1,936 posts
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Post by wickedgrin on Oct 24, 2018 3:39:40 GMT
It shows the brilliance of Sondheim's lyrics that they can resonate with so many people of different ages/sexes in varying ways. I have found as I have grown older his lyrics cut deeper and can be deeply affecting. I spent much of the time at Follies with tears in my eyes.
I haven't seen this production (yet) but have always been affected by it being a singleton for most of my life.
I have recently experienced being ghosted (is that the current word?) by a long standing friend of 20 years who got married (late in life for the first time) to someone they have only known for about 12-18 months. I have not heard from them since I attended the wedding 8 months ago!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 7:22:10 GMT
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. As a long-term single woman, there are days - many MANY of them - where I feel like I do nothing *but* acknowledge the new realities and rhythms of those who are coupled and/or with children. I have to acknowledge the rhythms of couples every time I walk down a narrow pavement, for instance, or the new realities of children when it's assumed that I won't mind doing the over-time at work every time because without children I clearly have nothing else to fill my evenings.....  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 7:30:55 GMT
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. That's all very well, but when married/coupled people stop inviting the single people places that's a bit bloody difficult!! |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 7:45:03 GMT
My last reply was tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness: single people are expected to do ALL the accommodating in society. From 'we' have plans or 'we' are doing x at this time so you have to fit in with that (because as a single person we couldn't possibly have plans) to being the ones in some employers, frankly f***ed over in terms of holiday because people with children are put first (see also working late as Baemax says). Plus the world at large is set up for couples: from purchasing property to going on holiday.
That is not 'all couples' obviously. One of my best friends, I barely see her partner (not that we don't get on we do) and she makes plans with me, based on her and my preference not anything her partner is doing. I have other couple friends, who likewise are perfectly capable of hanging out with a single person without thinking they're going to catch it. But then I've been 'dumped' in literal terms ('I can't talk to you because you don't have a husband' 'I only need people with babies in my life now') to more stealth 'letting go' by coupled friends who can't be bothered to make space in their lives anymore.
I'm not speaking out of term because their a friend but @baemax and I have both been single women for a long time in our lives. Maybe listen when single women express their experience. Again. somewhat the message of Company.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 7:54:26 GMT
To their credit, most of the married couples and parents I know are pretty great about still including me in spite of my solitude, it's just that when you lose that one valued friend all together because they personally cannot work out how to fit you in to their new lives, it stings an awful lot. *Especially* when all your other friends seem to manage it just fine.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:00:51 GMT
To their credit, most of the married couples and parents I know are pretty great about still including me in spite of my solitude, it's just that when you lose that one valued friend all together because they personally cannot work out how to fit you in to their new lives, it stings an awful lot. *Especially* when all your other friends seem to manage it just fine. i wish I could quote/like this 10 times. THIS as the kids say. Most normal humans (or abnormal ones in the case of my friends) manage to work out that having someone they regularly have sex with/live with/made a promise to a man in the sky about doesn't mean they automatically stop being able to speak to/hang out with people who don't come as a pair. In fact many of them see zero difference between pre sex/live/man in sky version of them and now. But the one. There's always one. And I tell you being dumped by a friend stings more than any man/woman who ever dumped me. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:03:07 GMT
I find standing outside the houses of those fair-weather friends and singing 'Being Alive' hammers the point home. And I'd belt it out a darn sight louder than Rosalie Craig too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:11:27 GMT
I find standing outside the houses of those fair-weather friends and singing 'Being Alive' hammers the point home. And I'd belt it out a darn sight louder than Rosalie Craig too. I just go right for the Vodka Stinger to the face LuPone method myself. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:24:32 GMT
I find standing outside the houses of those fair-weather friends and singing 'Being Alive' hammers the point home. And I'd belt it out a darn sight louder than Rosalie Craig too. I just go right for the Vodka Stinger to the face LuPone method myself. I wouldn't waste a perfectly good vodka stinger on them. Even if it does taste like Listerine. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:40:16 GMT
I just go right for the Vodka Stinger to the face LuPone method myself. I wouldn't waste a perfectly good vodka stinger on them. Even if it does taste like Listerine. Good point well made. It's still booze after all. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 8:53:22 GMT
I’m finding as I approach my thirties and my fourth year as a married man, we are one of only three couples in our friendship circles to not have children. It is something I’m painfully aware of, as are others judging by the constant questions. As we have no intentions of becoming parents it concerns me greatly that as we grow older our social lives will be affected for the worse.
