Stephen Sondheim's Company

Stephen Sondheim fans should rejoice that Lonny Price's superb production of "Company" is now on DVD. Price restores and rescues "Company", (from the awful, over-rated clutches of "acclaimed" director John Doyle) -- placing it firmly back in New York City in 1970. Well, it takes place there and it doesn't. "Company" actually takes place inside Bobby's (Neil Patrick Harris) mind. With "Company," Sondheim effectively moved the musical theatre from the "integrated musical" (pioneered by his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II) into the "concept musical." The concept or "theme" of "Company" is the difficulty of maintaining interpersonal relationships in an increasingly depersonalized society. Sondheim writes in his career retrospective "Finishing The Hat", ("Company") "takes place not over a period of time, but in an instant in Robert's mind; perhaps on a psychiatrist's couch, perhaps at the moment when he comes into his apartment on his thirty-fifth birthday." The unattached and seemingly "emotionally unavailable" Robert imagines his surreal birthday party; reviewing his relationships with his "good and crazy" married friends, as well as his relationships with three disparate girlfriends (Chrysse Whitehead, Christina Hendricks and Anika Noni Rose). The "in his head" approach allows Robert's interactions with his married friends to unfold as a series of vignettes, outside of time and space. It also provides for a great amount of theatrical fluidity and versatility. In this cerebral-emotional context, it is quite natural for Bobby's three girlfriends to pop in and sing "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" in the style of the Andrews Sisters; or Bobby and all of his friends to perform a vaudeville-circus routine to "Side By Side-What Would We Do Without You?" But "Company" is far from a cold, cerebral "head trip". It is, indeed, a profound emotional journey. Robert and his friends are all full of angst, deeply flawed and neurotic; which makes them wonderfully human. Sondheim's observations and commentary on relationships (married, divorced, or some stage of single to coupling or uncoupling) are, by turns, astringent, cynical, rueful and often ruthless. In my opinion, Sondheim is right on the emotional mark. As expected, Kate Finneran as Amy, the frazzled bride on the verge of a nervous breakdown, stops the show with her delivery of "Getting Married Today." Also as expected, Patti Lupone as Joanne, turns the stinging "The Ladies Who Lunch" into her own volcanic, personal tour-de-force. But this production delights and surprises in several unexpected ways as well. Martha Plimpton, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Cryer all make welcome and effortless transitions from TV comedy to musical theatre. Anika Noni Rose offers an exhilarating performance of "Another Hundred People." At the center of it all is the extremely charismatic and talented Neil Patrick Harris, who imbues Bobby with an easy but potent sexiness, instead of aloofness or cold, cocky arrogance. It is easy to see why everybody is so attracted to, and worried about, him. By the conclusion, and Bobby's big emotional breakthrough with "Being Alive," Harris is also heartbreaking. Sondheim writes in "Finishing The Hat", "Company" is a show I'm extremely happy with. It influenced musicals, for good and ill, for years afterwards and continues to do so. It made a lot of grown-ups who had disdained musicals take them seriously, and it not incidentally gave me my first good notices."

This is the best production EVER of a show that needs exquisite interpretation to succeed. Past recordings have suffered from awkwardnesses that range from the over-the-top mannerisms of stage actors playing to a present audience to the horrible, strident, flat tonalities that were epidemic in Broadway performances in the wake of the show Annie.THIS ensemble production is PERFECT: all the performers clearly love what they are doing, and they interact with great professional kindness. The cast includes Jon Cryer, whom I have loved since he played Duckie in Pretty in Pink; and an astonishing performance by Steven Colbert. We all knew he could sing after his hilarious Christmas Special a few years' back, but the story of how he got this role is a wonderful bit of backstage magic. He had invited writer-composer Stephen Sondheim onto his show The Colbert Report, and Sondheim was so impressed by Colbert that he invited him to be in the new production.All the cast members are splendid, but is the their interactiveness that proves the systems theory cornerstone that "the whole is more than the sum of the parts." They play off each other flawlessly. Be sure to watch the expressions and body language of the person(s) who are NOT singing at the moment - there are all sorts of subplots that come flashing to the fore in these silent moments.The story concerns 4 sets of couples who all share a friendship with bachelor Bobby, played by the talented and still modest Neil Patrick Harris. Bobby goes through several relationships in the course of the show, some funny, some poignant, and he is understandably conflicted about the idea of getting hitched. One the one hand, he suffers from occasional loneliness and longing for a dream of happiness; on the other, he sees dark flashes of the sordid and ugly sides of marriage in his friends' relationships: boredom, infidelity, even cruelty. Furthermore, he knows his friends rely on him to represent, simultaneously, their dream of lost freedom and the elusive potential for perfect happiness with a to-be-found soul mate. One of the great songs is when all four husbands are living vicariously through the still unattached Bobby.Some famous songs can here be seen in their proper context, including "The Ladies Who Lunch," "I'm Not Getting Married Today," and "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."I cannot say enough good things about this show. Ever since I saw the Emmy Award production number I knew this was the one and only version to see and get, and when it was shown in movie theaters I went to see it on the big screen - one of the best movie-going experiences of my life. Now I can see it again... and again... and again... and share it with friends and family. You can to.

