COMPANY Revival On Tour - News & Discussion Thread- Page 11

[ACL2006]

Posted: 2/4/24 at 7:57am

A.J. said: "Fingers crossed this tour makes a stop in Toronto in its second year."

this tour isn't running for a second year.

[RWPrincess]

Posted: 2/4/24 at 9:19am

I also took a day trip to New Haven yesterday. I am still kind of shocked this played there so early in the tour. Perhaps because Sondheim had a home in Connecticut. Anyway, I agree with most of the feedback in this thread. But one thing I have not seen mentioned is that a lot of the costumes have changed. It does seem like maybe they choose the costumes to suit the actors wearing them. Nothing bad but if you have seen this on Broadway, you will notice it.

I thought the overall choreography in Another Hundred People was different along with the new letters. On Broadway, they had added ensemble members and on the tour they do not. And I do not recall Joanne being such a focal point in that number on Braodway. I was happy to see most of the Broadway sets though with the main change being the terrace set.

A really strong and capable cast overall and well worth seeing but if you have seen the Broadway production, it might be underwhelming. 

 

[A.J.]

Posted: 2/4/24 at 10:28am

ACL2006 said: "A.J. said: "Fingers crossed this tour makes a stop in Toronto in its second year."

this tour isn't running for a second year."

Thanks for the heads-up. 

It’s such a bummer when shows launch a “North American” tour that never leaves the states.

Why not just call it a “National Tour” instead of teasing us Canadians? 

 

Updated On: 2/4/24 at 10:28 AM

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 12:16am

I caught this at the Kennedy Center tonight and really enjoyed it. It was my first time seeing the show live, though I had followed this production on here since it started previews on Broadway (in March of 2020!). Company has a special place in my heart. The OBC was what got me into theatre. It was my first Sondheim and the first recording I was obsessed with. I played that record over and over on the way to school every single day for a solid three month period and then fell in love with it all over again when I found the Larry Kert recording. I’m quite familiar with the show, having seeing both recordings of the Doyle revival as well as the concert version with NPH and LuPone. I've been intrigued what this production would do with the revisal - and what Elliot and Sondheim had delved into beyond Furth’s text. I will say I didn’t come in completely blind - I have heard Lenk’s Tiny Desk rendition of “Someone Is Waiting” more times that I can count and though I know there were regular complaints about her vocal performance, I just adore it. Still upset we didn’t get a cast recording.

I thought the tour cast was all-across great, though no one gave a particularly revelatory performance. I oddly felt that Jed Resnick was a standout as David, a role that I usually don’t think much of. He brought a pathos to his role that made me think of the role differently, though the fact that the lines between David and his wife were swapped in this production gave him a lot more to work with.

Britney Coleman brought an assured presence to the show, and remained grounded and present throughout the entire performance. She isn’t performative - unless Bobbie is performing for her friends - and you really get the feeling she is actually listening and reacting to what’s going on around her, which some of the cast unfortunately didn’t. Britney gives the role a smiley gloss that hides something underneath, but I felt that she didn’t reveal what that was enough to build a performance around. Katrina has such an open face that you can read a thousand thoughts and meanings into one look or sigh. Britney doesn’t have that quality, and as a result her Bobbie is striking, assured, and in control… but she’s not haunting.

Britney has a wonderful voice, and in the first act she bridges her upper register with the lower in interesting and graceful ways. I feel the same about Craig and Lenk’s voices in the keys - clearly Elliot and Sondheim wanted the upper register to be utilized fully, not a full belt. "Someone Is Waiting" and "Marry Me a Little" had a drive, and her voice was more than capable. "Being Alive" was where her voice leapt into action, and she did the whole number in chest voice. I felt shades of Mother from Ragtime - the vocal journey of transitioning from the traditional upper register to belt as a mirror for the character’s freedom and catharsis.

Jacob Dickey was fantastic as Andy, and his chemistry with Britney was a highlight of the show. The “twin monologues” in the middle of "Poor Baby" was one of my favorite parts of the show. It reminded me that no matter how many people hate on Furth’s book, so much of it is genuinely hilarious. How many people have seen the book as originally performed in 1970? There were needless revisals for later productions (like the awful homosexual experience scene, which is thankfully cut here) that I think leads people to hate the book more than it deserves. I feel the same way about Goldman’s work in Follies and Weidmam’s work in Pacific Overtures, two other shows with books that are needlessly tinkered with for the worse.

Tyler Hardwick gave the show’s best vocal performance with "Another Hundred People" and came across appropriately loser-ish. David Socolar brought pathos to his scene, but without the original "Tick Tock," it’s a thankless part. Matt Rodin brought down the house with "Getting Married Today," though they spoke too many of the words for my taste. That song and scene were easily the biggest crowd pleaser of the first act though, and J**** DiShon Milton was a perfect partner for Matt to play with. The button of Bobbie asking Jamie to marry her doesn’t hit or feel true beyond a joke, which is a fundamental problem for the revisal that it seems they never figured out. There is no tension in the proposition, no belief that it will actually happen and it doesn’t make sense that it would trigger "Marry Me a Little" for Bobbie.

