Sondheim's "Company"

Listening to it a lot but these people are way, way too invested in their friend Bobby's life. They seem to think only about him all the time. As I haven't seen it, are they to be ridiculed or taken seriously? And is Bobby so wonderful and magnetic as they all seem to think he is?

• The piece takes place in a second of Bobby's mind, so arguably he's only been thinking of moments when his friends tried to get involved in his life.

• Yes. And here in Bizarro World, this once-gay website includes gaggles of gay men who are asked to be concerned about female office frau's petty lives. It's called "CUNTany."

  Booby.%20Booby.%20Booby%2C%20baby%2C%20booby%20baby...

• My all-time favorite cast recording.

• So "Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You" is all in his head? The ultimate narcissist song then.

• "RISE! RISE! RISE! RISE! RISE!"

• LOVE this

  http://youtu.be/am8qrrZAtP4

• Strictly speaking OP is absolutely right. But if the show is done well - which it rarely is - it doesn't matter. Only then can that - and other - problems (or perhaps conventions/rules of operation of the concept) be overlooked and the show's merry musings on relationships, freedom, need, need for company and neuroses come through.

• Well, it IS a musical. But the events he is remembering did happen to him. Maybe it was a generational thing. The Esparza revival was weird because it seems much less likely that so many friends would be married and give a shit if one of them wasn't, compared to the 70s.

• See the goddam show before you post. Christ, OP. You could drive a person crazy, you could drive a person mad.

• "And is Bobby so wonderful and magnetic as they all seem to think he is?" When cast properly . . . bet your ass.

  R. Esparza

• NPH wasn't ideal, vocally. But he very right, otherwise. Esparza is too... character actory.

• Company is far too dated to ever be adaptable. If I were Bobby, I'd tell my friends to mind their own fucking business.

• Why do you nasty little queens have to always always always display your hatred of women, no matter what the topic? COMPANY has a bad book, actually, and just about the best Broadway score ever. Bobby has never made sense.

• Pay no attention to r13. She rooted for the Nazis in The Sound of Music.

• best broadway score ever? pshaw!

• One wonders why the hyper-reactive R13 is referring to the singular R2 as a plural entity. Clearly he or she isn't the highest note in the score.

• How come you all have so little imagination that you always supposed I'm a woman? Me being the guy who constantly objects to your vicious misogyny. Honestly, DL is worse than the Republican party, your sexism, racism, masculinist blah blah blah. COMPANY is a great score. What scores are better? SWEENEY TODD? A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC?

• I'm the he or she you mean, r17, and it'd take a blind guy not to notice that DL is a cesspool of woman-hatred. Lately I've been listening to L'IL ABNER, and to my surprise, I'm really enjoying it.

• Dean Jones gave a terrific performance. Shame he turned into a Fundamentalist three years after he left "Company" and ruined everything.

  http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/septemberweb-only/deanjones.html

• Ahhhh ... you're THAT guy. Nevermind.

  Life%27s%20too%20short%20to%20waste%20any%20of%20it%20on%20you.

• Dean Jones testified against gay marriage in Congress! He's still my favorite Bobby, though - which is saying a lot, because I loved Esparza.

• R14 Hey, I'll admit to rooting for the Nazis in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." Does that make me a bad person?

• I know this query may bring out the Eldergays in force,but does anyone remember seeing Larry Kert as Bobby after Dean Jones left the show? I've been told that he was terrific in the role... My CD of Company includes Kert singing "Being Alive." It's quite effective.

• It's a good show, but incredibly dated.

• Catherine Zeta Jones wanted to do a quasi remake of Funny Girl where they would taken the original film, edit out Barbara Brolins voice and body and insert Mrs. Douglasw. it's all very complicated involving,lots of green screen and Mrs. D emulating every move exactly. Expensive and complicated and probably not possible, so instead she is doing the movie of Company, and bobby becomes Bobbi.

• "Company" was the first Broadway show I ever saw. It was not on Broadway, but the national tour with George Chakiris as Bobby. This must've been in 1970 or 1971?; I was still in high school. It was definitely the show that turned me into a musical theater queen.

• Yeah, I saw Larry Kert, r23, but I'm not going to talk to you about it because you are an idiot. "Eldergays." Does everything need to be neatly and permanently labeled in your sad little world?

• Wasn't Dean Jones barely in the show at all? He left very early on from what I heard. I wish there was a version of "Being Alive" where we can just hear Jones or Kert without all the friends dramatically saying, "You're getting it, you're almost there" as though they're watching him deliver a baby.

• [quote]You're getting it, you're almost there" as though they're watching him deliver a baby. Or masturbating.

• Bobby, come on over for dinner! We'll be so glad to see you! Bobby, come on over for dinner! Just be the three of us, Only the three of us-- We looooooooooooooooove you! Phone rings, Door chimes, In comes Company!

  Another%20Hundred%20People

• I have the poster for "Side by Side by Sondheim" in my bathroom, and I always chuckle when I see that it was produced by the "Incomes Company."

• "Another Hundred People" is amazing.

• One's impossible, two is dreary, Three is company, safe and cheery.

• R27, you wrote, "Yeah, I saw Larry Kert, [R23], but I'm not going to talk to you about it because you are an idiot. "Eldergays." Does everything need to be neatly and permanently labeled in your sad little world?" I was trying to be funny... didn't mean to offend. Seriously, I'm 50 yrs. old myself. What did you think of Kert in the role?

  R23

• Beth Howland singing "Getting Married Today" is amazing. She ever flub up onstage?

• I saw our Dave John Barrowman as Bobby in a fantastic production at the Kennedy Center. He was really good...charismatic great voice. I completely believed his heterosexuality and that is acting. And yes...Dean Jones was there for a very limited time...Kert really did the original run... Bobby, Bobby...where have you been?

  Mrs%20Jesus

• R23, the Original London Cast recording of Company has Larry Kert on it too. He just sang over the tracks used for the OBC so there's a little bit of an echo of another vocal track, but it's still amazing to hear. I think he's much better than Jones. R26, did you see Jane Russell as Joanne?

• Larry Kert actually had a believable excuse as to why he wasn't married. :)

• Well MY Bawby is FABULOUS!!

  Jill Zarin

• Lucy was supposed to play the Elaine Stritch role, but Gary didn't think it was right for her image.

• R40 I heard that Lucy was the first choice for the Donna McKechnie part, since it had the least amount of singing.

• [quote]The piece takes place in a second of Bobby's mind, so arguably he's only been thinking of moments when his friends tried to get involved in his life. Or it could take place over the course of a year. I don't think we're supposed to know.

• Bullshit, r40. Georgie Furth and Steve wrote Joanne for ME! This time for me!

  Elaine%20Stritch%2C%20still%20at%20liberty

• Did anyone see Daniel Evans as Bobby at the Crucible?

• There was a production at my college in 1973 (I think) with a black Bobby. (The rest of the cast was white.) I thought that was pretty progressive, especially since it was not a school with a large minority student body and was not in a large city.

• Boyd Gaines was a good Bobby too.

• r41 The singing wasn't even a consideration. They thought only Lucy could bring the requisite sensuality to "Tick Tock".

• Why didn't Dolores Gray ever do Joanne? Had she burned too many bridges?

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DGyz-r_tXJc8