"Company" Has A Ridiculously Exciting Cast

Full casting has been announced for the New York Philharmonic production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, and once again I find I'm living i the wrong state.

Company has a crazily busy leading male role, backed by a strong ensemble of performers, and some very difficult music. It also has some characters who get great dialogue but don't have to sing as much; so you can have a varied cast, but play to all their strengths.

So, let's examine these inspired casting choices:

Bobby (aka Robert, Bob, Robbo, etc)- Neil Patrick Harris, who has shown his singing chops in Rent, Assassins, Cabaret, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.

Amy and Paul- Katie Finneran as Amy has the amazing patter song "Not Getting Married Today". Finneran just won a Tony (and the best reviews) for her comedic supporting role in Promises, Promises last year, so I bet she'll be great in this role. Aaron Lazar plays Paul, Amy's tolerant fiance. Lazar has been in everything lately; Light in the Piazza, Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Little Night Music, just to name a few

Harry and Sarah- Stephen Colbert and Martha Plimpton. Both are best known as character actors, but are also capable singers.
Peter and Susan- Craig Bierko and Jill Paice. He starred in the recent revival of Guys and Dolls, and she was just in a well-reviewed revival of Chess

David and Jenny- John Cryer and Jennifer Laura Thompson. He didn't have too much trouble finding another gig, so good for him. She starred in Urinetown and has played Glinda in Wicked.

Joanne and Larry- Patti LuPone and Jim Walton. Joanne has the songs "The Little Things You Do Together" and, more notably, "The Ladies Who Lunch". Well, it's about time she played this role, isn't it?

April-Christina Hendricks (from TV's Mad Men and Firefly) Can she sing? Who knows. More importantly, she needs to nail April's "Butterfly" monologue

Marta- Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls and The Princess and the Frog). Marta's big song is "Another Hundred People", which I bet she will kill (in a good way)

Kathy- Chryssie Whitehead. I actually had to look her up; she gets a lot of TV work, but is a really well trained dancer--so it sounds like they're doing the "Tick Tock" dance number, which often gets skipped because most people aren't Donna McKechnie.


So, awesome cast, right? By the way, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend the DVD of the recent Broadway revival of Company starring Raul Esparza. It's a really excellent version of this show.

Shows that knock you on your a$$

When I was about 11 years old, my town's high school put on its first musical in several years. My sister is a bassist and was playing in the orchestra, and a couple of her friends who I knew were in the cast. I think someone may have told me that Into the Woods was about fairytales before I went, but that's all I knew.

I laughed hysterically through the playful first act that shows Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk intersecting in various amusing ways. But then in the second act, something terrible happened. Actions began having consequences, characters started having disagreements; mistakes were made, impasses were reached, and everything did not work out the best for everyone in the end.

I remember clapping through the curtain call, trying to dry my tears and wondering, "What just happened to me?"

I had never done something like this before, but the next night I gathered up my allowance, came back to the theater on my own (sans parents), and I saw the show again.

This will come as no surprise to those who know me, but even as a kid I was drawn to stories that had an element of darkness to them; a twinge of complicated, adult emotions. Especially as an adult, I'm bored by stories about moustache-twirling villians who get their comeuppance, and innocent lovers who end up together in the end because, well, that's how things are supposed to work out.

While working on this article I realized that my other two favorite Sondheim musicals, Company and  Sweeney Todd had the same effect on me. I hate when writers play it safe--do you ever get the feeling that they're afraid to see their characters get hurt?--and in Sweeney Todd the characters pay a HUGE price for their actions. Company very intentionally takes the problems that middle class, middle age Americans attend the theatre to run away from, and throw them back in their (our?) faces.

There's a DVD available of the recent Broadway revivial of Company starring Raul Esparza. The plot largely deals with his character's 35th birthday, and I think it really affected me because most of my friends are in their mid-twenties to late thirties, so it really reflects where we are in our lives right now. And similar to my reaction to Into the Woods, after finishing the DVD, I had to go back and start it again...