Company question

[suttonfoster]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:00am

I have 2 questions about the musical.

-When Joanne says, "I'll take care of you", then Bobby replies, "Who will I take care of?" Larry returns, and Joanne tells him, "I just did someone a big favor." What does that mean? What makes Bobby then sing "Being Alive"

also what is the deal at the end. Why was Bobby never at his Birthday party and why was he portrayed to be in the beginning?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:22am

Joanne says that because their argument leads Bobby to voice his doubts about whether getting married will really "get" him anything. She realizes this and comments that she "just did someone a big favor," implying that talking Bobby out of marriage is doing him a favor.

The beginning of Being Alive is Bobby singing about these doubts, saying that the intimacies of marriage are too close for his comfort. However as the song progresses, he comes to the realization that he wants it anyway, and that being married makes you "alive."

The birthday party scenes are not meant to be taken literally. He did not have 3 surprise birthday parties on his 35th birthday. It is a non-linear way of telling the story. In the end Bobby deliberately decides to forsake the company of his friends.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:26am

I agree with most of what you said JBroadway except I think Joanne actually meant the opposite. Bobby has no one to take care of and when he asks who he will take care of and doesn't get an answer, Joanne's implying he should get married so he will have someone to take care of. No one's marriages have worked out perfectly but that's where we get the whole transcendent conclusion in "Being Alive."

[suttonfoster]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:29am

I thought the beginning was 1 big Birthday party with all his friends there, even though they didn't know eachother, they all knew Bobby? Is that right? Why does he abandon the company of his friends at the end?

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:31am

Correct, all of Bobby's friends only know him.

I'm not sure how we're supposed to interpret the party. It could be that the party never actually happened but that it was a means of looking into Bobby's psyche. Or perhaps he leaves the superficial party to begin his quest to get married.

I think Company is one of the more complex musical theatre works there is.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 12:41am

I agree with Broadwaydevil, Joanne realizes that she has shaken Bobby up and made him reexamine his need for somebody (not, as Amy said, some BODY). In the recent philharmonic production, the scene was so beautifully played by Lupone, that I finally got it. The way Lupone played the scene, Joanne calculated every step of the way to get Bobby to realize his need for a partner. This had the dual benefit of making Joanne more likable and, at the same time, even more conniving than she is usually portrayed. It also made the scene make perfect sense.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 1:02am

What you guys are saying makes sense, but it's just confusing me more. I mean, earlier in the conversation Joanne suggests that he should not get married and that no couples are happily married. Bobby says that he has looked into "marriages and all that" and asks "what do you get?" He doesn't seem hopeful or positive in asking it, and goes right into the glass-half-empty beginning of Being Alive. This gives me the impression that Joanne's "favor" was talking him out of it.

Is there something I'm missing? am I looking at it too literally? I want to understand your interpretation more.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 1:28am

She says she opened a door that's been closed a long time. Bobby's been closed to the idea of marriage but she opened up the idea to him. Of course, he doesn't realize right away. The first time he asks "What do you get?" he means it in the literal sense and it's meant as a rebuke. Everything he's seen of marriage hasn't given anyone material benefit. Meanwhile, Joanne sees the gears turning and knows she's just opened up the thought in Bobby's head that he should get married so she feels comfortable leaving him with her husband.

When Bobby repeats "What do you get" before beginning "Being Alive," he means it in a more metaphorical sense. When he starts the song, he definitely is still a bit unconvinced. As he starts, all of his friends talk about marriage (I've always thought these voices were in his head) and then Joanne's words have sunk in. He soon realizes everything unexplainable about love/marriage - the importance of being alive. We're left with the assumption he'll be getting married.

[3bluenight]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 1:50am

I agree with the interpretation that joanne has helped bobby see that being closed of to intimacy is perhaps not the strongest choice.

when the bbc aired the donmar warehouse production in the 19990's, the intermission (or interval) interview with mendes and sondheim addressed the birthday party a little.

IIRC, they presented the idea thus: imagine walking up a flight of stairs to your apartment that you know is filled with your friends and that there is a surprise party.

Now, the whole show takes place inside your head as you're walking up the party. and you decide not to enter.

[JeanGudio]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 1:57am

Can I ask YOU a question how was little women
and yes I know its not her

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 2:14am

If Bobby's friends don't know each other, how did they all plan a surprise party for him?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 2:27am

Yeah I'm not sure. we know that Joanne doesn't know Susan, but how do we know that none of the, know each other? But also we've established that the parties are not meant to be taken literally, so maybe it doesn't matter.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 3:00am

Going back to the original script, it's pretty clear that Larry and Joanne have never met the rest before. But nothing's actually spelt out as such. It's best not to debate the mechanics.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 9:50am

It doesn't really matter much if they no each other I suppose, that's not very relevant but as posters have mentioned, we know that specific friends didn't know each other. I believe I read somewhere in an interview or maybe it was "Finishing the Hat" that Sondheim said they all didn't know each other.

