Company revival

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:42pm

OK... so I never got a chance to see the recent revival when they aired it on PBS and I always wanted to.... I was at the library and saw the DVD on the shelf so i decided to check it out... wow... I must say that I really loved it and I loved Raul Esparza as Bobby.. I actually loved the whole production itself... going into it I wasn't too sure about the actors playing their own instruments but it just worked and it made the piece very different... anyway... I found myself getting a little emotional at the end when Raul sang Being Alive... a song that never really meant anything to me until i saw him perform it (i had seen Company years ago at a college and I thought it was OK)... actually maybe now that I'm older and almost Bobby's age I can relate to his character... but it was probably also just Raul's wonderful performance...

ok.. that was it.. just throwing some love out there for this production

why aren't more shows filmed like this... why has it only been Sondheim shows that are filmed (or the Lincoln Center shows but never available on DVD).. just wondering

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 9:46pm

This thread is likely to end up in debate, but I'm glad you watched it, and to hear that you liked it. John Doyle is like my artistic messiah, and I loved this production more than I've ever really found the right words for. It will always be very special to me. I was actually in college when I fell for it, but I think that particular experience might have been unique to some of the things they did with this production. I don't know that it would have happened for me with a more "traditional" Company. But either way, it's one of my great loves, absolutely.

Updated On: 7/16/10 at 09:46 PM

[taylorPHENOMENON2]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:05pm

Echoing your love. My favorite Sondheim, one of my favorite shows. So glad the DVD exists, I watch it at least once a month.

[rjm516]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:07pm

I have such a strong love for this revival and the show in general. I saw the Raul revival in the front row, first time I had such a great seat for a show, and it was one of the most incredible performances I have seen to date. Loved him, loved it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:11pm

I love the show, but I was unimpressed by the revival.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:18pm

It's funny, I actually hardly ever watch the DVD, strange as that might seem. I'm grateful for it in the long run because it'll be preserved for years and years after the memories fade, but I watch it maybe twice a year, if that. I love it too much, I guess.

Updated On: 7/16/10 at 10:18 PM

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/16/10 at 10:28pm

Loved the revival, love the dvd but I find I don't watch it as often as I thought I would either. While watching the production in the theater, the actors-playing-instruments thing didn't bother me at all while I find it more intrusive on the dvd. On the other hand, some of the camera work and closeups on the dvd are priceless and remind me or reinforce my recollection of the individuals performing. Lonny managed to capture at least one perfect reaction shot from everyone in the cast, which means he really knew what he was looking for when directing the taping. And Raul - still, for me, perfect live and perfect on dvd. Sigh...

[wiggum2]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 12:11am

"I love the show, but I was unimpressed by the revival."

Sadly I felt the same way. I thought Raul was ok, but was underwhelmed by him as a whole(but I thought he was way better than David Hyde Pierce in Curtains!!). I didn't mind the actor/musician thing in Sweeney but it was very distracting in Company.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 2:09am

Like a many other posters I love the show, but not the revival. I watched the DVD of the revival and I just did not like it. I missed the original orchestrations. I saw a production that a professional theatre put on a couple years back and I was blown away.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 2:25am

I loved this revival. It was my first exposure to the show, and it is one of my favorite cast albums. I can barely stand the OBCR, which is such a product of its musically unfortunate time. It all sounds like variety show performances to me, except Stritch. I think the revival CD makes it feel more like Sondheim and really shows off that it is one of his best scores. If not his best. I think Raul was absolutely perfect as Bobby and thought that the actors-and-instruments thing worked better, asthetically and thematically, than any of the other productions I've seen to use the concept.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 2:37am

The revival was one of my favorite theatrical experiences. I am sure I mentioned before that I saw it immediately after Raul didn't win the Tony that everyone was so sure he would win. He definitely put all of that emotion into his work that night, and the audience reaction was amazing.

[eatlasagna]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 2:42am

i loved watching the interview with Raul on the DVD and his explanation of why the characters play instruments and why Bobby doesn't play one until Being Alive... it made the show have an even bigger impact especially the relationships with his friends...

how does this concept differ from Sweeney Todd... or was it the same concept?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 10:30am

It was the same "concept" in that the actors played instruments in both productions, but it functioned completely differently.

In Sweeney, the conceit was basically that the show was happening in a mental asylum. Much of it was left up to interpretation, but what I always thought was going on was that we were watching Toby re-enact these events in the hospital, perhaps as some sort of therapeutic exercise; the other characters were not actually themselves, but other inmates, and they were all "acting it out" with him. Again, though, that's not everybody's interpretation, it's just one. And I know Doyle has never really been direct about what he "wanted" the audience to see there, very deliberately so.

