Stage Door: "Company", "Measure for Measure", Tony Aftermath
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 9:01PM The theater world gets a bit quiet during the summer, post Tony Awards, but there are still live performances to be seen and talked about. Like "Shakespeare in the Park" in, well, Central Park. If you've never been it's always worth going no matter what the show is because it's free and open air theater is truly a special everyone-should-try-it experience. But I wish they'd be more daring with their selections. Some years they stray from the bard, whilst retaining the title, like the year they relaunched HAIR -- god, that was a great production -- or when they mounted that Jonathan Groff / Anthony Mackie Euripides moment Everyone but me hated that one but I think I was just so glad to see something that wasn't performed as often and with two actors I quite like.
Danai Gurira rehearses for "Measure for Measure"
This year they're back to the bard. They're doing two of the "problem plays" Alls Well That Ends Well and Measure For Measure through June and July. Click here for dates. I took in Measure for Measure which... well, I haven't much to say about it. The problem with the problem plays is that they're problematic -- PROFUNDITY! [Editor's note: I warned you!] It was an absolutely decent production but it lacked a defining thrill, defining moment. As for definitive performances, I give my highest marks to Danai Gurira (The Visitor) who was in very strong form as the pious Isabella, who must choose between her brother's life or her chastity (long story!) in the convoluted Jacobean plot. On the comic side, Carson Elrod as Pompei, "the tapster" (aka procurer of johns for the whores? That's how it read from my seat), who offers up a pretty great distillation of how to give a modern performance while still delivering Shakespearean language.
Neil Patrick Harris as eternal bachelor "Bobby" puts the moves on Christina Hendricks in "Company"Company
The recent very brief Philharmonic staging of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY played this past week in select movie theaters around the country. I wasn't paying close enough attention to times and missed my one best opportunity. Hopefully it'll come to DVD. Neil Patrick Harris led the all star cast as "Bobby". Company is only one of the greatest musicals ever written so if you ever have a chance to see it performed, do so. If any of you caught it, speak up in the comments.
I've always wanted someone to make this musical into a movie because the songs are just so spectacular. But I fear Hollywood wouldn't understand it. It's not "flashy" and that's the only kind of musical they make anymore.
Links!
Joe's Pub STREEP TEASE!!! That Meryl Streep Monologue show with an all male cast is coming to NYC next Monday night. One night only.
Broadway Blog wonders if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark can join the list of shows that triumphed after rough starts?
Broadway Blog also looks at the history of Broadway songs on the pop charts. Does the man upstairs hold sway? It seems like it.
Billboard answers a question I was asking on twitter (Thanks Mark!) about whether in-theater sales of Original Cast Recording count on Billboard charts as record sales. The answer is both closer to a "maybe so" than a yes or a no.
BlogStage wonders if Shakespeare is being performed too often in the world? My answer: Duh! I've been saying this for years.
Finally... Mocking Acceptance Speeches as a special theater event?
Q: What's so great about acceptance speeches?
A: What we discovered doing this show is that they're actually really joyful to watch even if the person is a self regarding narcissist.
I didn't even know about this until it was over. The theater community has yet to discover and worship The Film Experience properly. Where are my press invites? ANYWAY... there's nothing quite like an acceptance speech which is why its hateful when the same people win 10 things in a row. Variety is wonderful... and so is a good variety show.
Reader Comments (14)
I actually had my hands on a amateur but very well-written screen adaptation of Company. Basically 99% faithful to the musical. With the script I read in mind...I think it can adapt to the screen well...as long as whoever's behind it isn't concerned with being too flashy. Perhaps it'll be a good indie gem.
I'm shocked you haven't mentioned that Angela Bassett will be coming to bway! http://www.playbill.com/news/article/152027-Angela-Bassett-Will-Climb-Broadways-Mountaintop-With-Samuel-L-Jackson
so excited to go see this in october
I saw COMPANY, one of my favorite musicals (proud Sondheimite here!) at a completely full theater here in Pittsburgh last Thursday- it was sublime!!! NPH was a wonderful Bobby, and I was really pleasently surprised by Martha Plimpton and Steven Colbert, who almost stole the show in my opinion and delievered, with the one and only Patti LuPone, a hilarious take on "The Little Things You Do Together". Christina Hendricks was also wonderful - actually, everyone was well cast and brought their A game. A truly great production!
It was so much fun to watch on the big screen. I really hope it gets released on DVD.
