Tick Tock- Company- Page 8

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/3/13 at 11:42pm

I think Bobby, at least thinks of himself as rather "hip" so would probably find it appealing to have friends of a different race...

As for the NPH version--I saw it as sorta happening in the 70s. It goes back to the original script in bits, and the orchestrations are closer--but it did keep it vague (unlike the Kennedy Center Sondheim Festival production with John Barrowman which made a point of being 1970.)

[qazdannywsx]

Posted: 7/4/13 at 1:46am

The only character that I think can be from a different race is Marta. In her scene with Bobby she asks him if he knows anyone Puerto Rican, to which he replies negatively. He also says he doesn't know anyone black. "Well, see, frankly I only seem to meet people like myself". It wouldn't make sense for him to have friends of a different race, because there is a specific line about it! Marta can be motivated to ask him about it if she were black or Asian (like with Anika Noni Ross or Angel Desai). She doesn't have to be though, she's cool enough to have "Jews, Hispanics, gays, Arabs, street people- all my closest, my best friends".

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/4/13 at 2:04am

The original was of it's own time and place without thinking about it. Bobby's friends were mostly in his price range and his girlfriend's were white. Both are addressed in the script. Only as we look back can we say "Bobby would have interacial friends and lovers", we see the progress but it wasn't quite there yet.

[Fan123]

Posted: 7/4/13 at 7:16am

Sondheim once commented on American vs British views of race, using Company as an example - "In England, audiences do not see the colour of the people they are looking at. American audiences do, and they bring with it all the weight and baggage that comes with that...In London Bobby [in Company] was black [Adrian Lester]. Over here, it would *mean* something - 'aaah, Bobby is the outsider, aaah.' "

(See page 93 of How Sondheim Found His Sound - http://books.google.com.au/books?id=X7HWzVOvtEwC&printsec=frontcover)

I don't know if it's necesarily always a bad thing to have race "mean something" onstage, but of course you wouldn't want to be bound to that perspective for every role or play.