Company

[Deleted]

The thing is getting it over this season would make sense because the musical revival category is a one horse race at the moment. In fact in general its not a strong musicals season. If they can get it over it stands a very good chance at winning some Tonys.

[karloscar]

Surely it's better to win the Tony when there is some strong competition rather than be first in a bunch of nonentities. If Company is as good as everybody seems to think, it would succeed on its own merits.

[Deleted]

But Tonys mean money in New York. If you see an opening in the market why not grab it. No matter now good a show maybe, if it ends up against stiff competition then it could lose out. Say if it opened against something like Bette Midler in Hello dolly it likely wouldn't stand a chance. Timing can be key. It can then be sold as the tony award winning revival on the road and for licensing using the gender swapped book

[Deleted]

Great interview with Jonathan!

www.broadway.com/buzz/193694/london-company-star-jonathan-bailey-on-revering-patti-lupone-texting-samantha-barks-and-not-getting-married-today/

[Deleted]

Interrupting Broadway speculation, and discussion of Fleeshman's abs for a moment for a serious post. With my serious face.

Earlier this week I posted my blog, which is in this thread. As I have a couple of 'formal' reviews coming out I used the blog as a bit of personal expression. I've had an overwhelmingly lovely response from people who really connected with it. However I also had an email from a well known theatre critic who suggested I needed professional help for sex addiction based on what I wrote. That is a whole world of not ok. For a variety of reasons. I contemplated saying nothing, but at the urging of friends (and a discussion with some related to this production) I felt a response was needed not just because it reflects on how men talk to and about women all the time, but also on the relevance of Company itself. I don't name the person so I would like the Mods her to respect my freedom to share this as much as I would any other blog.


thenerdytheatre.blogspot.com/2018/10/you-could-drive-person-crazy-or-what-is.html

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 11:21:26 GMT @theatregeek62 said:

But Tonys mean money in New York. If you see an opening in the market why not grab it. No matter now good a show maybe, if it ends up against stiff competition then it could lose out. Say if it opened against something like Bette Midler in Hello dolly it likely wouldn't stand a chance. Timing can be key. It can then be sold as the tony award winning revival on the road and for licensing using the gender swapped book

Slightly different take ... Tonys can mean money in New York (and beyond).  Always a bit hard to say how much they mean for a specific show given the many variables involved that influence the potential payoff.

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 13:16:47 GMT danieljohnson14 said:

Great interview with Jonathan!

www.broadway.com/buzz/193694/london-company-star-jonathan-bailey-on-revering-patti-lupone-texting-samantha-barks-and-not-getting-married-today/

"It’s going to be difficult to make Bobby a man and have the show acquire this potency again."

Interesting observation from Bailey. 

Here's to the first company that does Company in repertory, alternating between versions so we can see both.

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 13:31:53 GMT @emicardiff said:

Interrupting Broadway speculation, and discussion of Fleeshman's abs for a moment for a serious post. With my serious face.

Earlier this week I posted my blog, which is in this thread. As I have a couple of 'formal' reviews coming out I used the blog as a bit of personal expression. I've had an overwhelmingly lovely response from people who really connected with it. However I also had an email from a well known theatre critic who suggested I needed professional help for sex addiction based on what I wrote. That is a whole world of not ok. For a variety of reasons. I contemplated saying nothing, but at the urging of friends (and a discussion with some related to this production) I felt a response was needed not just because it reflects on how men talk to and about women all the time, but also on the relevance of Company itself. I don't name the person so I would like the Mods her to respect my freedom to share this as much as I would any other blog.


thenerdytheatre.blogspot.com/2018/10/you-could-drive-person-crazy-or-what-is.html

Just caught up reading your initial blog and am amazed that anyone could infer what the male theatre critic did from a piece of writing that reflects our shared humanity in all its desires. I see this next week and the last time I saw Company live was twenty-ish years ago at the Donmar. At that time I saw 35 looming closely and your comments on this reflect my own at the time, gender differences apart. Isn’t it wonderful that a show speaks across time and, with few tweaks, across that difference? You have to be pretty screwy to not see the way that, male or female, the pressure to couple is just the same.

