Company, the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in New York, is turned on its head in Elliott's revelatory staging, in which musical theatre's most iconic bachelor is now a bachelorette. At Bobbie's 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn't she married? Why can't she find the right man? And, why can't she settle down and have a family? This whip smart musical comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim's best loved songs, including "Company," "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," "The Ladies Who Lunch," "Side by Side," and the iconic "Being Alive."
There are too many musical highs in this show to mention. One of Sondheim’s best scores, it shines here from the emotional, and often comedic, vitality, of an excellent ensemble. For the comic, there’s Act II opener “Side by Side by Side,” for which the cast puts on too-small party hats and Coleman skillfully mixes clownishness and desperation. And then there’s the always-a-showstopper-but-especially-here panicked patter song “Getting Married Today,” performed with neurotic aplomb by Matt Rodin in another perfectly conceptualized gender switch, and which also features characters’ delightful emergence from unexpected spots.
Britney Coleman who plays lead Bobbie, is lovely in her role, but also lacks emotional depth and does not have the powerhouse voice to handle the big songs, especially in what should be the show’s emotional gut-punching finale, “Being Alive.”
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