COMPANY Screenings Are Extremely Limited — Page 3

I have to say I was much more impressed than I expected to be. A few small quibbles (a few things about the new libretto though they didn't bug me as much as before--I liked that some of it reverted to the old one, I also felt like Ladies Who Lunch should have been a slightly "in limbo" number and not addressed to Bobby and the bar, but to the audience full stop). I've never been a big Harris fan, but he won me over--in some ways I prefered his slightly more traditional take on the role to Raul's, and I prefered Price's staging to anything he's done concert wise before (which may not be saying much). I don't quite get the need for five performers for Tick Tock, but I still loved the number and Chryssie Whitehead is one Hell of a dancer--I appreciated that the number still used a lot of Bennett's trademark moves, though I missed the segue from the "sex" of the first half to the "love making" of the second.

Overall, I hope anyone interested in Company can see this. I actually probably enjoyed it more than the DVD of the Doyle production--but that's largely my hatred for the actor/musician concept. I did love that this used the original orchestrations, even if I'm not sure about the Vocal Minority being mixed and not just a more Bacharachian female group.

Oh and I was impressed--our one Victoria theatre showing, in one of the largest theatres in the cineplex, was a near sell out, even with absolutely no advertising (they didn't even list it in today's paper's movie listings). There was a ton of applause after every song, and a few of the one liners--something I feel a bit silly doing but still made me happy. It's a much more satisfying way to watch something like this then on PBS with pledge breaks, or DVD, and I hope it's enough of a success that we get more. (And as a gay man, can I just say how amazing Hendricks looked in her slip? Wow--and she did a good job with some difficult material... No comment on Neil's extremely hairless body though--except boo)

My mom had seen that this was playing a while back and suggested we go together. She spent a lot of time with me blasting Company's OBCR from my room from the time I was 11 on--so a good twenty years later she said it was thrilling to find how all the songs actually connected. I think she liked it even more than I did.

bwphreak234 - We just had an Intermission credit and then it went into Act II--which annoyed me cuz I usually like to go out and smoke or at least pee during the intermission, but was fine. I noticed one teenaged girl who had been reading in front of me left, and didn't come back.

For those who saw the a screening already, do you think this is a good introduction to Company for someone who hasn't seen it? I have a friend asking me about our local screening tomorrow but she's clueless about the show at all.

In answer to where I tried to see it - Central New Jersey. Apparently (from what the box office lady told us) there were a LOT of senior citizens there.

A friend in CA was in a theater that they oversold - they managed to snag seats in the back but kicked out a dozen or so people!

Who knew this would be so popular! What does this mean for future productions in the movies, since I seem to remember reading this is a test for how well this format works...

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^ Nice post, Robbie.

I wish some of these iconic Broadway roles would stop being pushed over the edge and off a cliff, just to get the "most acting" out of them. Bobby becomes Hamlet, and Mama Rose becomes Medea or Rosita Peron or Martha from Virginia Woolf. It's overwrought, over-thought, and ultimately just plain irritating, even if you get a "wow, that sure was a lot of acting!" moment in the show.

They used to call that approach hamminess.

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I don't mind the experimentation. And I'd rather watch craft (even if it's visible) than ineptness any day of the week. But NPH's Bobby was completely accessible in a way that made a role that's usually a cipher into something universal. It made me think of the times I was young(er) and single and finding every excuse possible not to be in a relationship. It also spoke very powerfully to me as I find myself unexpectedly single once again. (SPOILER) There's actually a lovely touch at the very end of the concert. All the friends leave the party that Bobby has avoided. Then Bobby comes in and notices a couch for two. He sits, somewhat hesitantly, but then relaxes into being alone on the couch. It was a rather lovely final image. Being Alive can be viewed as someone just catapulting toward's finding a relationship...ANY relationship. But this last image let's you know that, though Bobby has indeed opened himself up, he doesn't HAVE to be in a relationship. It's the fact that he got there emotionally that is the triumph. Not that he found some relationship. The lack of any sort of bombast or undue darkness really let Bobby be us in a way that I have never experienced in Company (alas, I have no idea what the original was like as I wasn't even an itch in my daddy's pants at the time).

Re: intermission. On ours, too, they just flashed the intermission screen and went straight into the 2nd act. Quite the teaser for everyone who was hoping for a break!

