Company London — Page 14

Nowhere_Dan said: "NightMusic3 said: "I love a lot of the changes. One line I'd quibble with though:

Original:

Today is for Amy
Amy, I give you the rest of my life
To cherish and to keep you
To honor you forever
Today is for Amy
My, happily, soon-to-be wife

Updated:

Today is for Jamie
Jamie, I give you the rest of mydays
To cherish and to keep you
To honor you forever
Today is for Jamie
My lover, my partner, mylife

Sondheim didn't maintain the rhyme between those two lines. It's odd given how fastidious he is in regards to maintaining rhyme schemes."



This is very interesting indeed. I’d argue that there isn’t another usable rhyme for the word “life” that suits the context since “wife” is not available due to the gender change. So, my guess is that Mr. Sondheim didn’t want to use the word “life” twice since a word doesn’t rhyme with itself so he went with a completely different sounding word (“days" )so it’s made absolutely clear thatthere’s no attempt at a rhyme there. My 2 cents.

"

Sondheim is more confident when it comes to leaving lines unrhymed these days. Notice that no of the other lines in the two stanzas. I could come up with several rhymed couplets off the top of my head and I'm sure Sondheim can come up with even more.

("Amy, I give you my will and my ways.../Through all of my future days."

"Amy, I give you my hope and my strife.../For better and worse, my life."

I'm not saying these are brilliant subs, just that I can think of them as fast as I can type.

I think it's more likely that whatever reason Sondheim decided not to rhyme Paul's other lines is probably also the reason he didn't rhyme the fine lines.

uncageg said: "ljay889 said: "It’s not right to judge the entire production based on the cast recording. "



listening to it now and thinking "maybe i need to see it" to enjoy it. The recording is lacking in emotion. Feels like they are just singing it. And i love this score. JMO

"

I guess you can judge for yourself if/when it goes to Broadway (apparently it is, although sales have slowed a little and I wonder if it'll spook investors), but I do think the show needs to be seen for the characters to be fully understood.

First, Rosalie Craig (as I complained about ages ago) is not an amazing, virtuoso singer. I think much of the acting and character is coming through her facial expressions (e.g., in "Someone Was Waiting" and "Being Alive) plus the book scenes - where she comes across as an incredibly warm, funny, friendly girl that you just really want to be friends with. Personally, I think while a nice and cute performance I still believe as we discussed ages ago that she could be replaced. I am convinced personally I will never see a better production of Company again in my lifetime, but I think this is not the 'definitive' Bobbi. I honestly wonder if that person is Laura Benanti, who will change the tone of the show slightly because she is very very glamorous (whereas Rosalie Craig feels like a good looking sort of everyday girl you could actually know in reality). But who is SO funny and has star presence (though even she might not deliver a virtuoso singing-acting performance that someone else could have). Why didn't Sondheim originally write the show for Bernadette Peters in the first place :P? (1970).

Second, this is a show with a lot of book scenes so because the dialogue is so spare on the recording many of the supporting characters are lost. Andy is a perfect example to me - without the Butterfly scene with Bobbi you really don't 'know' him at all. Similarly "Sorry Grateful" is a rather meh song to me without the context of the scenes that happened beforehand with those characters.

Third, without the staging I do think things can get lost. "Not Getting Married" to me is a non-event on the recording, but in the theatre was really really funny with the priest coming out of random places, such as the fridge, plus the actor's very anxious/emotional facial expressions. "Poor Baby" also was so funny in the theatre because when these men are singing about Bobbi at times they were sitting on the end of her bed (in like a typical theatre trope where they weren't actually there) while she was having sex.

Anyway, of course overall I would claim the recording does accurately capture the performances (as I would the Bette Midler Hello, Dolly! despite what some claim here) - but it's of course a different experience without the context of seeing the production first.

If this is a success on Broadway I truly wonder if we will ever see the original Company ever again on Broadway in our lifetime, unless some major a-list star in a couple of decades expresses some kind of interest in the show.

CATSNYrevival said: "I'd love to see a staging of the original Company, like Hal Prince's current Evita tour, that recreates the original staging and Michael Bennett's choreography. I've only read about them here and I've always been curious how the elevators worked and how they were used. I've only ever seen pictures of the set mostly focused on the actors."

Agree, agree, agree and agree!

I agree 100%. her singing is more than fine for this particular role and when combined with her warm presence and engaging acting, it makes for a wonderful night of theatre. Bobbie does not need to be an A-list belter.

I’ve seen Craig in lots of shows; she has a terrific voice. In this instance, the dumb-dumb music director put many of her songs in the wrong key. Sure, she can sing them but it would be more flattering lowering the range of some.

Rosalie has missed 1.5 performances this week (that brings 2.5 in total). The understudy is a black woman, which is cool and a bit novel considering some of the dialogue. I’m going tonight and hoping the understudy will be on again. Also, I’ve already seen Craig sick and I don’t want to go through that again!

Updated On: 2/6/19 at 05:05 AM

The show is INCREDIBLE and needs to come to New York now. Someone start printing LuPone's Tony



Marta guy: “How many blacks do you know?”
Bobbi makes an odd ‘wtf’ facial expression
*audience laughs*
<ad lib>Marta guy: “never mind”</ad lib>

I think most of the accents throughout the recording are wonky, but I’ve come to expect that from British cast recordings of American musicals.

I'm enjoying this new recording and find many of the changes fascinating.

But when this inevitably transfers, I hope they don't bring over every member of this cast. It's unnecessary.