Meaning of "Being Alive" from Company — Page 2

I hope the people singing this at auditions aren't 20 years old....singing a song that combines the frustrations and revelations that would have to come from YEARS of someone "not sitting in your chair", or " not ruining your sleep." Even out of the context of the show I feel the lyrics are age inappropriate for anyone that probably at the earliest should be in their thirties or early fourties. I'm a young thirty five and I wouldn't touch that song at a NY audition. Loneliness can be felt at any age, but the frustration and soul searching that this song demands from Bobby's lifelong journey really cannot be conveyed properly from a 20 yo. Not to mention its overdone as hell at auditions. I know, I know someone has gotten cast with doing it. That is wonderful and congratulations, but in the long term haul of the professional arena, hackneyed and inappropiate songs will be a detriment to one being cast. One can hit an 18 in blackjack and win on occasion, but I wouldnt advise it for long term, profit making play. Just my two cents, and friendly advice from someone who has made numerous mistakes early in his career....carry on :)

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Glad you bumped the thread: it reminds us of the great discussions and great people who used to be around.

Jon said: "Fosca left out one important detail: The point in the song where it switches from "Someone to hold you too deep" to "SOMEBODY hold me too deep" comes when his friends are telling Robert to make a wish and blow out the candles on his birthday cake. "Make a wish, Robert. WANT something. Want SOMETHING."

So, the rest of the song is Robert's birthday wish."

I would only add to Fosca's excellent analysis that, in keeping with the obvious irony of the lyric, Robert realizes that the "negative" aspects of marriage are in fact the "positive" aspects of marriage.

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Although until his untimely demise, Larry Kert told everyone everywhere that HE played "Robert" with the closet-gay subtext, it really cheapens the show when one actor's personal choice of subtext becomes the communal interpretation.

COMPANY is about a lot more than whether one closet case finds the guts to come out.

ETA: I think I might have made a mistake; see my apology a few posts below. For the sake of not rewriting history, I leave my original post below, but moderators may feel free to delete. Sorry for the confusion!

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Did the moderators really delete a terrific post from PalJoey? What a way to welcome him back to the main board. If it's prohibited for posters with extensive knowledge and experience from sharing things they know, that would be a big problem.

Updated On: 11/4/19 at 08:51 AM

I hope this doesn't sound condescending, but I have never found Being Alive to be an especially opaque lyric. I don't think audiences do either. When I saw the original and the 95 revival, after Bobby sings Somebody hold me too close, I heard "Awws" from the audience, as if to say "He finally gets it." Now that may not jibe with everyone's interpretation of the song, but its certainly one that many people take with them by the curtain.

GavestonPS said: "Jon said: "Fosca left out one important detail: The point in the song where it switches from "Someone to hold you too deep" to "SOMEBODY hold me too deep" comes when his friends are telling Robert to make a wish and blow out the candles on his birthday cake. "Make a wish, Robert. WANT something. Want SOMETHING."

So, the rest of the song is Robert's birthday wish."

I would only add to Fosca's excellent analysis that, in keeping with the obvious irony of the lyric, Robert realizes that the "negative" aspects of marriage are in fact the "positive" aspects of marriage.

***

Although until his untimely demise, Larry Kert told everyone everywhere that HE played "Robert" with the closet-gay subtext, it really cheapens the show when one actor's personal choice of subtext becomes the communal interpretation.

COMPANY is about a lot more than whether one closet case finds the guts to come out."

Nearly everyone at the time interpreted Bobby as gay, and "Being Alive" as his coming out. I happen to think it's the only explanation that makes sense, especially as we don't see him at the end of the show with a woman but alone. Odd if "alone is alone, not alive,", but not odd if we realize that, in the early 70's, it was pretty much unthinkable to explicitly show Bobby with a man at the show's end. I realize that the authors of the show would disagree. But I think the gay sensibility of the authors came through, whether they wanted it to or not. Indeed, Mary Rodgers says the mentality expressed in "Being Alive" is Sondheim's exactly, that even "Someone to sit in your chair" is him to a t. I think Kert was more honest about Bobby than most of the creative team.

Updated On: 11/4/19 at 03:25 PM

I wonder if there isn't a bit of Kuleshov effect going on, with Bobby being intentionally or accidentally underwritten so that you project yourself and your own desires and conflicts onto him. After a recent local production, I asked a few of my friends, and the gay ones almost all said that Bobby was gay, while the straight ones just said he was a swinger. I'll say this, though: it's way more plausible to read Bobby as straight today than perhaps it was in the early 1970s, given that marriage is becoming more and more optional, and that serial monogamy and openly polyamorous lifestyles are becoming increasingly common for people (of any sexual orientation) around Bobby's age.

I think that's an interesting take, darquegk.

That would be pretty cool, actually.

It's alright, gang, I swapped that out for a slightly easier dream: taking the published edition of the gender-bent Company and splicing it with the "original," so to speak, so we can finally deal with a gay Bobbie instead of a ridiculous emphasis on her biological clock and a weird apparent reinterpretation of "Being Alive" as being alone.

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It's alright, gang, I swapped that out for a slightly easier dream: taking the published edition of the gender-bent Company and splicing it with the "original," so to speak, so we can finally deal with a gay Bobbie instead of a ridiculous emphasis on her biological clock and a weird apparent reinterpretation of "Being Alive" as being alone.

The biological clock bit wasn't really an "emphasis" (it's really a subtle nod to the expression more than anything else) and I'm not sure why it's ridiculous when it's still a relevant topic that effects women (especially when they continue to feel pressured by antiquated societal norms). I still have friends who flip out about it.

And I didn't get that "Being Alive" means being alone from this revival (nor have I ever gotten that from this show), so I wouldn't say it's any sort of apparent reinterpretation. Obviously, there have been many differing interpretations since 1970 and perhaps it's what some people want the show to mean just as you want it to mean something else. To me, the ending is Bobby(ie)'s realization that "being alive" might mean what his/her friends all have that (s)he's been trying to avoid (either consciously or unconsciously) for so long. And perhaps (s)he felt alive only when with his/her friends by experiencing their relationships through them, but perhaps (s)he was never truly "alive" because (s)he was carefully and conveniently avoiding the most relevant aspects of "being alive" in a personal relationship. So to me, Bobby(ie) chooses to embark on his/her own new journey for being alive which, in context of the show, would mean with a partner/mate/spouse (of any gender, really) rather than with his/her friends. It's not about BEING ALONE. It's about self-discovery and a need for change, which can be terrifying and thrilling at the same time.

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Updated On: 11/6/19 at 03:21 PM