Here’s to the Ladies Who Launch
How do you take flight when your friends are determined to ground you? Bobbie doesn’t know. But this gender-flipped new Company makes for an interesting exploration. The Broadway tour performs in Seattle at the Paramount Theatre through Sunday (7/28).
To settle or not to settle? That is the question for Bobbie, who’s “celebrating” (grudgingly) her 35th birthday flanked by friends who are all either married or about to be, and all seemingly wondering why her progress is stalled. Is it time to settle down, despite her misgivings? Should she settle for one of the three imperfect men who pop in and out of her life? And just how happy are her friends in their settling, anyway?
Company is a weird show: a series of vignettes (giving Almost, Maine vibes) anchored loosely around a theme, then spun into a big Broadway musical.
Clearly the formula is working. The celebrated musical, which predates Almost, Maine by decades, is now well into its 50s and still going strong. Its latest revival features a series of gender-swaps: personalities swapped within couples, the introduction of a same-sex couple (as Amy becomes Jamie), and, most visibly, the lead morphing from bachelor Bobby to bachelorette Bobbie. (Read about the revival backstory in a New York Times interview with Sondheim and director Marianne Elliott here; subscription not required.)
Funny enough, that revival concept is closer to the original idea. Playwright George Furth penned the scenes as an array of short plays connected by a female character; with its reworking as a musical, some stories changed, the lead changed, and the introduction of Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics infused the energy that turned A Husband, A Wife, A Friend into Company. It’s one big theatrical circle of life.
In the leading role, Britney Coleman gives her Bobbie a convincing state of adrift that pops into these snapshots as exasperation (why am I here?), freedom (I won’t have what they’re having), loneliness and longing, and, ultimately, gratitude. This, despite the story arc — or even the suggestion of one — not always making a whole lot of sense. Is the end goal really marriage? Every last character suggests otherwise, up until the crescendo of “Being Alive,” which Coleman powers beautifully, abruptly heaves its all into the altar as the one true aim.
The sweetest, lovey-est scene thrives in the ambivalence between its poles: the over-the-top proclamations of love from Paul (Jhardon DiShon Milton) colliding with would-be-husband Jamie’s relentless patter of wedding-day cold feet (performed by the excellent Kenneth Quinney Francoeur on the night I saw), all under the delightfully absurd operatic swoons from the Priest (a standout Marina Kondo). It takes a disastrous blowout to remind Jamie of the greatness of what he’s got. The breakneck pace of the number (“Getting Married Today”) is a welcome reprieve from the rest of Act I, which often drags. (Act II, in contrast, zips along quite well.)
Even stacked up against some iconic music (the pinnacle of which is “The Ladies Who Lunch,” for which Judy McLane’s Joanne puts up a grand stand), it’s the choreography of moods and movement — the bustle, the stillness, the crowded-out — that makes this show a show. Working with scenic design by Bunny Christie (who also did costumes) and lighting by Neil Austin, choreographer Liam Steel creates a dazzling array of freeze-frames, farcical entrances, relentless tides of passersby (a New York hallmark if ever there was one), and, through a stylized game of musical chairs, the unique devastation of being the only one left out at your own damn party.
Happy milestone birthday to you!
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As the show settles into its 50s, it would have been nice to see the revival take a step further. After all, isn’t 50 the new 35? It’d be interesting to follow Bobbie at 50, with plenty of opportunities amid credible regrets (has the chance for love really passed her by? should she have it all figured out by then?), alongside a decades-older Joanne still living it up in her prime.
(Looking for fun stories with crafty older women protagonists? Pamela Dorman Books seems to make that a specialty, with this year’s releases including Clare Pooley’s ‘How to Age Disgracefully’ (one of NWT’s upcoming On Book picks for August), Hillary Yablon’s ‘Sylvia’s Second Act’, and Olivia Ford’s ‘Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame’.)
For now, audiences can leave it to their imaginations to work out what age the stories land best for them, as Company considers not just pressures to conform and love, but the phenomenon of loneliness in a crowd, too. This showing gives a lot to work with.
Company runs through 7/28 at the Paramount Theatre, in Downtown Seattle. Tickets here. Accessibility notes: main restrooms downstairs and upstairs are gendered and multi-stall, with gender-neutral, single-stall restroom on the main floor. Theatre and some common areas are wheelchair accessible. ASL-interpreted and audio described performance at 7/28 matinee; open-captioned performance 7/28 evening.
Run time: 2 hours 40 minutes, with intermission.
Chase D. Anderson is Editor & Producer of NWTheatre.org.