Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis
Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis
Broadway Star Joined: 5/11/06
Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#0
Posted: 8/2/06 at 9:32pm
Recently someone brought Company to my attention. I've read about three online synopsis of it but they are all fairly general.
I get that it's about a guy, Bobby, who's ambivalent about marriage but still wants to have a satisfying relationship. All the while, most of his married friends are miserable in their marriages.
Anyone have anything more to add? What are the running themes? What's the character of Bobby about? Is he some kind of player? Womanizer? Just bad with relationships?
Who's starring in the upcoming production?
Are they keeping it in the 70's or will it be done in present day?
Stand-by Joined: 6/1/04
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#1
Posted: 8/2/06 at 9:42pm
For what it's worth, my thoughts/review from the Cincinnati production, which may address at least some of your questions, and probably give you way too much at the same time:
The story is about love, marriage, friendship, commitment, intimacy—five married couples and the third wheel around which they all orbit: Robert, the placid, passive perpetual bachelor. And although each couple ostensibly pushes him to "grow up" and find a wife, they all have their reasons for wanting the opposite: so he'll be available to them when they need him, as friend, confidante, babysitter, potential lover, the stand-in for the life they've chosen not to lead themselves. Stay as you are, they're thinking, precisely because we didn't. It’s an interesting take, because it makes Robert the natural set piece while also making him the reactor, and a cipher: he is what everybody else imagines him to be, at least until the very end, when he breaks free and, both literally and figuratively, locks them all out.
The whole actors-as-orchestra didn’t work as well here as it does with Sweeney, I think, because the instruments aren’t as organically integrated with the characters. In Sweeney, Mrs. Lovett plays a tuba because she is a tuba: loud, brassy, gauche. It's a natural extension of who she is. I didn’t get the same sense of that here, and the assignments felt a little random. But it adds an interesting layer nonetheless, and plays into the construction of the fully self-contained world that these people inhabit: they are all about themselves (as, come on, aren’t we all?).
It's updated to a modern setting, and the stage is spare: just the barest outlines of an apartment, with a piano, a traveling wet bar, clear lucite blocks that function as ottomans, and an enormous plaster column in the center that probably functions as some sort of phallic reference, although I don't like reading too much into that kind of thing because, well, who cares anymore? Everything's a phallic reference, isn't it? Costumes are black, contemporary. Ordinary. Altogether it was like sitting on a sofa at a very smart cocktail party.
Caveat: it would be nice if they could find someone who will not play Joanne as "Elaine Stritch playing Joanne," because it can't be done. Elaine Stritch can do strident because she can make it funny, simply because she can't not make it funny; Barbara Walsh just made her even more strident, which is neither funny nor terribly watchable. (Updated caveat: from what I've heard, they're picking up the entire Cincinnati cast.)
But certainly the GORGEOUS Raúl Esparza as Robert has the credentials, the charisma, and the talent to pull it off while making himself a big, big, huge star at the same time. He’s simultaneously GORGEOUS, confident, confused, exhausted, bored, and terrified. If nothing else, his first act closer of "Marry Me a Little" has got to be recorded: it’s lonely and lovely and haunting, and not a little mean. The fact that it was cut from the original production qualifies as a serious crime, I think, because it’s what the show is all about: sheer, petrified ambivalence about everything you give up in a marriage, and everything you gain that just might make it worthwhile.
Updated On: 8/5/06 at 09:42 PM
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#2
Posted: 8/2/06 at 9:43pm
Raul Esparza's starring in the upcoming production. The only other notable Broadway name, I've heard, but don't hold me to it, is Heather Laws, who was the Sally understudy in the recent revival of Cabaret. I believe they've updated it and included a scene about gay experimentation. And, of course, the actors playing the instruments.
Updated On: 8/2/06 at 09:43 PM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#3
Posted: 8/2/06 at 10:04pm
Raul is just too gorgeous to miss.
Loads of charisma.
I saw the original national tour when I was a kid.
Julie Wilson was nothing like Stritch.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#4
Posted: 8/2/06 at 10:11pm
Barbara Walsh is a former Tony nominee, isn't she?
