Now playing on Broadway, just in time to mourn its composer/lyricist, is a new production of Company which makes two major changes, both with Mr. Sondheim's blessing. One, which Sondheim said in many interviews would be a big mistake, is to move it from being set in 1970 to being set in Today. The other is to engage in some gender-reversal, making the hero (Bobby) into the heroine (Bobbi) and flipping sexes elsewhere as applicable.
Does it work? Don't ask me. I haven't seen it and it may be a long time before I'm back in Manhattan. But also don't ask me because, as I wrote here, I don't really like Company as a whole. I like (love, really) a lot of its scenes and songs but after seeing umpteen productions, I decided I don't like it much as a whole.
A tiny part of that may be personal. Bobby (male) is/was a 35-year-old who has never been married. The first time I saw this show, I was probably around 35 and I'd never been married. Nothing that Bobby says, does, experiences or sings relates in the slightest to anything in my life. I don't know if I understand his reasons or issues but I'm pretty sure they in no way approximate mine…and now as I am close to twice that age and still don't want to marry, that's still true. But apart from that, I still don't think the tales of Bobby coalesce into the changes he undergoes leading up to "Being Alive." The character just doesn't make sense to me and neither do a lot of the explanations friends have tried to lay on me. I think they're fabricating something that is not there.
When I first heard about the gender-flip, it struck me as — and this is true of a lot of new approaches to old plays — a stunt or gimmick. But after reading some of Sondheim's comments — such as in this interview of him and the new version's director — I'm curious if this version would come together for me more than the original. And that's what I may never find out.