BWW Reviews: Playhouse on Park Makes Great COMPANY Through December 18

Company
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Leslie Unger
at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, CT through December 18
www.playhouseonpark.org

Stephen Sondheim's 1970 Tony Award-winning musical Company tells the tale of a completely likeable man who is surrounded by friends who love him.  The weeknight performance of the musical that I attended at Playhouse on Park showed a completely likeable production in need of friends to love it.  In other words, this company's production of Company needs your company as it heads into its final weekend.  With a talented cast, a tart book and a complex score filled with some of the composer-lyricist's best work, it is a challenging, rewarding evening of musical comedy.

There is not much of a plot to Company.  Bobby, the aforementioned likeable man, is a single 35-year-old living in New York City.  His friends have all broken off into couples in various states of marital health.  Each of the five couples that surround Bobby provide him with a dinner away from his bachelor pad and an example why he should both embrace and flee marriage.  Throughout both acts, we view scenes of these couples bickering, being blissful and breaking apart.  Adding to Bobby's woes are a trio of women vying for his heart.  This late-60s/early-70s portrait of relationships and dating still holds true forty years later, even if some of the dated lingo (references to "squares," weed and analysts) threatens to make it a dated period piece.

The major challenge of Company lies in the casting of Bobby.  From the first moment of the piece to the final moments, you hear his name as a leitmotif.  Everyone is worried about Bobby, especially Bobby.  And, in terms of a role, Bobby is worrisome.  Most of what we know about him is what we hear from others.  Director Leslie Unger has cast the tall, handsome Ryan Speakman in the part.  True to the character, he is likeable, sings beautifully and is a capable actor.  Unfortunately, he has not successfully wrestled this enigmatic character into a whole person.  Speakman acts the part from moment to moment, which is understandable as Bobby basically reacts to the thirteen other, more-effectively-drawn characters.   What results is a vacillating, fragmented Bobby that does not cohere in time for the role's final cri-de-coeur, "Being Alive."

Like Speakman, the rest of the cast sings and performs the incredibly difficult score with aplomb.  Standouts include Keisha Gilles as Marta singing "Another Hundred People" and Jennifer Lauren Brown's riotous turn as Amy singing "(Not) Getting Married Today."   After Bobby, the women get the best songs in the show, but Erik Agle has a nice turn with one of the gentler tunes, "Sorry-Grateful," and Kevin Barlowski has a touching scene as Peter, awkwardly hitting on his friend Bobby.  The standout performance in the cast belongs to the masterful Amanda Bruton as Joanne.  Stepping into the shoes originally filled by Elaine Stritch, Bruton sings the pants off "The Ladies Who Lunch," sloshing booze and spitting venom.  It's a showstopper and provides a potent eleventh-hour number.

Director Leslie Unger keeps the action and the laughter moving.  The set, designed by Dan Nischan, is mainly dominated by a large, gray, raised platform that causes the actors to awkwardly step up and down to get to the main playing space.  The proximity of the actors to the lighting grid often made it difficult for the tall Speakman to stay in his light.  There are only two pieces of furniture:  a wooden crate (painted gray) and a well-stocked bar (painted gray).  It makes for a surprisingly Spartan and drab setting  for a fairly well-to-do crowd in New York City.  The contemporary costumes, designed by Erin Kacmarcik, mainly stay in the gray, purple and black tones, reinforcing the dark tones of the set.   The crackerjack orchestra under the musical direction of Colin Britt masterfully handles Sondheim's tricky and melodic score.

 Having seen the 2006 revival of Company on Broadway (you know, the one where the actors had to sing and play an instrument), I found this production to be superior.  Partially because of the intimacy of Playhouse on Park, but overall because of the quality of the performances.  Theaters in Connecticut have been notoriously stingy with Sondheim.  To my memory, in the twenty years I have resided here, I have only seen Sweeney Todd (at The Bushnell and Goodspeed Musicals) and A Little Night Music (Goodspeed) staged by major companies.  Kudos to Playhouse on Park for showing the larger theaters who shy away from America's greatest living musical theater composer how to tackle this tricky material.  Hopefully Westport Country Playhouse's upcoming Into the Woods will be similarly rewarding and open more stages to Sondheim.  In the meantime, do Bobby a favor and visit him at Playhouse on Park.  He needs company.

Photo credit Patch.com / David B. Newman.

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