Fantastic review, kgee. I saw Doyle's production as well and am really surprised at how similar some of our thoughts about it were! I'll find my review and link it, but in retrospect it was extraordinarily long and rather rambly.
Anyway, I think that this is such a fascinating show because it focuses on the ups, downs, ins and outs of marriage and committed relationships. The central character is surrounded by his married couple friends who love him (on some level, the women want him and the men want to be him, or in some cases want him as well) and think that he should be married but, as kgee pointed out, also want him to be perpetually available. It casts a somwhat cynical eye on these relationships, but there's also ultimately optimism. Bobby navigates his way in and out of situations with his friends and multiple girlfriends, and basically everything swirls around him while he's stuck. He's definitely a ladies' man... I think the New York Times review compared Raúl Esparza's Bobby to Mr. Big on Sex and the City, which seems a surprisingly apt comparison. The show is basically an exploration of his committment issues and a search for an answer to the ultimate question: what do you get by putting youself out there emotionally when there are so many problems in the marriages in the show?
The "gay scene" was included in the original production, I believe, but has been rewritten a few times. (Correct me if I'm wrong on that.)
If anyone is interested to read my review (which probably contains spoilers in regards to production aspects, just as a warning):
Review
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#5
Posted: 8/3/06 at 12:32am
All the while, most of his married friends are miserable in their marriages.
No they're not. The whole point of the show is that they couldn't imagine NOT being married. The only couple that were miserable with their marrige are Peter and Susan; they were happier together once they were divorced.
Are they keeping it in the 70's or will it be done in present day?
There aren't really any references to the time frame in the show.
The whole actors-as-orchestra didn’t work as well here as it does with Sweeney, I think, because the instruments aren’t as organically integrated with the characters.
kgee, I completely disagree. Matching the characters' personality with the instruments isn't the main concern, in my opinion, but having the actors play the instruments in a way that doesn't disrupt the main action. This worked *much* better in Company than it did in Sweeney, because of the way Company is written. There aren't more than 4 people in any given scene as written, so that leaves the entire rest of the cast to accompany them. It kind of improves on the illusion of Robert's friends are kind of controlling/manipulating his life. Not to mention that the way it was staged made the transition from musician to actor much smoother than it did in Sweeney.
The "gay scene" has been in several productions.
Wanting life but never knowing how
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#6
Posted: 8/3/06 at 12:37am
To add to the last paragraph in skittles' post, about the actor-musician concept and how it works, in my opinion, it works even better than it does in Sweeney. Whereas it was sort of dropped upon Sweeney, Company was chosen as a show that would work as another with which to use this concept. Because of that, it creates a big over-arching metaphor; when not in a particular scene, the actors sit and play their instruments from vantage points surrounding the action on stage. Bobby's friends are truly the accompaniment, in a very literal sense, to his solitude. I also saw it that playing an instrument was a very strong symbol for commitment, in that save for a few cymbal crashes early in Act Two, Bobby doesn't play an instrument until Being Alive, at which point he finally begins to give in to the pressure and feel as though he does truly want to be with someone.
This production is one of the most glorious, provocative theatrical events I have ever witnessed. It's beautiful, and quite possibly almost perfect. Bobby is a character that could very easily be performed as someone that gets construed as a cynical, thoughtless, womanizing bastard, but I think Raul really succeeds in making him a character you care about and sympathize with. I found Company to be a very emotionally accessible show, and his interpretion of the character really helps that. Raul's Bobby is funny, sweet, sexy, and incredibly self-aware, emotions on his sleeve in a very viscerally painful way. He is stunning.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#7
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:19am
Matching the characters' personality with the instruments isn't the main concern, in my opinion, but having the actors play the instruments in a way that doesn't disrupt the main action.
I'm not trying to start a big discussion about this as it would be a bit of a threadjack, but I wanted to comment on this. I absolutely agree that the actor/musician concept works well with Company because of its thematic implications, but I also think that it would be nice if the instrumentations become a bit more smoothly integrated into the show (of course, it's completely possible that you found that they were). One of the things that's so great about Sweeney is that the instruments add to characterization and cease to become distracting at all. Perhaps because there are so many characters, I didn't feel that that happened with Company. So the instruments in Sweeney were perfectly integrated but irrelevant conceptually, and the instruments in Company aren't quite as well integrated but add so much conceptually. That's fine, but I think that it would be amazing if there could be more of a bind between the characters/couples and their instruments, so that they're not just playing them for the sake of playing them. Really, though, it isn't as huge a gripe as it may sound, it's just the one thing that I think can be really improved-upon.
