COMPANY Screenings Are Extremely Limited — Page 4

JC, I'm going to have to scale my cursh on you back significantly with your admission to not watching Mad Men. Sorry--I know life can be hard.

One big thing the concert made me realized, about why the Doyle production annoyed me--and not just cuz of my phobia of actor/musician pieces. It was so *serious*. Furth's material honestly works much better played by sitcom actors, with that sense of timing. It's a very emotional show, but I found it actually more so played a bit more for laughs, and less so morosely.

Growl, your point about performances is spot on--but I'm not sure Bobby *should* be remotely "dangerous". I actually appreciated that the piece felt more about the whole cast, and relationships in general, than just about "what's wrong with Bobby and going on in his head". I'm not sure the creators would agree with that, necesarily, but it gave the piece a much better balance to me--and I suspect a bit more the way the original Prince production felt.

Updated On: 6/16/11 at 04:45 PM

We'll have to see... Joan/Hendricks doesn't really come into her own till near the end of the season. :P

To address some of the comments--the couch finale is in the revised script--not the original. I'm, mixed on it... I was talking to my mom about the show afterwards and one comment I found funny was she said she appreciated the gay scene cuz she did wonder if Bobby was maybe just closeted (maybe this has more to do with her and my relationship than the play :P ) but found it the only spot where the dialogue seemed really dated. I didn't have the heart, or patience, to explain to her that it was one of the revision's scenes...

Where I saw it, I thought the image looked perfect, and I did find the sound flat at fitst but noticed they actually did a really good job with using the back speakers for effects (the thunder, voices during Tick Tock) and the orchestra also was fully surround. Some theatres can be lazy and not even turn on the surround sound (as a friend who used to work in a projectionist booth admitted to me once), I wonder if that was an issue at some theatres?

We had the disastrous Canucks hockey game last night, and while I don't expect a huge cross-over of hockey fans and musical fans (yes, call me on being stereotypical), I was still kinda amazed at the amount of people in the audience--and the very few (obviously anyway) gay men I saw. Behind me were a straight couple a bit older than I who were both talking about how many recordings they owned of the show, etc. Ever since moving back to Victoria I sometimes feel like I'm the only one in the city who even knows Sondheim--so it was kinda exciting to see the mix of people who showed up. I really hope this does mean it was a success (or will be this week, depending on where it's playing) and will lead to more similar showings.

Charles - I could not disagree with you more on Patti's performance.

I found myself wanting to cry mid-way through and I thought "why the hell am I wanting to cry??". I thought she went to that deep, dark place and took me with her. Like a true NYer, she bounced right back as if nothing happened. Love it!

I felt the same way about Anika actually. She did the book stuff terrifically--but she didn't sound up to Another Hundred People (and I know she is)--maybe it was just an off match. It's also one of my top three Sondheim songs, so I tend to judge it harshly.

So it is a full production of the show? Good. We'll see it tomorrow.

Trentsketch-- No, god help us, it is NOT a full production, just a concert show with a little extra staging thrown in. Orchestra onstage, 5 couch units that chorus members in black wheel around downstage of the orchestra, brief appearance of a bed in Act II, a couple of projections upstage.

Sorry to get testy, but I fear a Broadway transfer of one more g-d damn concert staging masquerading as a full production. (Talking to YOU, Chicago and Finian's Rainbow!)

Her diction is pretty bad in the first verse but it gets better until she nails the last verse. I thought she started too high.

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charlesguiteau, I can't imagine this would transfer. A large portion of the cast seems like they'd be impossible to get back together at the same time, and I sort of feel like with the incredibly well-received Gypsy revival disappointing in sales so shortly after the previous production, no one would chance it on this one so recently after the John Doyle version. In other words, I think we're at least 5-10 years off another revival of Company, concert version or not!

And sabrelady, I almost forgot one truly, truly terrible camera motion that sent me reeling. Overall, I thought the quality was quite good, but one shot was so bad, I couldn't help but wonder how deeply awful every other take was that they couldn't find a better choice! I THINK it was during "Side by Side."

Our performance started 15 minutes late "for technical reasons"

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I've loved reading every word of this thread!

I was fortunate to be able to see the concert live. And LOVED it.

I can't wait to see the movie - to revisit it, and to see things that I'm sure I missed the first time.

I agree with those who have praised NPH. I loved his performance. Loved it. He made scenes and songs work that normally don't work for me. He made me understand why people even wanted to be his friend...

Loved the cast. Some fantastic and surprising performances. I am thrilled to have the chance to see this again.

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Do we know if this is coming to DVD?

Literally?

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