Sondheim's Company

a most wonderful movie -  more please!
here's what I said for Sydney Arts Guide 
http://sydneyartsguide.com/View-Review.asp?ReviewID=1030

They don't come much better than this! For Sondheim fans this is sheer magic, with exceptional performances by a stellar Broadway cast - glorious theatrical heaven.

Filmed at Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Centre in New York  in April 2011, a top flight cast joined forces with the marvelous 35 piece New York Philharmonic Orchestra , under the sparkling conducting of Paul Gemignani, to bring us a 'concert' ( ie semi-staged ) version of COMPANY (book by book by George Furth,  music and lyrics Stephen Sondheim), that is full of verve and panache. There is clear and uncluttered camera work, with intense close ups and it really 'works'. The translation from stage to screen is extremely effective.

While it is a concert performance, the fluid, flexible staging (some chairs/tables/sofas that slide across/in or out and the inclusion of a railing that separates the cast from the conductor for example) is excellently managed.

Neil Patrick Harris ( 'from ' How I Met Your Mother' ) in the pivotal role of Bobby is superb, spot on as the single , thirty five year old, warm, wry, questioning birthday boy, who feels pressured by all his friends to get married. His birthday is, in fact, celebrated three times in the show - are they the same birthday?! It doesn't really matter. The show is about his reaction to this pressure, his mid life crisis and an analysis of the marriages of his five coupled friends. Do they think Bobby is ready for marriage? What is it like being married? How do marriages work?

By the end of the show, he hasn't changed that much - he is still hesitant about marriage and commitment and unmarried, unable to say I love you. But Bobby's 'Being Alive' can be seen as exuberant, life affirming yet digging deep in self analysis as tremendously performed by Harris.

In a series of vignettes, we first met Sarah (Martha Plumpton ) and Harry (Steve Colbert) - Bobby becomes delightfully entangled in their karate practice, Sarah's food problems (is she secretly a bullimic?) and Harry's drinking situation. With David ( Jon Cryer) and Jenny (Jennifer Laura Thompson), Bobby gets hilariously stoned. He is best man at Amy ( Katie Finneran) and Paul's ( Aaron Lazar) disastrous wedding , visits Susan ( Jill Paice ) and Peter ( Craig Bierko), admiring the view on their balcony, and being embarrassingly chatted up by Peter and joins Joanne (Patti Lupone) and Larry (Jim Walton) for drinks....plus there are the assorted girlfriends in his life April (Christina Hendricks) Kathy (Chryssie Whitehead) and Marta (Anika Noni Rose)- who perform the Andrew Sisters’s  like 'You Could Drive A Person Crazy'. Is Bobby in fact scared of marriage and commitment or is it that he hasn't met Miss Right yet?!

Leggy Chryssie Whitehead as Kathy shines especially when leading the hot Sweet Charity like dancing during 'Tick Tock', while Bobby is seducing April. Act 2 has a huge production number ( 'Side By Side') that is a traditional musical showstopper with tapping cane, soft shoe shuffle , straw boaters and 'the works ',with nifty razzle-dazzle choreography in the style of 'Gypsy' ,'A Chorus Line ' or 'Cabaret'.

The song brings the house down as do several other numbers: for example stunning Marta (Anika Noni Rose) has the bright, excited 'Another Hundred People'. Special mention must be made of Amy's (Katie Finneran) jittery descent into pre wedding nerves and almost madness in 'Getting Married Today'.

Broadway superdiva Patti Lupone, as cynical, world weary Joanne, in an elegant black lacy pantsuit, stops the show completely with her magnificent rendition of ' The ladies who lunch'. Simply sensational…

This is seemingly part of a small but growing trend of 'cinecasts ' of opera , theatre and ballet and dance (eg the National Theatre from London screenings ) bringing the productions to a wider audience .Long may it continue!

The running time is 2 hours 45 minutes including one interval.

© Lynne Lancaster

1 April, 2012

Tags: Sydney Movie Reviews- COMPANY, Stephen Sondheim, George Furth, Sydney Arts Guide, Lynne Lancaster.