As to whether or not this would translate for anyone not familiar with the show--I think it would. "Company" is not like "Sweeney Todd," with a linear storyline, so I don't believe anyone would miss anything from a staged production.

SonofRobbieJ, that's an interesting interpretation. I actually thought Bobby was making room on the couch for an eventual someone to sit next to him. In fact, I'm not sure if I'd want a more ambivalent ending, because it would cut the power of that final song for me.

What's the talk of it "translating"? I thought it was a fully realized production of the musical. It's not like the horrid SWEENEY TODD revival that played only to fans of the show, alienating and confusing the hell out of every single person who went in not knowing it.

Jordan,

I think some people didn't know if it was a fully-realized production...or just the songs and a truncated book.

Personally, I think this production, as staged, could move to Broadway and win Tonys for Harris and Hendricks.

I will fully admit to a complete bias towards Christina Hendricks. I think she's is beyond genius on Mad Men playing a role that I think may well be the best (or at least my very favorite) television character OF ALL TIME.

That being said, objectively as possible, the performance was expert. The way she said, 'I'm dumb' had me roaring. And that butterfly speech? A speech that I normally think is INTERMINABLE (as I normally think the baby oil speech is as well)?? It was perfection. The whole April/Bobby sequence (including Poor Baby and Tick Tock) was just stunning. Funny as hell, yes, but also incredibly sexy.

Mad Men is, without question, my favorite television show of all time. And Hendricks and her character (Miss Joan Halloway...couldn't you just DIE at that name??) send me over the edge. Netflix every available season NOW.

You won't regret it! The show moves slowly and quietly, but it's completely hypnotic!!! And you'll get to see how not dumb and ditzy Christina Hendricks can be! Just brilliant.

And to get back to Company, I thought Sorry/Grateful was particularly lovely. Deeply felt, yet not weighted down or fraught with any undue subtext.

I saw it in a newer, state of the art theatre. I also thought the sound was flat, using only the front speakers, and lower volume. This annoyed me at first. But my ears adjusted to it after the first song. Then I stopped noticing. Though if it had been in Dolby, or whatever the high end standard for sound is now, I would have noticed and enjoyed the full orchestra more throughout.

Picture was not HD. Though, for all it's technical flaws, the production itself was terrific. I have a new favorite Amy and, finally, a Joanne who shows Stritch for the cheap, one-note comic that she is.

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We were also at the Grove in LA last night. Best take on Company we've ever seen. For once we actually recognized who Bobby was, and were sympathetic to him since he seemed to truly love his crazy married people, not just smirk at them. The scale of NPH's acting was perfectly suited to the camera closeup (something that could NOT be said for a couple of the husbands behind him). He was like a clear breath of fresh air amidst all the angst-ridden marrieds. His choking up during Being Alive was matched by lots of us in the house.

Posters here are right to rave about Christine Hendricks' take on April. She finally made the middle of Act II the highlight of the night rather than a downer waiting to get to Joanne's big moment.

And Patti's Joanne? Well for us that performance was the downer of the night. On a good day she could MAYBE try out for the Real Housewives of New Jersey, but to the manor born? God, no way! She resembled a cross between Callas and Aunt Clara from Bewitched, stuck in a red wig and totally inappropriate Morticia gown of black lace (ugh!) while everyone else wore smart flirty takes on '69 cocktail dresses. Wheres the dry wit? Where's the cool calm hauteur? Smart, tart, dry as a martini is someone else's song but matches Joanne. Sure, sure, she could still sing the hell out of Ladies Who Lunch, but sorry, that's a not a full performance.

Other quibbles? The camera work always seemed to be just a little late in catching the best moments of staging or choreography-- very hard to tell what was going on on the stage at large while we were watching the lead's closeups. A brief glimpse of changing projections on the back wall only whetted our appetites for a fuller use of projections throughout the night. (Or maybe they were there but the photography didn't register with the crappy projection system used at our theater.) And come on, James Noone, wasn't there ANYTHING you could have done to make Geminiani's conductor's podium a little less crappy staring at us upstage center during EVERY STAGE-CENTER SHOT?

Quibbles aside, we loved what Lonny Price and the cast pulled off, and now want to see a FULLY DESIGNED and staged version of this show make it back to Broadway (but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE no more concert versions calling themselves fully staged shows.)