COMPANY negotiating a spring 2020 transfer at a Shubert theater

[BJR]

qolbinau said: "Don't want to create a new thread for this, but I'm re-listening to the Evita OBC and it almost is scary to listen to LuPone because it sounds like the same voice she has in 2019! When you listen to say Bernadette in 1974-1984 it's very much 'young Bernadette'. But LuPone could as well have headed to the recording studio during Company and recorded the OBC Evita. It's incredible."

It really is. I think we take it for granted sometimes, but the work she did to rebuild her voice in the 90s has made it hold up unbelievably well.

Related, I was listening to her most recent live album and noticed a new, slightly breathy quality to her head voice and then, I had to remind myself her age and actually how incredible it is she still has so much of the power of her voice. Vocal chords are muscles and they phsysiologically peak in one's 20s. Her having as much command and versatility as she did in her 20s is remarkable.

[rg7759]

Call me crazy but I think a Muppets version or avenue q concert version of company is a fabulous idea. Maybe Muppets can do into the woods?

[ImaginaryManticore]

QueenAlice said: "Perhaps it was just my experience as a woman watching it, but I felt like the boyfriends came off like a good performance at “Broadway Backwards.” Tons of fun,but not at all believable in regards to what is realistic in relationship to male love interests for a female protagonist. If George Firth were still alive he would undoubtedly have done some significant revamping to the book. Are there any other women on this board who saw the production? I’m really curious what you all thought."

Replying to this a few days late, but. The first time I saw this production, I kept noticing the reversals and had a similar reaction to the boyfriends. Fun to watch but I kept thinking of how they were originally written. But there were new, unexpected angles that I found believable, especially a surprisingly sinister turn to 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy'. And I went back to see the show a few more times and by the end I wasn't thinking about it; the boyfriends were the characters. I think the whiplash could be resolved by a few small staging tweaks and a different actor for PJ, who was by far the weakest.

I convinced several friends to see it who had no familiarity with Company (or Sondheim) and not a single one of them thought about the gender flip while watching. They all loved the show and responded as if it had been originally written that way.

[carolinaguy]

rg7759 said: "Maybe Muppets can do into the woods?"

I am here for this. 

 

The Swedish Chef as the Baker? Surely Miss Piggy would be Red Riding Hood. Animal as the Wolf. Maybe they could go against type and have Statler and Waldorf as the Princes. Lol

[qolbinau]

ImaginaryManticore said: "QueenAlice said: "Perhaps it was just my experience as a woman watching it, but I felt like the boyfriends came off like a good performance at “Broadway Backwards.” Tons of fun,but not at all believable in regards to what is realistic in relationship to male love interests for a female protagonist. If George Firth were still alive he would undoubtedly have done some significant revamping to the book. Are there any other women on this board who saw the production? I’m really curious what you all thought."

Replying to this a few days late, but. The first time I saw this production, I kept noticing the reversals and had a similar reaction to the boyfriends. Fun to watch but I kept thinking of how they were originally written. But there were new, unexpected angles that I found believable, especially a surprisingly sinister turn to 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy'. And I went back to see the show a few more times and by the end I wasn't thinking about it; the boyfriends were the characters. I think the whiplash could be resolved by a few small staging tweaks and a different actor for PJ, who was by far the weakest.

I convinced several friends to see it who had no familiarity with Company (or Sondheim) and not a single one of them thought about the gender flipwhile watching. They all loved the showand responded as if it had been originally written that way."

I took people to the theatre and not only did they not think of the gender switch they actually had an amazing time (they are not theatre fans). It’s basically the only production of a Sondheim musical I could now unequivocally recommend the general public to see without worrying about the reaction. People are starting to hear about the Jake G Sunday and are asking me about it. Some have even dove in and bought tickets. They don’t know what they are getting into. Company is a big load of well crafted intelligent fun with accessible themes and an entertaining score. Thinking about its chance of success in NYC, I think it has the best chance for good word of mouth of any recent Sondheim revival I can think of (and I’ve seen all of the recent ones). 

[Valentina3]

If this show actually sustains and runs longer, I'd love to see SJB take over Joanne. I know I suggested her as Bobbie a few posts before, but she'd be phenomenal as Joanne too.

[steven22]

Any idea when a cast announcement is coming this week?

[Craigc74]

Yeah randy / Andy. I thought this was poor compared to the June/April original. However The actor playing Andy (Richard fleeshman) was great.

