Hah, thanks, ljay, for the pass-off. Gladly.
The story in Company, if you want to make it linear, goes like this: Bobby comes home (probably from work), listens to his messages. Finds out about the surprise party. Proceeds to, for however long, sit alone in his apartment and get completely drunk. Thinks about all of the stuff we see on stage: those vignettes are all memories we're seeing with him as he remembers them. (So, that adds an extra layer of seeing it, perhaps, not "as it happened," but as Bobby remembers it -- through, in other words, his rather cynical filter.) Has this moment of realization, triggered by what Joanne tells him.
(One of the things I've begun to wonder recently is whether Being Alive occurs in "real time" or if it's in his memory. So... whether that breakthrough happens immediately after Joanne tells him what she does, or if it's not until he's recounting it in his mind that it pulls the trigger, so to speak. I had always, for years and years, been very sure of the latter -- that he has that breakthrough by himself, in his home, on his birthday. But then I saw it staged in a way that suggested otherwise. I'm pretty sure I think that's a mistake and a misinterpretation, but it's made me think a lot about that moment in a new way.)
Anyway, assuming the latter, he has this breakdown/breakthrough where he finally realizes that something's got to change. That's Being Alive. The commitment to change. And then he leaves. And then his friends come, can't find him, etc. Raul has actually described it several times as a process of "growing up." Or, at the very least, Bobby realizing that it's time to grow up, and he must do so. (And since you mentioned catharsis, I won't let it go without saying that that last 20 minutes is one of the most cathartic experiences I have ever had.)
That's if you want to look at the story linearly (is that a word? Whatever.) But you have to remember that Company isn't called a "plotless" musical for nothing. Not having a traditional, linear plot doesn't mean you don't have a story. And it doesn't mean nothing "happens." Most of the "action" occurs in memory, but it still has an impact on the character(s).
Ironically, however, that phrase brought to mind an interesting and related point that has to do with Company, Sondheim, and the idea of "doing nothing." Think about Barcelona; I've had that song described to me as a perfect dramatization of someone (figuratively, of course), standing completely still. Sondheim has managed, in that song, to dramatize something that almost resists the process. But if you look at what's happening in the song, all of the equalizing adds up to not moving at all; nothing "happening." And yet, we watch it, we engage. So it's not nothing. I thought it'd be interesting to bring up because it's sort of a microcosm of the question you're asking. For what it's worth.
I always write too much about Company. :/
A work of art is an invitation to love.
Updated On: 1/30/11 at 01:50 PM
.jpg?format=auto&width=365)
