re: Company 1995 Revival?

The main reason it ran for such a short time was because it was produced by the non-for-profit Roundabout, so it was a limited engagement. There were talks of transferring to a commercial run but a huge controversy was created when the producer asked for Boyd Gaines to be replaced (Scott Ellis refused to do so), he also failed to get the money necessary for the transfer. At the end things got very messy, Sondheim released a pretty harsh statement, the producer (can't remember who it was right now)released a statement answering to Sondheim's, and at the end of the day the cast and crew were told that the show would not be transferring.
EDIT: John N. Harts was the producer, and here is a link explaining in detail what happened.
Company Controversy

Updated On: 11/18/06 at 12:38 AM

I enjoyed Boyd Gaines (who actually had attendance issues due to vocal health problems) as well as Jane Krakowski and Veanne Cox. Veanne Cox performed "(Not) Getting Married" today with such perfection, she stopped the show the night I saw her. Krakowski just has a lot of charisma on stage and she's at her best when working on an ensemble. My biggest problem with this production was Debra Monk's Joanne.

I have said this before.
It was so under rated, an amazing cast and it was actually a hit for the Roundabout and would have transfered if it wasn't for the Producers clashing.

Lot's of people who didn't see it assume it was not good, but I thought it was.
Actually better than good.
Monk went anti Stritch and was brilliant, La Chanze kicked ass with ANOTHER HUNDRED PEOPLE and Cox was Drop dead Dazzling.
also Danny Bernstein, Jane Krakowski, Kate Burton, they were all terrific and Rob Marshall's staging and Tony Walton's set and Ivey Long's costumes, and Scott Ellis's direction of the Firth scenes was really great.

OK I'm done.

Updated On: 11/18/06 at 12:51 AM

There you go..

Nah. He can't be Rosie....he spells better.

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Actually, it was pretty good.

And understudy Clow (who went on almost more times than constantly-out Gaines) is the third greatest Bobby of all time---after Barrowman and Kert.

I saw this revival as well. I really enjoyed it and had always loved the music but had never seen it on stage before. I was truly impressed with La Chanze and Jane Krakowski who always impresses me in whatever she's in. I have tickets for the new revival for March. I'm excited to see what they do with it. It's one of my all time favorite shows.

Lots of threads on this lately. I guess the new revival sparked a lot of the interest in the 95 revival.

I love the recording for the 95 revival. It's worth getting. Thought It can't beat the OBCR.

It was mediocre...actually dull.

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Unless I'm misrembering, which is possible, the extra lines for Kathy and Larry were not in the Roundabout production. My memory is that they were first used in the Donmar production a couple of months later.

I agree that they're a good addition, helping to flesh out two characters who are particularly underwritten. I would imagine that Furth wrote those lines.

My memory is that the most notable textual changes in the Roundabout production were the cutting of a couple of Joanne's lines in the first scene (lines that no one except Stritch has seemed able to make funny), the change to the lyric of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," the addition of "Marry Me a LIttle." I think that they also cut Marta's questions to Robert about how many blacks and Puerto Ricans he knows (which are back in the published revision), but perhaps I'm mistaken. There may have been others that I'm not remembering.

Most of the book changes that are in the published revision were first used in the Donmar production. A couple of changes in the Donmar production didn't make their way into the published revision, notably the changes to the dialogue interjections in "Being Alive."

FWIW, I didn't greatly like the Roundabout production. Veanne Cox was quite good, James Clow did well under the circumstances. LaChanze tried or was directed to make "Another Hundred People" a song about how exciting life in Manhattan is, which was not the first time nor, unfortunately, the last I've seen that approach taken. Jane Krakowski was terrific in her first scene but then fell into the common trap of playing April as dumb.

There was not much else notable about it one way or another, except for how miscast Debra Monk was. Not her fault. I didn't think Scott Ellis helped her find an approach that would work for her, especially in the songs.

One thing that I did think was interesting was that the production (except for La Chanze) had a dark feel to it. Overall, it felt darker to me than the original production, though I mostly couldn't tell you why. Dark lighting was some of it. Hal Prince made sure that there was bright lighting for most of the scenes in the original production. I also didn't like the idea that Robert's ceiling is mirrored, made clear when he was in bed with April. Made him seem unnecessarily creepy.

The production was full of good people, but nothing much special happened. Not the end of the world, but the truth was that there wasn't much interest in a commercial transfer because the word of mouth on the production (which was sold out or nearly for the Roundabout run before previews started) was not great. The Nederlanders passed on their option and . . . well, the story is told at the link already posted.