Could Company Work With the Genders Switched?

I was singing along to "Being Alive" on my iPod when I found myself wondering if (and I'm talking total hypothetical situation here) the characters from Company could all switch genders and still maintain the intergrity and "point" of the show.

I think it might bring an interesting quality to the show to see a female Robert, a male Amy, ect. I've noticed that it seems like the ideals of the country have changed a lot since the show premiered - Joannes are no longer considered out of the norm and more and more women are staying single for longer...

Due to a lot of technical things, like names in lyrics, ect, it couldn't be done - but if there was a way to pull it off, would this concept work onstage, or would it defeat the purpose of the show to begin with?

I was thinking the same thing about Joanne.

A lot of the things that the characters go through, though, while certainly slightly gender stereotyped are either distinctly male or female; their actions, I think, sort of symbolize their points of view, and when you're dealing with something like love, lust and relationships, a lot of those viewpoints *are* distinctly gender-specific. I find Company to be a show with its backing in emotion and feeling, and a lot of that seems to be based on the different ways that men and women feel and express those feelings, with regards to others and their relationships WITH others. So, surely there are characters that could be flipped, and Bobby probably COULD be a woman, but I don't know that they'd all retain their poignancy. I mean, could you imagine "Getting Married Today" being done by a straight man? I think a lot of it would feel kind of campy and silly, whereas it's probably supposed to be (while humorous) cathartic reflective.

I don't think that was very coherent. I'm sorry.

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Updated On: 8/19/06 at 12:25 AM

I think the scene where Bobby's sexuality is questioned is very loaded, and it is such because there's no clear-cut answer, in a lot of cases. So, I wouldn't go so far as to label this hypothetical female Robert a lesbian, because then you totally unload that scene.

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Only in a drunk piano bar really, really late at night.

What is the point of hypothetical discussions of ideas thta would never be allowed to be done legally?

Do you think OKLAHOMA would work if you re-set it in contemporary New York City?

How about a hip-hop version of FOLLIES?

because Jon, hypothetical discussions are fun!

and who knows? Who would have thought Romeo and Juliet could have been updated to (more-or-less) present day New York City and worked so well?

Marta! I'm always Marta...

i hope this isnt off topic, but i was wondering what age would COMPANY be appropriate for? id really like to see it, but compared to something like RENT, how much "innappropriate" stuff is in it?
thanks, and sorry

I agree that Company wouldn't really work with a female lead. It's too gender specific as written..and not just Bobby...most of the characters.

That said, I think it's time for someone to write a "single woman" musical. Yes, there was Song and Dance, but to me that was more about "foreign woman making her way in a new country and new experiences, one of which is her relationships". We've had Company and Tick Tick Boom, now we need the woman in her 30's looking to find "the one" musical!

Maybe I wasn't clear in my other post....

I'd like to see a musical with a single woman who is dealing with that "landmark birthday" and deciding what she truly wants out of life. Dealing with being one of the only "singles" in her married crowd, dealing with all her friends having children, not having found her "soul mate" yet. It seems that we only have musicals about men reaching that sort of "early mid life crisis" and yet it seems to me, that there are plenty of women out there who have found themselves in very different circumstances than where they pictured themselves at 20.

But...I forget..this is Broadway...all the women are thin and married to a tenor by the age of 25! LOL

Sondheim and Furth have had similar action against productions that make Bobby gay as well.

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