I finally got around to watching the new production of Company that debuted recently on PBS. It's a record of the recent Broadway revival that was much-praised for its unique staging which most notably had all the actors carry instruments and occasionally play them. I was curious as to how this served the material…and I think I get it. Everyone on stage is making music from the start…everyone except Bobby, the guy who can't commit to a relationship. He only makes music twice in the show: Once, at a point where he still isn't ready to open himself up to another, he hauls out a kazoo and fakes a tune, only to find himself playing an awkward, unfinished solo. All his friends who are then on stage with him are couples and therefore able to perform in satisfying duets. Then at the end, when he comes to his moment of realization that this is not how he chooses to live, he instantly learns how to play the piano and sings "Being Alive." Because we all know you can't play a real musical instrument if you aren't in a relationship.
It's a cute, probably effective idea then and there, especially because Raúl Esparza really does sing the hell out of "Being Alive." That tune alone is worth, as they say, the price of admission and probably was on Broadway when tix were a hundred per. The actors-as-orchestra concept seems counter-productive in other moments, especially when others in Bobby's world seem to be hiding behind their instruments. One of the problems I've always had with Company, and why I like parts of it a lot but not the whole, is that the couples he knows seem so utterly dysfunctional. I don't like any of those people and don't see why Bobby has any reason to covet their lifestyles, other than the questionable premise that if you're going to be a neurotic, maybe it's better to pair off with another neurotic and share the experience. There is, of course, a solid case that can be made for the show's premise that you have to love somebody, not some body, but I don't think the show makes it. Matter of fact, I think on some levels, it argues the opposite.
The capper, "Being Alive," is a great song. I just don't see how Bobby gets to it…or why he gets to it. All of his male friends envy Bobby his freedom. All his female friends strike me as the "wrong" woman for him, especially the one he claims to want to marry. One friend of each gender wants to have recreational sex with him. How does any of this lead him where it leads him?
Still, the music was quite good, and Company was probably in dire need of a true staging rethink, getting away from the "seventies" look and feel that most productions seem to have. I always find this show fascinating and usually worth watching, though every time I see a version of it, I find myself looking past the great moments and regretting that they never seem to add up for me.