On the other hand, it's possible that Company is just a different type of show in that respect. Perhaps the instruments shouldn't (and practically, can't) be so intimately integrated into the show. Maybe they should create a sense of awkwardness, or at least not be completely comfortable -- after all, we're inside Robert's head as he's being surrounded by all of these people pulling and prodding and accompanying, and from his perspective that's an uncomfortable situation.
Updated On: 8/3/06 at 01:19 AM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#8
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:28am
The gay scene was not in the original production of Company. The first production to include the scene was the Donmar Warehouse production, more than 25 years after the original production.
Joanne was written so specifically for Stritch that it's very difficult for other actresses. Imitating Stritch sometimes works fairly well if the actress can do it well enough and still bring something of her own to the role. Diverging from Stritch can work too but is perhaps even tougher. Julie Wilson definitely took the latter approach and did fairly well.
The appeal of Raul Esparza, in both the talent and the looks departments, eludes me, although I did pretty much like him (with some reservations) in Sunday in the Park With George.
It seems to me that Company is most of all about how we deal with knowledge of mortality. "Look into their eyes and you'll see what they know: Everybody dies."
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#9
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:30amI thought the gay scene between Bobby and Peter (I wanna say Peter, but I could be wrong...the divorcee at any rate) was added for the 95 Donmar/Roundabout Nightmare...but maybe that was just me.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#10
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:34amRaul. Esparza. Being. Alive.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#11
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:36am
So the instruments in Sweeney were perfectly integrated but irrelevant conceptually, and the instruments in Company aren't quite as well integrated but add so much conceptually. That's fine, but I think that it would be amazing if there could be more of a bind between the characters/couples and their instruments, so that they're not just playing them for the sake of playing them.
Interesting. Now, I haven't seen this production yet, so forgive me for jumping in. It does seem, though, that conceptually, at least, the actor/musician concept WOULD work better for "Company" than it does for "Sweeney Todd". It would be impossible to fully integrate the intrumentations to the scenes in the way Sweeney does, because they're structually different shows. "Sweeney Todd" is much more conventional ; it follows a linear story. Whereas Company is more metaphysical, and has abrupt "breaks", or a "chorus" which comments on the action. There's supposed to be some kind of rupture, so therefore the instruments aren't as integrated to the characters or the story as they are in "Sweeney Todd", nor should they be.
Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling.
In any case, I can't wait to see this production.
ETA: I swear I wrote that before you edited your post ss...so we pretty much said the same thing. ha!
Updated On: 8/3/06 at 01:36 AM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#12
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:44am
Ha! Yeah, I definitely agree, Chica. I often tend to reconsider things after I post them and end up editing, which messes up potential replies. I think that you have an extremely good point about that, though, and what you said makes a lot of sense. 
Anyway, obviously I stand corrected about the "gay scene" having always been a part of the show in some form... sorry!
Updated On: 8/3/06 at 01:44 AM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#13
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:45amThe gay scene was in the Donmar production, which opened in December 1995, but not in the Roundabout production, which opened two months earlier. Some of the changes in the published revised version were in the Roundabout production, but several others (including the gay scene and the additional material for Kathy and Larry) were not, but were in the Donmar production.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#14
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:49amThanks nobody home...I knew I wasn't that crazy. Personally if I were directing the show now, I would cut out that moment, it's kind of pointless to me, and makes the divorcee read as a predator, which I don't totally agree with.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#15
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:49amsweetestsiren, I think for the most part, the characters aren't in-depth enough in Company to provide any serious actor-instrument comparisons. I mean, you can't exactly say Susan is more of a piano than Marta, or something like that. The actors already have so many instruments they can play (most play 3-5 in the show) so why not take advantage of it in the orchestrations to provide as full a sound as possible?
