I've been somewhat remiss in posting lately, but I haven't quite had the right inspiration...
However. Tonight I went to see the first Broadway show I'd seen since the beginning of the year (my third time attending Rent may or may not count)...and I saw Company, which actuall yopened earlier this week. All I really knew about this show beforehand was that Sonheim wrote it and it starred Raul Esparaza, he of the beautiful, emotional voice I've come to love through my tick,tick...BOOM cd. I also knew Being Alive was a song from the show because I had sung it in voice lessons back in the day.
So anyway, I bought a ticket yesterday and my seat was in the very last row in the theatre, but that shouldn't matter- if the show is good, it will reach you. And reach me it did. In the opening scenes, where the cast, which doubles as the band dances with their instruments around a seemingly inert Bobby (Raul). It isn't until we get into the meat of his story (are they flashbacks as he heads to his birthday party which bookends the show?) that we realize the show is not really about Bobby turning 35 and the expectation of marriage...I mean, it is about that but there's more going on.
The title. Company. To Bobby it means a couple things: it means his usual role in his friends lives, ie 'We have company coming over,' as dinner guest and it means something he wants, 'I'd really like some company,' but doesn't have. Wanting something you don't have is also a major theme of the show as observed by his male friends attempts to set them up with women and the light sexual tension that runs through Boby's interaction with the married women.
The role of Boby actually reminds me of tick, tick...BOOM but not only because Jonathan Larson's idol was Stephen Sondheim, but because in that show Jonathan also longs for something he doesn't have. And in this longing, both men have fixated on their coming birthdays as symbols of their failure. Now, Bobby doesn't seem to have fixated anything, other than not having what he thinks he wants, but the milestone is there and punctuated by his friends telling him to make a birthday wish. The role of Jonathan was outwardly a neurotic mess, whereas Bobby does sometimes come off as inert, but also as a man who is so used to the way he lives and wanting to be different that he literally doesn't know how to change things for himself. Jonathan and Bobby have also taken things they don't have, a theatre career and a marriage respectively and glorified them to the extent that they think if they have these things, then their lives will be perfect. Who's to say if they were right or if they were disappointed.
Everyone should get to hear Raul Esparza sing...when the cast stops singing at him and he gets his first sing in the first act to himself, I sat up and took notice...he sat down for most of the piece (staging I didn't quite understand, seeing as he wasn't playing an instrument...though it became clear later on that he had to sit still in his pretty suit only to give way to his later rumpled appearance, declaring that he wanted to Be Alive downstage center) but his voice vibrated with emotions teeming close to the surface which didn't overflow until his last song, where he played the piano and sang as though his life depended on it. We gave Raul a standing ovation at the end and as deserved as it was, he seemed in awe of it...taking a moment to survey the audience before inviting the rest of the cast to join him for another bow.
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