(Michael Paulson’s article appeared in The New York Times, 8/30; via Pam Green.)
The revival, starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, will open next spring on Stephen Sondheim’s 90th birthday.
Goodbye, Bobby. Hello, Bobbie.
A re-gendered revival of the 1970 musical “Company,” which had a well-received production in London that opened last year, will arrive on Broadway next spring starring the Tony Award winners Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone.
The show, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, is about a chronically single about-to-turn 35-year-old wrestling with the judgment of a group of married friends. The original production won six Tonys, including best new musical, in 1971, and it has been revived twice, most recently in 2006.
The new production involves a significant rejiggering of the show’s gender dynamics. The protagonist, who is celebrating a 35th birthday in the show, is now female, implicitly introducing the biological clock into perceptions of her singleness. The production also reverses the genders in one of the show’s married couples, so that there is now a stay-at-home husband and a bread-winning wife, and transfers one of the show’s signature songs, “Getting Married Today,” which is about last-minute wedding jitters, from a straight woman (Amy) to a gay man (Jamie).
The revival is directed by Marianne Elliott, a celebrated British director who won Tony Awards for “War Horse” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” and who directed last year’s Tony-winning revival of “Angels in America.”
Photo: The New York Times