One of my oldest friends from school (who I also worked and shared a flat with) was my best woman at our wedding, yet since becoming a mother has completely isolated her non-parent friends. It’s an issue which I try not to give too much thought but I know that as we’ve moved on our priorities have changed. I don’t ever expect to be placed as more important than somebody’s child, so that’s understandable, but it’s a shame that we are no longer part of each others’ lives.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 9:40:19 GMT
My last reply was tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness: single people are expected to do ALL the accommodating in society. From 'we' have plans or 'we' are doing x at this time so you have to fit in with that (because as a single person we couldn't possibly have plans) to being the ones in some employers, frankly f***ed over in terms of holiday because people with children are put first (see also working late as Baemax says). Plus the world at large is set up for couples: from purchasing property to going on holiday. That is not 'all couples' obviously. One of my best friends, I barely see her partner (not that we don't get on we do) and she makes plans with me, based on her and my preference not anything her partner is doing. I have other couple friends, who likewise are perfectly capable of hanging out with a single person without thinking they're going to catch it. But then I've been 'dumped' in literal terms ('I can't talk to you because you don't have a husband' 'I only need people with babies in my life now') to more stealth 'letting go' by coupled friends who can't be bothered to make space in their lives anymore. I'm not speaking out of term because their a friend but @baemax and I have both been single women for a long time in our lives. Maybe listen when single women express their experience. Again. somewhat the message of Company. Cynical view, but the expectation probably unwittingly comes down on the single person to be the accommodating one as everything else in a couples life is a compromise, of sorts. +1 on the world being largely set up for a couples benefit. It even extends down to theatre: "No, single person, you can not buy a seat leaving one on its own for this show, you must buy in pairs!" (Ironically experienced during booking for Company). |
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4,155 posts
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Post by kathryn on Oct 24, 2018 10:14:02 GMT
One of my oldest friends from school (who I also worked and shared a flat with) was my best woman at our wedding, yet since becoming a mother has completely isolated her non-parent friends. It’s an issue which I try not to give too much thought but I know that as we’ve moved on our priorities have changed. I don’t ever expect to be placed as more important than somebody’s child, so that’s understandable, but it’s a shame that we are no longer part of each others’ lives. The funny thing is that when she comes up for air (new parenthood is all-consuming) she will probably feel like she is stuck in the mummy-ghetto and wish that she had some non-child-oriented people/things to talk about. I know quite a few women who have returned to work after maternity leave *just* so they can get a break from being 'mummy'. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 10:27:19 GMT
I’m finding as I approach my thirties and my fourth year as a married man, we are one of only three couples in our friendship circles to not have children. It is something I’m painfully aware of, as are others judging by the constant questions. As we have no intentions of becoming parents it concerns me greatly that as we grow older our social lives will be affected for the worse. One of my oldest friends from school (who I also worked and shared a flat with) was my best woman at our wedding, yet since becoming a mother has completely isolated her non-parent friends. It’s an issue which I try not to give too much thought but I know that as we’ve moved on our priorities have changed. I don’t ever expect to be placed as more important than somebody’s child, so that’s understandable, but it’s a shame that we are no longer part of each others’ lives. I agree. I'm child-free by choice (would be even if I was in a long term relationship) but that doesn't mean I can't be around kids...but for some reason women with children seem to view those without as non people once they have some. And exactly that- I know things change, but wouldn't it be nice if we kept people in our lives we valued? I'm always happy to fit around kids for parents, as are most people because I want to see YOU person with kids. One of the most hurtful things someone did, after I had supported her through her single-person-pregnancy, spent much of the early days hanging out at her flat with the baby and her so she didn't feel isolated and lonely and generally y'know be a friend, was to turn to me and say 'I only have time for other Mothers as friends now' and that's sad. |
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913 posts
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Post by karloscar on Oct 24, 2018 10:42:37 GMT
Although the breeders shutting out their non-breeding "friends" seems to be quite a common scenario, I take heart from a couple of wise friends who made sure they kept in touch with their single friends after giving birth because they wanted an "intelligent conversation", and needed refuge from the "nauseating yummy mummies" obsessing about the little darlings.
So we do have our uses besides babysitting!!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 10:47:28 GMT
One of the most hurtful things someone did, after I had supported her through her single-person-pregnancy, spent much of the early days hanging out at her flat with the baby and her so she didn't feel isolated and lonely and generally y'know be a friend, was to turn to me and say 'I only have time for other Mothers as friends now' and that's sad. What a bitch. One hopes that child turns out to be a tearaway delinquent. |
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Post by MrsCondomine on Oct 24, 2018 10:53:51 GMT
One of my oldest friends from school (who I also worked and shared a flat with) was my best woman at our wedding, yet since becoming a mother has completely isolated her non-parent friends. It’s an issue which I try not to give too much thought but I know that as we’ve moved on our priorities have changed. I don’t ever expect to be placed as more important than somebody’s child, so that’s understandable, but it’s a shame that we are no longer part of each others’ lives. One of the most hurtful things someone did, after I had supported her through her single-person-pregnancy, spent much of the early days hanging out at her flat with the baby and her so she didn't feel isolated and lonely and generally y'know be a friend, was to turn to me and say 'I only have time for other Mothers as friends now' and that's sad. You know how ants can be invaded and controlled by that parasite that changes their personality and makes them run around to find food and a place to take root, that benefits the parasite to the detriment of the ant? That's how I view the idea of having babies. Abhor the idea of passing my genes on and always have, but what's worse is the erasure of personality that so many parents undergo - then eighteen years later they find they've got no idea who they are or what they like doing. Then midlife crisis and empty-nest-syndrome. Doesn't happen to everyone OBVIOUSLY, but I thought this production of Company got it across quite well - the friend who is pregnant at the end has become benign and chirpy instead of punky and combative, and the mother-Bobbie in Tick Tock is silent whilst the baby wails. Let them have their beige maternal bubble, it's more interesting on the outside, for me anyway. |
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2,859 posts
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Company
Oct 24, 2018 10:59:08 GMT
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Post by couldileaveyou on Oct 24, 2018 10:59:08 GMT
I'm feeling a bit robbed now, because I went to an early preview where Tick Tock wasn't included yet and now I feel like I missed an extra layer or a key point.
