The early Stephen Sondheim musical “Company” isn’t really a period piece in the same sense as his later shows “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd” or “Into the Woods,” but in many ways it seems a lot more dated.
When it premiered in 1970, “Company” was embraced as a fresh and sophisticated look at modern marriage – as seen through the eyes of Bobby, that is, a single guy who wonders if he’s missing out on something – but the show hasn’t aged very well. To see it now, it feels quaint and myopic. By 2010 standards, what’s the big soul-searching deal about not being married?
Some of Sondheim’s subsequent scores might be more elaborate and adventurous, too, but even “Company” contains a number of characteristically catchy and complex songs: among the better-known of them, “The Little Things You Do Together,” “Barcelona” and “Being Alive.”
In his passable Stage Door Players production, there’s nothing artistic director Robert Egizio can do about George Furth’s rather narrow-minded script. (Oddly, the subject of having children or starting a family never comes up, and it’s equally hard to believe in this day and age that Bobby’s closest circle of friends wouldn’t include anybody who’s divorced, openly gay or otherwise unwed.)
Something as basic as casting one of the married couples as black might’ve given the show a more contemporary appearance, at least. At best, Egizio’s ensemble of 14 is variable and lopsided. The men in this “Company” are especially ineffectual – you know you’re in trouble when the ordinarily charismatic Geoff “Googie” Uterhardt, given the least to do among the five husbands in the story, leaves no impression at all.
For his part as Bobby, Dustin Lewis makes a more solid vocalist (“Someone is Waiting,” “Marry Me a Little”) than he does an actor (portraying mid-life crisis).
A few of the women are stronger, although Jennifer Levison disappoints in the plum role of a cynical lush. Based on her opening-weekend performance, she was still getting a grip on some of her dialogue and lyrics, which ultimately diminished the impact of her famous second-act solo (“The Ladies Who Lunch”).
Elsewhere, under the musical direction of Linda Uzelac (leading a three-piece band), Uterhardt’s real-life wife, Barbara Cole Uterhardt, offers a winning rendition of the tongue-twisting, rapid-fire “Getting Married Today.” So does Sharon Litzky (as a free spirit Bobby is dating), with her solo “Another Hundred People.”
Acting-wise, newcomer Kara Noel Harrington sweetly underplays another of Bobby’s love interests (an admittedly “dumb” stewardess). And let’s hear it – yet again – for the vivacious Marcie Millard, whose getting-high scene singularly invigorates the show.
Coming from the same team – Egizio, set designer Chuck Welcome, choreographer Jen MacQueen – who collaborated on Stage Door’s fancy “Pippin” last year, the production values in “Company” are comparatively minimal. Sondheim fans may be content just listening to his songs, but is that all there is? Ho-hum.
Theater review
“Company”
Grade: C+
Through Aug. 8. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. $22-$26. Stage Door Players, 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. 770-396-1726. stagedoorplayers.net .
Bottom Line: Nice music, variably performed.
If you can check your reality at the door, it’s very enjoyable and visually interesting movie. But just as the movie leaves big questions unanswered, there are many unanswered question about the dream world.
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