The parties aren't literal, so it doesn't matter much.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 10:14am

If you look at pictures of the original Boris Aronson set with steel and elevators, it was suggestive of the kind of tall apartment tower buildings that were being built in New York in the late 1960s (Suggestive of them, NOT a literal representation of them.)

The prevailing critical idea of these buildings was that they were chic and modern but cold and impersonal--and so large that neighbors could live there without knowing each other.

So therefor Bobby's friends could "not know each other," as Sondheim has said, when he is being provocative, but have enough of a passing knowledge of each other in the halls and lobbies for two or three of the women to have planned a party.

But, as several posters have said, it's best not to get too literal with how the birthday party is happening. Remember that it was written at a time when Harold Pinter's plays were the thing, and things like settings, back stories and actual plots were kept deliberately vague.

I've always thought Joanne is drunk and makes a boozy proposition to Bobby, knowing he'll say no but still attracted to him, and his inhibitions are slightly down and to answer cleverly, he responds "Who will I take care of?"

And they both realize, it was a Freudian slip, revealing what he has been denying to all his friends: that, yes, he is lonely and, yes, he does long to be in a relationship. But it's just a crack in the facade. He doesn't open up fully until midway through "Being Alive."

The beginning of the song is Bobby still clinging on to the bravado of "I don't really need anyone." In the middle of the song, when the lyrics change, he finally lets go.

It always bothered me that he doesn't show up to the party at the end. It seemed mean of him. But if you think of it non-literally, he was using his married friends and serial girlfriends as a replacement for true intimacy. By "not showing up to the party," he is saying "I will now allow another person in."

Updated On: 7/20/12 at 10:14 AM

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 10:19am

Yay PalJoey for putting what I was saying in words far more eloquent and profound than I ever could have.

I really enjoy your posts/analysis. Thanks so much for all that you do here.

Updated On: 7/20/12 at 10:19 AM

Posted: 7/20/12 at 10:33am

I have been a long time lurker, and a prolific reader of the boards. I too wanted to express my appreciation for Pal Joey's insights. You have a succinct way of putting things, as well as a deep knowledge and understanding of the history, art, craft and entertainment value of theatre. I very much enjoy your stories, and anecdotes as they deepen my understanding. So as a long time lurker and first time poster I just wanted to say thanks!

And on the topic of the board, I can understand what Bobby could be feeling in that moment, as he stands outside the door "knowing" that everyone is waiting for him. It is in essence the moment where his life flashes before his eyes, and it spurs him to finally exit the rut he has been (un)comfortably living in for some time.

Updated On: 7/20/12 at 10:33 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 10:57am

luvtheemcee should be answering these questions!

COMPANY isn't a linear story. On the occasion of his birthday, Bobby is considering his life, his complex relationships (especially with his married friends where he is always the "third wheel" or a neutral observer), and coming to the conclusion that he needs to/thinks he wants to change. He doesn't show up at the birthday party at the end because it represents the old pattern (is there really a party, or is it just be his expectation that his crazy, married friends would be planning such a party for him?). BEING ALIVE is full of (you'll excuse the expression) hope and change, but the wonder of Sondheim is that we can't know if Bobby will follow through.

I love COMPANY - it is like a good therapy session, with great music.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 11:10am

Thank you, Devil and NorthMan! And I hope that luvtheemcee chimes in here!

I can't think of anything more exciting than the OP delving for the first time into something Sondheim wrote.

I still remember sitting in the Alvin Theater (now the Neil Simon) in April 1970 as a theater-smitten 14-year-old, watching Company for the first of four times.

I know it's a cliche but my life changed.

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 11:21am

When he doesn't enter the party at the end, he's giving up "company" for company.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 1:06pm

Ha, thanks, wonkit and Pal Joey. Having slept early and slept in and being in a different time zone made me miss this early enough to say much that won't be repetitive. But I will add my thoughts. Which will probably, as I start writing, turn out to be many where I thought there'd be few. I studied Company for a long time; its mention always opens floodgates to more than I sometimes remember is there.