I saw Company at Lincoln Center on April 8 and, my God, it was fantastic. The cast was sublime, of course, but the Philharmonic did drown them out during the more subdued numbers (not sure it was the right backing for this musical). Best in show: the couples (especially Stephen Colbert [who knew?] and Martha, Martha, Martha), La Hendricks (melodious and touching), and Anik♥ N♥ni R♥se (who some say sang Another Hundred People in too high a register...I think not!). Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone, surprisingly, didn't quite measure up—Raúl Esparza and Elaine Stritch, though, are a tough act to follow—but what a treat nonetheless. Go see it!
Leehee -- i'm so happy that Martha Plimpton is having such a glorious new career resurgence these past few years. she's so great.
Mareko -- people deign criticize ANIKA. make it not be so! "another hundred people" is bliss.
Terence -- i didn't see the news confirmed until after i scheduled this to post. oopsie.
I've been dreaming of a film adaptation of Company since I heard a recording years ago. I think Spike Lee could make a killer version of it. He seems like someone who would strike the perfect balance of making it truly cinematic, while avoiding the need to make it at all flashy. It also seems like it would scream for the touch of a "real" New Yorker (like Rent, which Lee was supposedly originally attached to direct). Now if only I had the connections to make this happen...
@#$% 'em, Anika made for a lovely Marta. She sang the hell out of Another Hundred People, which is like a valentine to New Yorkers (and not an easy number either).
What concerns me about a film version of Company is that Hollywood surely would try to add a "plot" to it, rather than leave it what it is: a moment in the lives of interesting people with complicated relationships and killer musical numbers.
It's ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL this summer, not AS YOU LIKE IT. It's also a better production than MEASURE FOR MEASURE and highly reccomended!
Barbra Streisand was in talks to star in a film version of Company, with her as the lead (changing the role from male to female...not sure how that'd work, since it's somewhat autobiographical on Sondheim's part). She'd make a fascinating Joanne were the film to be made today, though...
I commented on "Company" a fews posts ago, particularly on Christina Hendricks's jewel of a performance. At any rate, the timing of the release was perfect considering I was doing a local production of the show myself (playing "David'), which prompted most of my castmates and I to attend a packed Thursday-night screening. It was thoroughly entertaining, though played so much for laughs at turns that it occasionally felt like a 1970s sitcom. Of course, that is a minor quibble considering the complete cast rehearsed together only once for the first time the day of the performance(s?). Even the fact that some of the songs were transposed to lower keys and some of the lush harmonies were omitted -- assumedly to accommodate the non-singers of the bunch -- didn't bother me as much as it probably should have. The way the ending was staged, however, did present a huge problem because it totally undermined the point of the piece itself.
The cast, with a few exceptions (Craig Bierko -- overly affected, Aaron Lazar -- boring, Jennifer Laura Thompson -- completely over the top), acquitted themselves quite nicely overall and was very well-suited to the material. As far as Anika Noni Rose's rendition of "Another Hundred People," she sang the song in its original key, but her natural, light soprano gives it a different sound from the belted versions people are used to hearing. She most definitely deserves credit for making a complicated song seem so ridiculously easy to sing. And let me say that I LOVED Martha Plimpton's precise diction. I had an eargasm every time she uttered a line.
COMPANY for me is the most cinematic of Sondheim's musicals so I'm still surprised that a film hasn't been made of it. A few years back I used to think that they could cast a Broadway actor as Bobby (say Cheynne Jackson) and if they're so in love with film actors instead of musical actors just cast his friends as actors who can sing - Amy Adams for Jenny (Ewan for her husband), Annette for Joanne, Anne Hathaway as Amy and so on. I mean, no dig at ROCK OF AGES but THAT'S what they're adapting to screen when potentially great cinematic musicals like WICKED and COMPANY have yet to be made. Aaargh.
(On Shakespeare, I don't think he's performed too much - I love him, but with all the plays he's done I find it odd that some seem to rarely be performed like "Taming of the Shrew" or Perciles".)
Company was amazing-- you missed a good one, Nathaniel-- but I just wanted to shout out some love for Katie Finneran, who was raucously funny in "Getting Married Today." I just recently saw the 2007 revival on DVD and didn't even remember the song (it hadn't made an impression). FInneran was lovely in the role.
I saw Company in its last Broadway bow with Raul Esparza giving one of the greatest performances I have ever seen. Some people disliked John Doyle's production, but I felt it captured what it's like to be single (and alienated) in a world full of coupled (and supposedly emotionally involved) people.
I was just listening to Follies today getting ready for the new production (now THAT would make an awesome movie with ghosts and and a creepy crumbling theater!) . . . and it saddened me that the American musical was elevated to such sophistication with Sondheim and it has rarely been able to sustain that level of sophistication since then.
NPH tweeted last night saying Company will remain in theaters during the next few days, so you may be able to still see this, Nat.