So, switch the birthday digits around and here I am, seeing it again. I’m looking forward to it.

EDIT: Actually, I just realised I see it the week after next. This month is just dragging......

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 15:43:41 GMT @cardinalpirelli said:

Oct 21, 2018 13:31:53 GMT @emicardiff said:

Interrupting Broadway speculation, and discussion of Fleeshman's abs for a moment for a serious post. With my serious face.

Earlier this week I posted my blog, which is in this thread. As I have a couple of 'formal' reviews coming out I used the blog as a bit of personal expression. I've had an overwhelmingly lovely response from people who really connected with it. However I also had an email from a well known theatre critic who suggested I needed professional help for sex addiction based on what I wrote. That is a whole world of not ok. For a variety of reasons. I contemplated saying nothing, but at the urging of friends (and a discussion with some related to this production) I felt a response was needed not just because it reflects on how men talk to and about women all the time, but also on the relevance of Company itself. I don't name the person so I would like the Mods her to respect my freedom to share this as much as I would any other blog.


thenerdytheatre.blogspot.com/2018/10/you-could-drive-person-crazy-or-what-is.html

Just caught up reading your initial blog and am amazed that anyone could infer what the male theatre critic did from a piece of writing that reflects our shared humanity in all its desires. I see this next week and the last time I saw Company live was twenty-ish years ago at the Donmar. At that time I saw 35 looming closely and your comments on this reflect my own at the time, gender differences apart. Isn’t it wonderful that a show speaks across time and, with few tweaks, across that difference? You have to be pretty screwy to not see the way that, male or female, the pressure to couple is just the same.

So, switch the birthday digits around and here I am, seeing it again. I’m looking forward to it.

Thank you! and indeed, as much as obviously as a woman it's been a great 'shared experience' to have fellow women say how much this incarnation resonates. But similarly plenty of male friends have been equally moved of course. I cannot believe that in basically saying 'Hey I'm a single woman who sometimes dates'  I got that accusation. 

It is of course none of his god-damn business but I'm also hardly out on dates every night and even if I was....anyway being a sex addict seems like a LOT of work. And I'm quite lazy. 

[karloscar]

A friend of mine was sufficiently worried about his own behaviour to attend a sex addiction discussion group, which quickly put his mind at rest. He saw what real addicts are dealing with every day and it was quite an eye-opener. I suspect said "theatre-critic" is simply a sexist misogynistic idiot!

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 16:54:57 GMT karloscar said:

A friend of mine was sufficiently worried about his own behaviour to attend a sex addiction discussion group, which quickly put his mind at rest. He saw what real addicts are dealing with every day and it was quite an eye-opener. I suspect said "theatre-critic" is simply a sexist misogynistic idiot!

Funny you should say on both counts...a friend of mine is an honest to god sex addict, in treatment etc etc. And it's something we talk about between us openly, honestly and with a very British sense of humour. Suffice to say last week we had a proper old giggle at the thought I was one! Because, with the greatest will in the world...nah. 

[BurlyBeaR]

Oct 21, 2018 13:31:53 GMT @emicardiff said:

]I would like the Mods her to respect my freedom to share this as much as I would any other blog.

A reminder that people are more than welcome to quote their blogs in their autosignatures and that not for profit blogs by contributing members can be promoted in the Noticeboard section where a fabulous 30 days of free advertising of your innermost thoughts is available.

On the other hand, people who sign up to TheatreBoard purely to promote or advertise will not be entertained.

And now lets keep this topic on Company please. 

[Deleted]

Oct 21, 2018 18:51:08 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Oct 21, 2018 13:31:53 GMT @emicardiff said:

]I would like the Mods her to respect my freedom to share this as much as I would any other blog.

A reminder that people are more than welcome to quote their blogs in their autosignatures and that not for profit blogs by contributing members can be promoted in the Noticeboard section where a fabulous 30 days of free advertising of your innermost thoughts is available.

On the other hand, people who sign up to TheatreBoard purely to promote or advertise will not be entertained.

And now lets keep this topic on Company please. 

I'm not really sure what I've done wrong here? And if there is an issue maybe the mods can contact me and let me know what it is. Because all that discussion was firmly on topic around Company and the issues it brings up. Which in this case is the wider discussion of how women are spoken to and about. 

