Raul Esparza in Company — Page 2

Did you know my Mother?

The original was anything but "old school"

Considering that actors playing instruments is already seen as a gimmick, the original production of COMPANY was more of a breakthrough for it's use of a non book show with a contemporary musical sound by a young genius than anything being done today.
Even SPRING AWAKENING, which is quite good.

curtain - you're right. I was referring mostly to the score of the original recording.

This is an interesting comparison to Spring Awakening. I'm not sure whats going to happen with that one

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Yeah,
I don't think we will have a revival of SPRING AWAKENING in 40 years with so many disparate opinions.

It's called Classic misschung
Amen.

Thanks for the explanation--I get what you mean but I still dont' see his take on Bobby (at least from all I've read, clips I've seen and the CD) being all that contrary to the original production or script. Different yeah sure but not at sharp odds.
But I can see how this could be argued :P

My main prob with Doyle's version is I love dance being used in a musical to tell the story--and I kinda hate how Doyle's version by necessity has eliminated the possibility of using dance (for me it's more valid in being used to tell characterization and story than the way you have who play what instrument when but...) but horses for corses--I think this revival is a fascinating and wonderful production I'd be excited to see sometime.

I guess in general I dislike how the version of COmpany you can rent to perform has changes like Tick Tock being dropped (though after Rob Marshall's version for Charlotte D'Amboise in 95 I understand many thought it was a useless number) etc. I also hate all the updating done to the script (even minor things like Peter complaining of havign drank less bottle sof wine than he did in the 1970 script) and don't get why they update it when some things (down to lines like "clutching a copy of life magazine" and much of the Ladies who Lunch lyrics) that aren't changed are just as dated. But...

(the booklet for the new cast album has a great essay that points out some of this)

Raulito had me laughing for like 10 minutes.

Yea, I was listening to a clip of Raul's "Being Alive" and was surprised to find it a little less subdued than I expected. I mean, I love it when he sings ballads smoothly (i.e. "Why", "See Her Smile" and the first few verses of "Petrified"). I was a little surprised, but I knew that somehow it probably works, because otherwise they wouldn't have done it. They probably felt the need to change the song and make it unique since it tends to be overdone. Hopefully seeing the show will explain it.

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The album version of that song is so great

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"Being Alive" is amazing live.....