Review: Celebrate the Revival of COMPANY at Broadway Sacramento

Broadway Sacramento’s 2024 season is here and is opening up with Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 hit, Company. Following several Tony Award wins for its 2021 Broadway revival, Company is stopping in Sacramento this week as it closes its national tour. The book by George Furth has undergone some changes, while Sondheim’s Signature Sound continues to thrill audiences nationwide with recognizable songs such as “Being Alive.”

This revival has been updated by director Marianne Elliott for a new generation. Selfies are a cornerstone, and we now see a female lead and a same-sex couple. Bobby, a male New Yorker turning thirty-five, has been replaced with the female Bobbie (Britney Coleman). The story follows Bobbie through various vignettes, interacting with friends or love interests. Her friends all consist of couples and she is the lone wolf, eschewing the convention of marriage for fun and freedom. She is waiting for the perfect man, one who embodies all of the best qualities of the men she knows. While her friends pressure her to find someone, they actually exhibit every reason she should stay single. From getting divorced to encouraging infidelity, they provide the worst examples of marriage. It’s no wonder that Jamie (Matt Rodin), Bobbie’s gay friend, gets a case of cold feet on his wedding day. Luckily for us, that provides fodder for the most entertainingly funny number of the show, “Getting Married Today.” Rodin is hilarious and relatable, and that is part of the power of this work. Everyone can see themselves in one of the characters. One of the most powerful songs in the second act is performed by Judy McLane as Joanne (a role previously held by Patti LuPone), a woman on her third marriage who has become disillusioned with life. “The Ladies Who Lunch” cynically examines the lives of the married women who have lost who they are to become what society thinks they should be. McLane is a commanding presence and her solo is poignant and powerful. She forces Bobbie out of her comfort zone and makes her think. Does she really want to be alone? Coleman's girl-next-door persona and gorgeous voice shine in the show’s finale as she decides, finally, that “alone is alone, not alive,” and that she wants Company.

The show retains some of the 1970s feel, with minimalist set design by Bunny Christie and Stanley Kubrick-esque numbers like “Poor Baby” and “Side by Side by Side.” It’s Sondheim at his best, and the talent in this show is a fitting tribute to a man whose unique sound changed the American musical. Company is the gift that keeps on giving…the more you listen to it, the more you take from it. At its surface, it’s about a woman who just wants to live life to the fullest. Probing deeper, its themes resonate with anyone who has felt alone, who feels adrift, and who craves human connection. After all, we all want “someone to crowd us with love.”

Company plays at Broadway Sacramento through September 22nd. Tickets may be purchased online at BroadwaySacramento.com, by phone at (916) 557-1999, or at the Box Office at 1419 H Street in Sacramento.

Photo credit: Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

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