Stephen Sondheim's Company has been around since 1970 in various incarnations, and each has brought forth something marvellous. It wasn't that long ago that we had the John Doyle version, but this new one is even better than that one.At first thought, I wouldn't have considered Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby, the bachelor and friend to several married couples, but he is exceptional in the role. In his personal search into being single or being married, Bobby experiences marital squabbles and bliss through his married friends, best summed up by the song, "Sorry/Grateful." Little by little, his hot bachelor nights with women like stewardess April leave him more than a little dissatisfied...until he realizes what he wants, revealed through "Being Alive."The cast is uniformly terrific. Patti LuPone brings new dimension to Joanna, and especially in her rendition of "The Ladies Who Lunch," a song that has been too long associated with the screeching of Elaine Stritch. Stephen Colbert and Martha Plimpton are a delight as a couple trying to one-up each other. And Christina Hendricks as the stewardess April, a role completely unlike her part on Mad Men, is hilarious.Picture quality is excellent, a joy to watch.Likewise, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is sensational.Extras are non-existant on the disc, which is a complete shame because I would have loved to have seen behind-the-production footage for this presentation. There is a 4-page liner notes which may explain it. It states that the cast, due to their commitments in different parts of the country, never got together until the day they opened.A great concert experience, and a must for every fan of Stephen Sondheim. Very highly recommended.

The late Stephen Sondheim was a magnificent composer and lyricist. In 'Company', he captures relationships in all their wonderful, agonising complexities.This simply- but effectively-staged concert performance with the New York Philharmonic is a wonderful chance to see that show (I literally snapped it up when I saw it was available), and has an excellent cast.Neil Patrick Harris plays Robert as charming, witty, and with an underlying vulnerability. The incomparable Patti LuPone is Joanne, an acerbic and cynical "lady who lunches" (that solo must be seen to be believed) who reserves her harshest criticism for herself. Katie Finneran plays Amy with a frantic case of cold feet (Getting Married Today). Other outstanding performances include Anika Noni Rose (someone else already mentioned her Another Hundred People, a rapturous ode to big city life, but I just have to echo the sentiment), Christina Hendricks, Stephen Colbert and Martha Plimpton (as a recovering alcoholic, and a dieting foodie)... I could go on. This cast is chock-full of talent.This is a beautiful production, and well worth seeing if you are a musical fan with a multi-region DVD player.

Dass Neil Patrick Harris auch fantastisch singen kann, hat er schon als Host diverser Preisverleihungen bewiesen. Ohen die übrige grandiose Cast -- darunter Satiriker Stepehn Colbert und Jon Cryer aus "Two an a Half Men" -- sähe diese Show aber auch alt aus. Eine fantastische Gesellschaftskomödie mit wunderbaren Songs und einer glänzenden Besetzung: Man wünschte, man wäre live vor Ort dabei gewesen.

About a year or so ago I bought the Raul Esparza "Company" and thought it magnificent. The staging was unique and the lead was phenomenal. Now, I bought the Neil Patrick Harris "Company" and thought it magnificent. The staging was unique and the lead was phenomenal. Most of the songs are the same, but some sound quite distinctly different. Neither cast has a weak member. Both have been done with professionalism and love. Personal preferences may lead one to the Esparza or the Harris versions. No matter which you choose, you have chosen wisely and will have a wonderful time. Consider choosing both. The same material is very different in these two versions, but everything works in both, with not a momentary wrong step. I adore "Follies" and "Sweeney Todd", "A Little Night Music" and "Into the Woods", but "Company" is indeed likely to be the most enduring of all of Stephen Sondheim's many great musicals. Perhaps, "Company", more than any other Broadway show, will still be around and performed often in 2050 for it has something for us all, and is a delight to experience time and again.

Company ist seit Jahren eines meiner Favoriten. Live gesehen und habe die anderen DVDs. Diese ist vor allem durch Neil Patrick Harris großartig und Patti Lu Pone ist grandios. Gute reduzierte Inszenierung, da semi konzertant. Das Orchester die New Yorker Philharmoniker kann man einfach nicht übertreffen. Musikalisxches Topniveau!

This is a brilliant performance of the musical, with a great cast backed up by the New York Philharmonic onstage behind them. It's not a fully staged production with full, lavish sets, but a concert performance with the orchestra, but there are still costumes, some small props and modest rolling sets that add to the fluid staging. Neil Patrick Harris is touching in the leading role, singing well and expressing a vulnerability that makes the character appealing. Standouts in the supporting cast include the ever-amazing Patti Lupone, who is in superb voice and delivers a spine-tingling version of The Ladies Who Lunch that brings down the house. Anika Noni Rose also sings a beautiful version of Another HUndred People. This is a great production that I will watch again and again. Highly recommended, and I much prefer it to the version with Raul Esparza, in which the performers also play instruments, a device that I found distracting.