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Company
Oct 24, 2018 11:01:41 GMT
via mobile
Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 11:01:41 GMT
I'm feeling a bit robbed now, because I went to an early preview where Tick Tock wasn't included yet and now I feel like I missed an extra layer or a key point. Sadly that is the issue with going to see a show in early previews.  |
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4,977 posts
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Company
Oct 24, 2018 11:04:52 GMT
via mobile
Post by Someone in a tree on Oct 24, 2018 11:04:52 GMT
Interesting how we get Tick Tock and the butterfly / baby oil speech. As the latter replaced the former. Makes for a long evening.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 11:31:18 GMT
One of the most hurtful things someone did, after I had supported her through her single-person-pregnancy, spent much of the early days hanging out at her flat with the baby and her so she didn't feel isolated and lonely and generally y'know be a friend, was to turn to me and say 'I only have time for other Mothers as friends now' and that's sad. ... Doesn't happen to everyone OBVIOUSLY, but I thought this production of Company got it across quite well - the friend who is pregnant at the end has become benign and chirpy instead of punky and combative, and the mother-Bobbie in Tick Tock is silent whilst the baby wails. Let them have their beige maternal bubble, it's more interesting on the outside, for me anyway. Well I now feel an idiot for completely missing that first time round. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2018 19:00:51 GMT
This is one of those shows
Which gets more attention
Than sales
Swathes of unsold tickets
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2018 2:16:52 GMT
This is one of those shows Which gets more attention Than sales Swathes of unsold tickets Just like Bend It Like Beckham! (R. I. P.) That was attention for all the wrong reasons though, wasn’t it? |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2018 2:25:29 GMT
Well tickets are a bit pricey at full fare.
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1,046 posts
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Company
Oct 25, 2018 8:33:21 GMT
via mobile
Post by jgblunners on Oct 25, 2018 8:33:21 GMT
This was quite an overwhelming experience last night. Sitting on the front row, you end up looking up nostrils in a couple of moments, but it pays off as you are totally immersed in every scene. It didn’t quite move me to actual tears, but I was welling up in both of Bobbie’s solos.
Marianne Elliott has done an incredible job with this show - this was the first time I’d seen any production of Company and I couldn’t be happier that her version was my first. Her direction was so clever - in turns both bold and subtle, and always fundamentally personal. We go on this journey with Bobbie and by the end we feel like we’re a part of her - when she sings Being Alive, it begins as a response to her friends, who spur her on, but as the song evolves and Bobbie really opens up, it feels like we are the first people she has ever really let in and allowed to see her deepest emotions.
I was honestly surprised by how hilarious the show was - perhaps something I should’ve expected from Angels, but Elliott somehow managed to take a fundamentally American show and infuse it with a dry, cutting, British sense of humour. The priest in Getting Married Today was such a perfect touch.
Bunny Christie deserves praise too for her inspired set - clearly drawing on elements of her previous work, this felt slick and simple but was infused with so many little touches that you don’t notice until you’re suddenly struck by their brilliance. Christie took the abstract nature of the show and turned it into something that actually made sense on stage.
The performances have been lauded endlessly, and the whole cast is really superb, but Rosalie Craig, Patti LuPone, and Jonny Bailey give absolutely stonking performances. Craig pulls off the challenge of making Bobbie the centre of the show despite the fact that she’s rarely the centre of attention. Her voice is gorgeous (I thought her Marry Me A Little and Being Alive were pretty perfect) and being so close to her I really appreciated how her performance gets deeper and more raw as the show goes on.
Patti is Patti. Enough said. You can’t take your eyes off her, you can always hear her voice, she is incomparable. The Ladies Who Lunch was totally captivating and she makes it look effortless. Bailey, on the other hand, clearly puts his all into his performance, and carries what is perhaps the funniest and most heartbreaking scene of the show (another moment where a tear nearly fell) with a brilliantly pitched performance.
If I have one criticism, it’s that I wasn’t really a fan of the orchestration for Another Hundred People or how George Blagden has been directed to sing it. I understand the choices they went with, but personally I would’ve liked something a little more lyrical and less staccato.
That, however, is a minor criticism of what in all other cases is a truly phenomenal show. I could talk about every aspect of the production, every performer involved, for hours on end, and if anything is a sign that a production is truly special, it’s that you just can’t stop thinking about it. Thank you Sondheim and Elliott for taking this nearly 50-year-old show and making it feel like it was written yesterday. It’s what we need in the West End right now - something innovative but classy, clever but not elite, and with some banging tunes to top it all off.
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