In Company, the instruments stood much more overtly "for" something. They were basically a metaphor for marriage and commitment. Bobby couldn't, wouldn't commit, and nor did/could he play a musical instrument (other than the pathetic kazoo) until that breakthrough moment where he commits to making a change.

I hope that makes sense! I'm at a point where understanding it is such second nature to me that sometimes it's hard to explain very concisely. And it's hard for me to really consider which case allowed the "concept" to blend in better, because they were both so different. If you're interested in reading more about the inception and implementation of the actor/musician thing in Doyle's work, there are lots of great interviews out there with him, his actors, and musical directors from both productions. If you liked the interviews on the DVD, you might enjoy some of the stuff that goes more-in depth. I'd be happy to point you to some, if you want.

Encountering Company at the point that I did was easily one of the most important formative experiences of my young adult life. I didn't expect it to become the fixture that it did for me, at all. But I'm infinitely grateful for it. Raul's performance as Bobby is something that I think will eventually go down as the performance of his career. That's not to say he won't go on to accomplish other great things, or to put a cap to his potential, but I've always felt like there was something about that that will never be re-created. I remember watching it feeling almost like the audience was seeing something it shouldn't be seeing, like it was this complete inside-out portrait of emotion. Beautiful. Tony or not.

Updated On: 7/17/10 at 10:30 AM

[DirtyRottenGirl]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 11:46am

I love Company. Some of the other people cast were wonderful, some awful, and some okay. Not impressed. I love Raoul but Sondheim is a little demanding and sometimes it felt like he was straining or maybe it was his vocal imperfections shown through.

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 12:04pm

Emcee - thank you for a wonderful post.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 12:09pm

Well, it is one of my favorite things to talk about.

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 1:04pm

And mine...

[Hest882]

Posted: 7/17/10 at 2:49pm

Sometimes when I read Company revival threads I wonder if I would have loved it as much as I do if I had seen it on stage. My only exposure to it has been on the DVD and the close-ups may have affected my appreciation of Esparza's performance. I've heard much criticism of the coldness of his performance, but the DVD shows how much tenderness as well as repressed emotion there is in his acting---building all the way up to the explosion of Being Alive. I also prefer the cleaner sound of the revival to the first OCR. To me it's the most dated sounding of Sondheim's musicals, but the revival strips away that very 70s sound and makes it all sound fresh again.

[perfectlymarvelous]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 10:01am

Emcee, that was a lovely post...I had never thought about the concept of the revival of Company that way before.

Anyway I'm one of those who loved the Doyle revival...Company was one of the first Sondheim shows I saw live (the first that I remember was Sweeney Todd in 2006, though my parents did take me to see Night Music at City Opera when I was very little for some unknown reason), and it was my first exposure to Company as a show. For me, the revival of Sweeney Todd had a lot more personal meaning than Company, but I still loved the show and Raul's performance, I thought he was brilliant.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I think the lack of Bobby playing an instrument could also symbolize his disconnect. I saw Bobby as someone who had a lot of friends and knew a lot of people and seemingly had a lot of fun, but in reality he was just sort of wandering through life and was in his own reality. I think this is painfully clear in "Marry Me A Little"...he lists all of these qualities he wants in a woman and associates them with the women he knows or has known in his life, but as he's listing all of these things you realize that he has no idea what he wants. I think in "Being Alive" when Bobby sits down at the piano and plays, it is the first time he is connected and the first time he allows himself to feel and to be a part of his own life.

Sorry for the length of that or any errors or if it doesn't make sense haha, I'm on my Blackberry and it's early.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 10:04am

Saw this 13 times. Loved the ensemble, loved Raul... but for me it was all about Barbara Walsh and her 'Ladies Who Lunch'.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 11:16am

I loved the revival, but don't often watch the DVD. I thought the execution of actors playing instruments worked better in this than Sweeney Todd, since there was that clear metaphor that was being executed rather than a vague concept. Raul, Barbara Walsh, and Heather Laws were all excellent (the latter two deserving of Tony nods, in my opinion).

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/18/10 at 11:20am

Thanks. I've done a lot of writing on John Doyle's work, so it's really second nature to me now.

I think the lack of Bobby playing an instrument could also symbolize his disconnect.

Yes, absolutely. There's a huge thread of emotional disconnect that runs through Company in general, but Doyle really highlighted that in his production. There was a ton of symbolism in his staging that really capitalized on that, and I think he actually focused the show much more on that than he did exclusively on the idea of marriage. That, to me, was what was behind the relevance of it, the idea of living in a world where we are surrounded by an inability and an unwillingness to connect. And when Bobby sits down to the play the piano, he is not only, through the song, committing to making a change in his life, he's joining and connecting with his friends in a way he couldn't do before. A lot of people argue for the intrusiveness of the concept, etc., but I've always believed it gave that moment so much added power.

Updated On: 7/18/10 at 11:20 AM