I disagree that Joanne's "big favor" to Bobby was turning him off to marriage. The answer is in that line she has about opening up a door that's been stuck shut a long time. It is that moment with Joanne that gets Bobby to sing Being Alive. It gets him to realize a lot of things, particularly about the compromise he will have to make -- about how you need the pain if you want the love, and about how he can't (or at least shouldn't) continue to be that person who's on the outside looking in. What she gives him is an absolute (self-loathing) condemnation of his behavior -- vis a vis the things she hates about herself. The relationship between Bobby and Joanne is so special moving because she is the person who truly knows him the best; she gets him in ways that his other friends don't because she is exactly who he is afraid to become. That's why he listens to her. That's why she's the one who's able to snap that tether and push him into Being Alive.

I think Company is far too complicated and far too realistic to be measured simply by its ability to be "hopeful" or "positive." Sondheim said something about it once to the effect of wanting people to laugh their asses off all night and then go home and not be able to sleep: and to me, from the first time I saw it, that sums up perfectly the way the show gets under your skin. It's creeping in there and it's rattling your chains well before you even realize it, well before you even see how much it's smacked you in the face. None of it is ever black and white, if you're watching it done well. But I think that what Joanne is doing is actually very calculated -- and I don't think she really believes a good deal of what she says, because like I said before, she is disappointed with a lot of the decisions she's made and how her life has turned out. And so when Bobby asks, "What do you get?" he's not just asking that of her. He's asking it rhetorically, he's asking it of himself, and it opens right up into that flood of noise and thoughts and conflict crowding his head until he finally screams for it all to stop. It's the moment where all of the memories he's been going over in his head while he sits around fearing the party come to a head, and he finally has to get to the sum total of everything he's been weighing all evening. But, wrapping back around to the idea of whether or not the show is hopeful, I refer you to the final moment of the Doyle production: Bobby blowing out those candles with a huge, genuine smile on his face.

One of the big questions pertaining to Company for me has always been what happens to Bobby after the timeframe of the show, and I think that relates to the question of what, exactly, Joanne pushes Bobby to do. It's actually a question I have always thought I might love to pose to Sondheim, but it's something Raul and I did talk about a long time ago. And obviously there's no certain answer, but it's an interesting thing to think about in terms of what the results of those final moments turn out to be. And it dovetails into the OP's question about why he chooses to abandon his friends at the end. I guess how long the "abandonment" lasts is up for discussion, and it's actually one of the few things about the show that I don't have a strong opinion on, although I really wish I did. But a lot of what Bobby is going through is a matter of having to grow up, and be someone who makes his own choices as opposed to being a sounding board or a reflection of who his friends want him to be. There's definitely the possibility that that could take a long time for him, and maybe seeing less of his friends could be a good thing while he figures things out. Maybe they're stifling him, and he has decided it's time for change. The only thing I know is that I don't think he goes and gets married right away. That is a man who has a lot of things to work out before he is even a little bit ready to get married. Being Alive is just the beginning.

As far as the birthday parties, the big thing you have to remember about the way Company is structured is that most of it is taking place in Bobby's memory. There's only a very small part of it that is actually happening in "real time," and if you look at the real time events in a linear way, you basically get that Bobby comes home (from work or wherever), listens to his messages, hears the message giving away the surprise party, sits around for a while, thinking, maybe getting drunk if you're in the John Doyle universe, and then leaves the apartment before his friends arrive for the surprise party in Amy's message. So the parties you see in those scenes where the people come together before the finale are all pretend -- they're all either memories, conglomerations of memories, or exaggerations in Bobby's imagination, depending on the director. So the birthday party at the beginning is not the birthday party at the end. The one at the end is the (attempt at a) 35th birthday party.

And on that note, as far as who knows each other, it's clear that some of the guests don't know others, but it has never struck me as clear that they all only know Bobby. I suppose you could direct it that way. I wouldn't say that it doesn't matter because the parties aren't literal, though. It's not that they aren't literal, it's that they aren't the same party. Depending on how the scenes are directed/perceived, those could be Bobby's memories of parties that actually did happen. They could be real and in the past.

I agree with Pal Joey about the coldness and the impersonal feeling. To me, Company, especially as it plays now, is not a show so much about marriage, but about the disconnect and distance that's written into all of our relationships. It's about something bigger than sex and romance, it's about our inability to connect to one another.

This show is one of the greatest loves I have ever known, and it changed me in ways that I discovered then, but also in ways that I'm still just beginning to discover years later. Its penchant for making you ask questions and try to figure it out is one of the best things about it, which is why I always love to see people start threads like this. I hope you'll love it too.

Updated On: 7/20/12 at 01:06 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/12 at 8:24pm

well said, LuvtheEmcee and all of you really! I definitely think now that your interpretation of Joanne's comment makes more sense than the one I originally posted. I love how much we all appreciate the complexity of the show and how amazing it is!