[Craigc74]

AADA81 said: "Jordan Catalano said: "To be fair, Sondheim isn’t always great at making changes to his stuff. For the most part, I liked this COMPANY but there definitely are parts that in my opinion didn’t work at all. So hopefully they can fix it."

That is absolutely true. The changes he made to 'Merrily We Roll Along' and 'Into the Woods' after their initial Broadway runs hurt more than they helped. Still, I'd like to see a new production of 'Company' on Broadway. Maybe it would help erase the memory of that godawful production of John Doyle's "everybody-plays-an-instrument" version in 2006."

Having saw this in january I thought most of the changes were great. Bobby now makes complete sense being a woman and it all just seemed to fit into place. 

There are minimal changes and for the most part it works. A few things didn’t work but they were minimal to me. My main problem was with the accents for some of the cast which is apparent on the recording. For a West End a number of the actors struggled maintaining the accent. However the recording isn’t a true reflection of the show as the show was sung  much stronger vocally than the recording implies  (eg Larry has a gorgeous smooth voice but on sorry/grateful he sounds a bit scratchy) 

 Jonny Bailey was funny as Jamie but his accent was piss poor and I think he was doing too much for his showstopper. Watching him I kept thinking Andrew Rannells would make a better Jamie on Broadway. 

Re Rosalie Craig. She was good but I can see why she wouldn’t transfer.

Patti was great and her acting was sublime. A much more vulnerable take on Joanne by the end and again the changes made perfect sense. 

[ImaginaryManticore]

qolbinau said: "I took people to the theatre and not only did they not think of the gender switch they actually had an amazing time (they are not theatre fans). It’s basically the only production of a Sondheim musical I could now unequivocally recommend the general public to see without worrying about the reaction. People are starting to hear about the Jake G Sunday and are asking me about it. Some have even dove in and bought tickets. They don’t know what they are getting into. Company is a big load of well crafted intelligent fun with accessible themes and an entertaining score. Thinking about its chance of success in NYC, I think it has the best chance for good word of mouth of any recent Sondheim revival I can think of (and I’ve seen all of the recent ones)."

It was wonderful to see a Sondheim musical be embraced like it was in London. I waited for day seats a couple times at the start of the run and was surrounded by Sondheim aficionados. A week before it closed I went to the stage door and there were people there who weren't usual theatre fans but had returned to see it again. One woman described how it had moved her so much she saw it repeatedly, and she'd never been affected by a musical like that before.

[Mike Barrett]

Really hoping we hear about this today or tomorrow! 

[Sauja]

Mike Barrett said: "Really hoping we hear about this today or tomorrow!"

Is there any reason to think an announcement is that imminent, or is this just optimism? (genuine question)

 

I can't decide if I think the board will go absolutely crazy when this is announced OR if it'll be more of a, "Phew! We can finally stop guessing." :)

[Mike Barrett]

Some supposed insider said we'd get it this week, but I'm just being more optimistic. Between now and like November is when we should be getting big announcements for spring shows. So I mean thats a 3 month span, but still. Lots of announcements the past 2 weeks. 

[VotePeron]

According to an Instagram post by someone involved with the productions, it's officially happening at the Jacobs this spring.

[ljay889]

Bunny Christie the set designer posted it. Here’s the link.
The Jacobs, as we expected.

https://ibb.co/xhW3ggq

[DoTheDood]

Here's a link to the post

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1e6iDCn-Uz/

[Mike Barrett]

Nice! I’d expect something more official tomorrow! Love that it’s at the Jacobs.

[Londonskyguy]

Looks like some design changes.

[ljay889]

Londonskyguy said: "Looks like some design changes."

I was wondering that! She tagged “redesign.” There’s a rendering of Bobbie standing in front of the title letters scrambled, did that happen in London?

[Londonskyguy]

No it didn’t.

[steven22]

Looks like she deleted the Instagram post...

[RippedMan]

Was it a "big" show in London? I love her as a designer, and love Marine as a director. So I'm def excited.

[jacobsnchz14]

RippedMan said: "Was it a "big" show in London? I love her as a designer, and love Marine as a director. So I'm def excited."

In a sense, yes, but in that it was very sleek and minimal (also in its color scheme). The neon (as seen in the logo) was a huge aspect of that, as well. It wasn't as lavish and big as something like Moulin Rouge would seem. It was essentially a bare stage with rooms, apartments, etc. that would come on, but they were all designed as sort of diorama/shadowbox-type units that would either track in or come up from traps in the floor. The orchestra was visible and placed on a catwalk/second level at the top of the proscenium.