"Keeping Company with Sondheim" Documentary streaming this friday — Page 3

bwayphreak234 said: "binau said: "poisonivy2 said: "Well I saw this and was a bit disappointed. I thought it was too infomerical-ish for my tastes. I'd rather have had more rehearsal and creative process footage, and less talking heads."

I agree. I mean it’s great to have this record but ultimately I feel it was kind of oriented for a wider audience than ideal. I personally feel I don’t need the history of Company and various clips from footage already available. I’d rather they go into more details about this specific production."

As much as I enjoyed this, I would have loved for this to focus more on the current production as well."

I agree with both you and binau. I streamed it and fast-forwarded through some of the old footage so that I could see the footage from this current production. I wish there had been more rehearsal footage from it too.

Bettyboy72 said: "...And as far as Doyle, I enjoyed him but I’ve never heard Not Getting Married slowed down more. The song has always felt like a ticking time bomb to me. Sondheim pressed Howland to the point she couldn’t breath. Doyle is doing all sorts of mugging, hand wringing and such. The audience clearly enjoyed it and he’s a front runner for the Tony. I just thought his interpretation was too big and slow but maybe that’s why people like it. It’s a reinvention."

Went back in late March to see it a third time (obviously I love the musical and this production). Lenk, whom I've liked all along, has indeed improved substantially (although the four people I was with who were seeing it for the first time all thought she was the weak link in an otherwise terrific production). Patti seems to be giving the exact same performance (and that's just fine by me!). The rest of the cast, though, seemed to be getting a bit restless, giving much broader comedic performances than what I remembered, and yes, the audience seemed to be eat it up.

SisterGeorge said:


"Thank you, Thank you for championing Promises, Promises whenever possible. One of the reasons Company is my favorite Sondheim is that the score is the closest anyone on Broadway ever got to sounding like Burt. If you think there are others, please share!"

You're welcome. I will always champion "Promises, Promises"...I discovered the show in the early to mid 1990's when I was on Bacharach/David binge and instantly fell in love with it. I loved that it was based on one of my favorite films.

I just hate when the facts are blurred because the research required simply wasn't done, and it isn't like this information is hard to find. Credibility then goes out the window with this kind of sloppiness and history (even if unintentional) then gets re-written.

Let's give credit where credit is due.

Enjoyed watching this. It showed enough of the production that I am ok with my decision not to see this production. I originally wasn't crazy about the gender swapping but got a bit over that. I then saw some performances of the songs that I wasn't crazy about but still thought I might see it. After this special on the show, I think I am good with the Esparza revival. But I loved watching the commentary in this.

i really enjoyed this PBS doc...having seen the original Broadway production in 1970, and the West End revival in 2018, which started the gender swapping of Bobby/i, i felt this captured the 1970's very well...as i was living in NYC that year...i do regret they didn't mention Rosalie Craig from the London 2018 production, who in my opinion did a much better job with the leading role switch than from what i have seen from clips of Lenk...