[Deleted]

Fascinating and insightful reading @emicardiff - thanks for posting your blog writings.
I really enjoy reading how theatre connects to - and affects - others in such different ways. Thats just one reason I love theatre; how it can mean so much to a person and provoke such an emotive response.
And yet in many ways I always seem to be 'an exception to the rule' and I do have to say despite being a 30-something year old male (not that gender should matter fundamentally) neither the original nor the gender-swapper edition of Company touched me in such a specific way. That could be because I was aurally overwhelmed (which is often the case on a first sitting for a show and there is a lot to ingest with this production) or it could also be because situationally I'm quite the opposite.
Whilst my friends and peers have paired off and settled down I've not found myself in any situation you describe whereby coupled friends have social gatherings and either exclude or bring you along as a token gesture nor felt demanded upon; pulled "in 10 different directions". In fact I've just increasingly found myself isolated from each of their 'company' as they all settle inwardly respectively. I never felt at any point Bobbie's friends were going to abandon her, their relationships being too strong - Joanne offering up Larry as testament to the strength of their relationship.
I've never felt the expectation upon me to settle down and have kids but maybe like you infer thats a gender specific pressure still hovering around in 2018. That said, I am sexually dormant and maybe Im lucky to have friends that understand that without the need for discussion.
But that is all down to the beauty of theatre. It can be so interpretive; what one person takes away another can find a completely different meaning in. Theatre is my wife (... now Dave) and that brings me to a new point.

In one of my many midnight eureka-type moments I had a wild idea strike. I don't know if this has been posited before anyway and by all means laugh it off and shoot this down but... hear me out.
Sondheim is known for his many layers of meaning and I wonder if actually at face value Company is about the trials and tribulations of a 35year old's crux with relationship pressures but underneath it's a metaphor for Sondheim's own frustrations, based on personal experience, with writing for theatre. Up to the point of Company's development (1970) Sondheim had been situationally stuck as a lyricist, repeatedly expressing his want and desire to compose professionally but never getting the opportunity to. Company was his first venture into writing both music and lyrics proper when he was 40 - having past the 35-year old mark whilst experiencing a number of unsuccessful musical developments for Broadway. From the weird logic in my head it's actually a perfect allegory for where Sondheim may have been emotionally as a result of his professional situation, hell the show even ends on 'Being Alive' which could be an analogy for his own personal resolution now being able to express himself completely as a composer/lyricist.
Just a thought anyway.

[Deleted]

Very interesting Serial Shusher. Although in interviews and his writing Sondheim seems to reject fairly strongly that any of his works reflect autobiographical elements.

[Marcus]

Couldn’t keep reading all the amazing things on here and not being successful with rush tickets. So have closed my eyes and booked a ticket for tonight!
Beam me up Patti!

[wickedgrin]

Oct 23, 2018 14:08:43 GMT @emicardiff said:

You raise a lot of really interesting points- actually the being 'left out' of social gatherings is something I feel very strongly, and I think it's in my one remaining unpublished piece on Company. My utterly bone-chilling-fear for Bobbie was looking at her and thinking 'they're going to leave you' and not about the men. I've actually just welled up reading that. Because the harsh truth (and one that couples don't want to hear) is that they dump their single friends. Not always intentionally, but sometimes. But its interesting you say isolated from their 'company' as well- as if being on the outside while still there? 

I just want to double like that paragraph!

[Marcus]

Just left this evenings performance.

There’s nothing more to say that hasn’t already been said. The whole cast are incredibly talented and I felt I connected so much more to Bobbie as a women than a man. I also felt it made moments like Ladies who lunch so much more poignant because it was suddenly directed at Bobbie.

Patti was just brilliant - she’s so much fun to watch.
I will be going multiple times to this show.
Jonathan was amazing in not getting married today.

Oh and shout out to the costume designer putting Richard in a glorious pair of briefs. I think it really enhanced the performance.

[greeny11]

Saw this tonight and was blown away. I won't go into anywhere near as much detail as some, but Jonathan Bailey must get an Olivier Award for this - he was hilarious. Rosalie and Patti must surely be shoe-ins for the award in their categories too. Really enjoyed Mel Giedroyc and Richard Fleeshman in their respective roles as well.

