‘Company’ a brilliant look at ambivalence about marriage
Stephen Sondheim is the greatest living lyricist and one of the greatest musical theater composers of all time. Yet his musicals defy convention and formula and have a sophistication and realism not usually found in the more typical Broadway musical.
An example is “Company,” his brilliant 1970 musical on the ambivalence many feel about marriage. It is Albuquerque’s good fortune that this extraordinary play is currently receiving an excellent production at Musical Theatre Southwest, deftly directed by Brandon McDaniel.
“Company” forgoes all the usual plot devices, and in fact there really is no plot, per se. Instead, we get a series of vignettes built around a 35-year-old bachelor named Robert, the only one of his group of friends still unmarried. Throughout the play, we follow Robert, three of the women he is dating, and five married couples who are close to him.
To see how Sondheim dramatizes the feeling of ambivalence musically, all we have to do is consider one song, “SorryGrateful.” Robert asks his friend Harry if he is ever sorry he got married; Harry replies he “is always sorry and always grateful, afraid his wife is drifting away, afraid she’ll stay.” In “Barcelona” Robert tries to persuade his flight attendant girlfriend, April, to stay with him the day after a night of lovemaking, but she has to fly to Barcelona. Finally, he persuades her to stay, and we note the disappointment on his face when he gets what he wants. This is a gorgeous duet, beautifully acted and beautifully intoned by Colin Burdge and Christy Burbank.
As we see from Harry’s response to Robert’s question, ambivalence is not exclusive to Robert. In Janine Loffelmacher’s tour de force rendition of “Getting Married Today” we see her character, Amy, virtually out of her mind the day of her wedding, singing at lightning speed about this “prehistoric ritual where everybody promises fidelity forever.” Loffelmacher not only sings this difficult song with exquisite pathos and consummate skill, but she conveys the frenzied, vacillating emotions of a terrified young woman brilliantly.
McDaniel has assembled a great cast of actor-singers. Colin Burdge is excellent as Robert, an insouciant modern everyman unable to make a commitment until he finally cracks at the end of the show. I’ve already mentioned how great Burbank and Loffelmacher are. Pat Peterman plays Robert’s older friend Joan, a cynical alcoholic, with stunning conviction. Her rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch” is alone worth the price of a ticket.
“Company” is a brilliant play, a landmark musical, and a witty work of literature with an abundance of piquant lines, such as this inversion of Socrates’ well-known aphorism, “the unexamined life is not worth living”: “the unlived life is not worth examining.”
Finally, we realize this is a show about modern alienation. In “Being Alive,” the final song of the show, Robert’s friends implore him to simply “want something, Robert, want something … don’t be afraid it won’t be perfect, be afraid it won’t be.” Robert, at the breaking point, finally sings in response, “Somebody hold me too close, somebody hurt me too deep … make me alive, make me alive.”
Musicals this deep, this true and with this kind of pathos, as well as humor, are very rare.
“Company” is playing at Musical Theatre Southwest, 6320 Domingo NE, Albuquerque, through March 5. For reservations, go to musicaltheatresw.com or call 265-9119.