever seen one other Sondheim show during my brief theatre lifetime, which was the doomed revival of West Side Story, I got really excited before going into this show.
Unfortunately, when I showed up, most of the seats were empty on a Wednesday night 8 PM show. This was the time it had shockingly announced it was closing a month later, but at least when I saw the show we were allowed to move up because of the empty seats, and most of the main cast (no understudies) were on that night. And when I say that Company is now my second favorite show I’ve ever seen—Hadestown is first—I am 100% not lying.
Cast and Story
Before going into this, I was highly aware from watching the Tony Awards that both Patti LuPone and Matt Doyle took home awards for their performances in Company, but I knew nothing outside of them and the fact that Katrina Lenk starred as the genderbent Bobbie. I had read beforehand that people did not like Katrina Lenk’s take on Bobbie, but, to be honest, I thought that she did a really great job.
Obviously I saw her towards the very end of the show's run, at the end of June, so she had plenty of time to get herself together, but I did not really see people’s complaints. Her version of “Being Alive” was well-done and got several standing ovations before she was even done while I was there.
Company, or at least this version, genderbends the cast. So Bobby becomes Bobbie, Jamie is a new gay character, and the love interests all become male to match the fact that the female lead is switched. This completely changes the themes and messages to make it more relevant, which I found to be the perfect tribute to Sondheim. This was the last show he supervised before his death last year, and so it will be the final show to have his final stamp of approval.
As a young woman who had never seen the original storyline of Company, I am so so glad I saw this version before all else. It’s not only an ode to New York City and the loneliness that comes with it, but also the connotations that come with being a single woman in this day and age.
The way the set design is done is that it becomes the inner workings of Bobbie’s mind, so as she shifts from scene to scene, we are literally racing through her thoughts to gather her feelings about life on her thirty-fifth birthday. More on the set design later, but I thought this was brilliantly done.
Another thing that was incredible about the show was how funny it was. Whether it’s the idiotic flight attendant that Bobbie is desperately trying to sleep with, her friends being concerned about the fact that she isn’t married yet, or the gag about wanting to quit eating junk food and alcohol, it all felt fresh.
Company features one of the hardest musical songs, ”Getting Married Today,” and that is the song that had me in stitches. I have not laughed at a show in this long and I was almost crying during “Getting Married Today.” That is an incredible feat if you are going to ask me, so that alone makes it worth it.
The songs themselves are also humorous at times, but there are some serious ones that will have you thinking for days. The song about New York City strikes the perfect part of my heart, and so does “Being Alive.” I was genuinely impressed with the soundtrack’s efforts to balance the serious with the funny parts of being alive.
Set Design
The set design on this show is absolutely incredible. You can get a feel for it almost immediately when you enter the theatre, as the neon Company sign is on the stage—-when that comes up the show starts. The beginning of the show opens in Bobbie’s small entry room, where she fiddles with some balloons, and it’s this claustrophobic little box lit up by neon. Then as the show expands into the vignette style of telling the overarching stories, The connecting rooms glide up and create more scenes, while doors are utilized and slammed throughout as characters enter/exit.
Since we’re inside Bobbie’s mind, too, there are moments where she physically steps outside of the box and peers in, navigating through the darker world that exists on the stage.
There are some really cool moments where the stage rises up and she enters a balcony scene through a pothole, literally dropping in onto the scene like she’s landed on a memory. There’s also the gag moment where she enters a tiny door on her knees and finds the mini bourbon bottle and birthday cake, making her physically feeling small then she has ever felt before now.
But one of the most stylistically gorgeous scenes for me is when “Another Hundred People” begins. PJ, who is the gender swapped version of Marta, is the male love interest with Bobbie when this happens, but characters move in and out of cutout neon letters spelling Company.
As they represent the NYC crowds of people, the letters shift between colors, making this a really beautifully striking scene that comes across very well on the stage. It serves as a harsh juxtaposition, too, to when Bobbie is finally alone on the stage and belts out “Being Alive” and accepts what her final decision may be.
Finally, the most brilliant scene comedically was “Getting Married Today.” When the priest randomly pops out of the most strange locations and belts out her aria about the wedding to come, then Matt Doyle tries to shove her in the fridge, it’s hilarious. It highlights these moments where characters just wander onto random scenes through the bathtub and start singing about how they’re concerned Bobbie is single.
Overall Thoughts
I came into this show thinking that I needed to see Patti LuPone at least once before she finally retires, but I honestly left devastated that I don’t live in NYC and wouldn’t have the opportunity to see it again.
It’s incredibly sad to see how the show hasn’t been selling well, which led to its untimely demise, because it genuinely was such a good show. Visually it’s good, the cast is incredible, it’s funny, and there is so much creativity that came into play with the creation of the set design and transitions. Truly so sad that it closed on such short notice.
