MemorableUserName said: "I don't know about Archie, but Ben Lewis, who played the role in London, is exactly 30 years younger than Patti. The character is definitely intended to be a younger trophy husband.
As the stans say to the slightest criticism of the show (or performances of it on TV), it's Marianne's VISION! Her VIIIIIISSSSSIIIIIIIOOOOONNNNN!!!!!!!!"
I get that fans (or "stans," if we want to be hip/condescending) may be touchy about any and all criticism, but from everything I've seen, it makes perfect sense in terms of this production's concept for Joanne to have a trophy husband, and for those who like the production to defend the choice makes sense.
In case, you think I'm just another "stan," I'm not impressed by what of the show is available online (or what I've heard from the London cast recording). For instance, saw "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" and thought it was awful. The altered backup vocals are bad, though I'm not sure how you create a vocal equivalent for men in a song that is meant to reproduce the style of an Andrews Sisters-like trio. There weren't any male equivalents to the Andrews Sisters. Actually, even forgetting the gender swap, as long as productions insist on setting Company in the present day, the idea of using 40's pastiche as a way of expressing a contemporary group of characters' feelings becomes odder and more tenuous. Genre issues aside, the concept doesn't work because men and women don't react to relationship issues identically, and the helpless/hopeful/frustrated tone of the song doesn't jibe with how most men would act if they were being strung along like that. The set up for the song really doesn't make much sense for a lot of contemporary women, for that matter (it really belongs to the pre-Women's Lib era), but it's more possible because our society still fairly often tells women to put up with lousy treatment and hope for the best, whereas most men are taught not to put up with any crap. If it's going to be three men, there really needs to be a new, different kind of song there.
So, not a big fan of this production, but think snarking on a defense of Joanne having a trophy husband is off.