Judy McLane carried herself like a star and worked perfectly for the part. It didn’t hurt that she looked stunning in the club scene, reminiscent of Jan Maxwell as Phillis. I had been surprised to learn that she was in Were the World Mine, one of my absolutely favorite movies and one I’ve seen upwards of twenty times. I had high hopes and she mostly met them. It’s hard to chase away the phantoms of Stritch and LuPone - particularly when I have Patti’s perfect recording of "Ladies Who Lunch" from the Philharmonic concert playing in my mind every time I hear the song. I felt that Judy was too subdued in the song, though she definitely has the voice to pull it off. I wanted Joanne to go balls to the wall in that song, especially with how drunk McLane plays her. The book scenes were pretty perfect, with the staring scene providing the appropriate linchpin for Bobbie to jump into "Being Alive." I still think the scene would have been more effective if Joanne was propositioning Bobbie herself, not for Larry, but the actors made it work.

The set was pretty great - I loved the 35s hidden in each apartment. The one segment I disliked were the terrace scenes, which were literally a neon box with a railing in front of a black curtain. I found that disappointing and very tour caliber (that can’t have been how it was on Broadway!), but it was probably a total of 5 minutes of stage time. I think the rain effect in "Marry Me a Little" was cut when the production re-opened in 2021, but I found myself missing it, especially when Britney started pantomiming being in the pouring rain and getting soaked. I thought it would have added some extra heft to the end of the act.

This is playing the Kennedy Center Opera House, and you can tell this production wasn’t built for this stage. I got the impression the back half of the stage was curtained off and ignored. For those of us near the orchestra, the pit was laughably big for the band. The program lists David Cullin as the Orchestrator - did he do the tour reduction? I thought Tunick did the Broadway reduction. I mostly didn’t mind the reduction (though of course I would have loved the full orchestration) but the 9 pieces really weren’t enough during the dance segment of "What Would We Do Without You?" (particularly with the continued added bars) and "Tick Tock." I also missed the brass section in "Laddies Who Lunch" and "Being Alive." I paid $70 for a front-row seat, which was the perfect move. I think the show would be swallowed up from further back. I even felt removed from the Into the Woods tour at the Curran when I sat in the front row of the Mezzanine, and that’s a much smaller theatre.

As for the production, I wish I had gotten to see the Broadway version, because so much of the material did feel so mined for additional meaning and I found myself reexamining what the piece means in a new context. It was frustrating that it seemed that Elliot fixed 95% of the book and score to fit her vision, but stray lines would creep in and bring the facade crumbling down. And not innocuous lines (though Jamie’s quip that people would think he was pregnant was odd, but funny enough to look the other way), but major character beats! I have smaller knit-picks I could get into - "Side By Side By Side" / "What Would We Do Without You?" is sloppily staged and didn’t pack the punch it needed to; "Tick Tock" didn’t narratively justify its inclusion over the original dance; and some of the Sondheim lyric changes were needless and distracting, but I’m very happy to have seen the show and so happy that this one-of-a-kind production was fully brought to life across the country. This production was so special - I lived vicariously through all of you through its run - and it lives on in this tour.

During intermission I overheard the audience members behind me wondering if the character of Bobbie was supposed to be a man, what the original staging of “that song with all the phones” would have been in 1970, and why the title was Company. After the show, I heard people saying “it was a weird show” and “I don’t know what it was trying to say, but I’m happy she got what she wanted in the end.” It’s cool to see a show I know so well in DC and not NY, where I feel like most of the audience would be made of of Sondheim fanatics who know every word - and there were some of those there, the woman next to me turned around to let the girls behind us know that yes, Bobbie was originally a man and this was a “remake.” Hearing people talk and digest this special show was touching. It reminded me of what all good art does - worm itself into your very being and never let you go. That’s how I felt all those years ago when I first listened to that original cast recording. How confused I was by the repetitious birthday party scenes when I watched the Doyle video and later read the libretto (by the way, the birthday party framing device was perfection in this production, Elliot made its work seamlessly). Company has always been a puzzle that people are trying to solve, and this production is a worthy successor to that lineage. I hope the director of the 2045 revival was in the audience of the tour, getting excited about what theatre can be and what solution they have for this incredible piece.

[inception]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 10:09am

Thank-you for all your thoughts Sally.  I want to see the tour version, but I don't think I will be able to get down to Seattle the week it plays there this summer. 

$70 seems like a bargain!  I see in Seattle on the weekend the closest to the stage available now is mid-orchestra at $125.

I saw the show twice in its final week in New York.  I agree thst not quite everything worked with the gender flip, and certain lines in the script felt off.  But mostly I loved it.

I liked Katrina Lenk more in this than I did in Band's Visit.  I wonder when we will see her back on Broadway?  Might she be good for something in A Little Night Music if that ever is revived?  She might make a good Julie in Kaufman & Ferber's The Royal Family.  I wonder what ever happened to the musical of that?

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 3/27/24 at 10:30am

I saw this production this production last week and enjoyed it a lot.  My only other exposure to Company was a touring production in the late 90s.  I actually preferred this production.

I had a few quibbles though.  The refrigerator door in the apartment set for Not Getting Married Today, looked quite beat up.  It was a bit distracting.

I also felt that Ladies Who Lunch brought the show to a screeching halt.  For some reason it didn't work for me.  

Overall I thought the performances were good, and liked Britney Coleman a lot.

I received a discount offer for tickets, but that was the day after I purchased mine.

[aliciag3]

Posted: 3/28/24 at 12:22pm

Sally Durant Plummer - Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts/experience!

Unfortunately Britney Coleman was out when I caught the tour (tho I did see and LOVE the Broadway cast and production).

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 3/31/24 at 5:24pm

Today is, supposedly, Jed Resnick’s final day with the tour. Anyone have info if he has extended or if they’re finally bringing in Matt Bittner?

edit: looks like Bittner is finally joining the show! 

Updated On: 3/31/24 at 05:24 PM