[Deleted]

Oct 23, 2018 14:08:43 GMT @emicardiff said:

Because the harsh truth (and one that couples don't want to hear) is that they dump their single friends. Not always intentionally, but sometimes. But its interesting you say isolated from their 'company' as well- as if being on the outside while still there?

It can happen in more ways than one as well (says I as a single late 20s female who is very much experiencing this and feeling isolated and lonely in life because of it) - there are the couples who are so wrapped up in themselves and their couple-y lifestyles that they have no room or empathy for their single friends anymore; there are those who try but become more estranged from single friends by virtue of more of their time being taken up with their partner; and there are those who simply end up having nothing in common with their single friends anymore because their lives are about their relationship and children, and so they drift apart as they no longer have much to say to each other. And I think there is also an aspect of it where the single person just feels so awkward being the odd one out at a party or dinner where everyone else is coupled up. I know it makes me feel incredibly self-conscious as well as lonely.

I don't really know how I'm going to react to this show, which is partly why I've put off seeing it so far. Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and go!

[Deleted]

Oct 23, 2018 22:50:45 GMT @posterj said:

Oct 23, 2018 14:08:43 GMT @emicardiff said:

Because the harsh truth (and one that couples don't want to hear) is that they dump their single friends. Not always intentionally, but sometimes. But its interesting you say isolated from their 'company' as well- as if being on the outside while still there?

I don't really know how I'm going to react to this show, which is partly why I've put off seeing it so far. Perhaps I should just bite the bullet and go!

There's only one way to find out and you'd be mad to miss out.

[Deleted]

Obvious, but empathy needs to travel both ways. We who are single need to acknowledge the new realities and rhythms of those who are coupled and/or with children.

[Deleted]

Oct 23, 2018 23:32:55 GMT @jbc said:

Obvious, but empathy needs to travel both ways. We who are single need to acknowledge the new realities and rhythms of those who are coupled and/or with children.

Well, yes, but there is a fairly obvious difference in support mechanism, comfort and daily interactions for those in a relationship (assuming of course that it is a happy one) as opposed to those who are single, so the freezing out and loss or reduction in intensity of a friendship is likely to be more acutely felt by the single person than the coupled one who automatically by virtue of their situation has more distractions and ways of filling their time that weren't there before.

[Deleted]

Oct 23, 2018 23:42:05 GMT @posterj said:

Oct 23, 2018 23:32:55 GMT @jbc said:

Obvious, but empathy needs to travel both ways. We who are single need to acknowledge the new realities and rhythms of those who are coupled and/or with children.

Well, yes, but there is a fairly obvious difference in support mechanism, comfort and daily interactions for those in a relationship (assuming of course that it is a happy one) as opposed to those who are single, so the freezing out and loss or reduction in intensity of a friendship is likely to be more acutely felt by the single person than the coupled one who automatically by virtue of their situation has more distractions and ways of filling their time that weren't there before.

And then there's the inevitable sudden re-initiation of contact as if nothing has happened when they become single, which obviously doesn't get covered in Company.

[Deleted]

Oct 23, 2018 23:42:05 GMT @posterj said:

Oct 23, 2018 23:32:55 GMT @jbc said:

Obvious, but empathy needs to travel both ways. We who are single need to acknowledge the new realities and rhythms of those who are coupled and/or with children.

Well, yes, but there is a fairly obvious difference in support mechanism, comfort and daily interactions for those in a relationship (assuming of course that it is a happy one) as opposed to those who are single, so the freezing out and loss or reduction in intensity of a friendship is likely to be more acutely felt by the single person than the coupled one who automatically by virtue of their situation has more distractions and ways of filling their time that weren't there before.

Perhaps in some cases, but this assumes a lot about the breadth and depth of support and intensity of interactions that both parties have available.  I have coupled friends who reply almost exclusively on each other whereas I have a wider range of people in my support and friendship circle. I do not think this is a black and white situation where couples win and singles lose. It is more nuanced depending on a lot of variables. That is the only point I am trying to make.