Wanting life but never knowing how
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#16
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:52amHal Prince said himself, Company is very non-linear and I think the instruments stand out less in a story where it almost isn't actually told like a story. It is "snapshots of a man's life", I think the instruments will work their way very interestingly into this. I have complete faith and almost expectations, that the instruments will be more natural here than in Sweeney, and that is a lot for me to say. I find the Sweeney actor/musician concept pretty tight in Sweeney Todd, not some cheap gimmick that has no business being there. I enjoy Doyle's work, he provokes and accentuates certain things in the show that add to the experience.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#17
Posted: 8/3/06 at 2:12am
"It seems to me that Company is most of all about how we deal with knowledge of mortality"
Really? I don't get that from the show at all. It seem to me to be a show about marriage and commitment.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#18
Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:18am
I absolutely agree that it's about marriage and commitment. I would just say that it's about how we use marriage and commitment as ways of dealing with our knowledge of mortality.
Of course, there are no absolutes here. It's my interpretation of why certain things in the text (one of which I've already cited) are there, of what they clue us into about what's going on underneath the surface of the text.
Do people think that the instrument(s) played by each actor in the Doyle Sweeney somehow relates to the actor's character? I don't get that. If that were the case, then each actor here would be playing the same instrument(s) that his counterpart in the Watermill-London Doyle production played. And wouldn't each understudy in the current production have to play the same instrument(s) as the regular actor? My understanding is that not all of them do.
As far as I can tell, there was no requirement in most of the cases that the actor play a specific instrument.
Updated On: 8/3/06 at 03:18 AM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#19
Posted: 8/3/06 at 3:28am
As for the Sweeney-instrument character comparisons, each cast seems to have different assignments. I think many just feel that the current cast reaches a point in their conscious mind to fit the 2 together that they see. We can see this Lovett fit in with the boisterous personality of a tuba and it makes sense to us having Toby slink and hop around the stage toting a violin.
That is just what we are used to seeing though and we mentally bridge the two together as one of the same. That is why their instruments don't bother me at all because they become one to me at least. Doyle also implicitly stated however that Johanna and Anthony were to both play the cello together as the obvious sign of their romantic bond in the show. The extent or reality of that bond is completely up for debate, but as far as what he stated I believe that and Pirelli on accordian was all he specified.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#20
Posted: 8/3/06 at 4:25am
Thanks. Yeah, I know that Pirelli and the accordion do seem to be a constant, but that seems to be more for musical reasons than for character reasons.
The Johanna in London played the cello, but I'm not sure that the Anthony did. I'm sure that someone knows, MichaelBennett at least.
Judging from online photos, in the Watermill-London production, both Tobias and Judge Turpin played the flute. Does that mean we were supposed to see some connection between them?
Of course, any good director in a situation like this is going to try use the instrument that an actor plays so that it expresses what's going on with the character moment by moment.
Updated On: 8/3/06 at 04:25 AM
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#21
Posted: 8/3/06 at 11:59am
I would just say that it's about how we use marriage and commitment as ways of dealing with our knowledge of mortality.
I would agree that this is what "The Ladies Who Lunch" is about, but can you elaborate on how you see that as the show's overall theme? It's an intriguing idea, I'm just trying to understand it. I always took "Being Alive" more metaphorically in terms of the "being alive" equating to being in love, awakened to possibilities life has in store, etc.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#22
Posted: 8/3/06 at 12:30pm
The Johanna in London played the cello, but I'm not sure that the Anthony did. I'm sure that someone knows, MichaelBennett at least.
The Anthony also played cello.
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#23
Posted: 8/3/06 at 1:43pm
You know, as for the instrument being chosen and specified, I do wonder about the choice to have Bobby play piano, though. Raul didn't know how to play it (or anything else, other than guitar) beforehand, so theoretically, they probably could've taught him to play Being Alive on any instrument. I wonder if piano was a character choice, though; it's so... big and present.
That's a bit of a limb, but does anyone else think it's possible?
re: Company - Themes, Thoughts, Opinions, Synopsis#24
Posted: 8/3/06 at 2:06pmI always thought he knew just a little piano.
Videos
