Company
Company Music and Lyrics by Steven Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Justin J Scarlat
Starring Chris McCabe
Breakthrough Theatre, Winter Park FL</strong>
It may be Sondheim, but still it’s damn funny. Bobby (McCabe) drifts through life at the end of the 60’s as Psychologists hang on in popular culture and pot and free love come up fast. He’s happy enough and has a ton of friends and an active social life, but everyone agrees on his one fatal flaw – he lacks a wife. His friends are all paired up and offer just about any relation you could imagine: Joanne (Vicki Wicks) and Larry (Frank Siano) have been married so long they live in different dimension, Sarah (Tara Rewis) and Harry (Sam Waters) are recovering addicts and karate buffs, Amy (Jessa Dodds) and Paul (Ryan Karnemaat) married out of their religions and enjoy the apostasy, Jenny (Danielle Smith) and David (Jake Howard) are still in fresh throws of love, and Susana (Lucy Yarborough) and Peter (Kyle McDonald) are the older couple, happily divorced and starting to swing. Clearly Bobby has options and he’s dating three girls, so it’s not like he’s not interested: he’s just 30 years cautious.
Weak on plot but strong on character, most anyone will see themselves somewhere on this stage. With this tight cast, all the jokes work and the laughs range from steady to building. A few songs stand out in the clutter of Sondheim’s musical complexity; by far Ms. Wicks’ “Ladies Who Lunch” was the number to hang on for. “The Little Things You Do Together” and “Have I Got A Girl for You” punched up the first act, and “What Would We Do Without You?” founded the second act. But the song that feels most “Sondheimish” is “Another 100 People” by Marta (Jade Rivera). She’s one of Bobby’s girls and it’s lonely, plaintive and reflects the minutia of big city living in a way few other composers could accomplish.
Marriage has shifted a good bit since this was penned, but “Company’s” still a lively look at what really happens after the “I Do’s” become “No You Don’ts.” Like so many of the large musicals the cross the Breakthrough stage there’s not much set and lighting but very impressive voices. I’ve seen this show before a few times, but this was the one that really made me appreciate both the book and music.
For more information, please visit http://www.breakthroughtheatre.com or look them up on Facebook.
