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| Bobby's birthday gift from his "Company" |
[From time to time, I will upload to this blog articles I've published or written before on autobiography; nature; art, music, and dance; theater and film; poetry; other literature; urban planning; science and religion; and mental health. Here's a piece that wasn't published because Super Storm Sandy pre-empted all other coverage of events:]
NOW that Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, it's easy to imagine "Company" taking place in Park Slope. So it's doubly a propos that the Gallery Players, at 199 14th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, is staging this musical comedy Thursday through Sunday, November 8 - 11. And although the individual efforts of the actors on October 21 (pre-Sandy) may not have equaled the gold standard of the 2007 Tony Award-winning revival cast, the overall performance was as high-spirited as an audience could desire. In fact, the physical limitations of this 120-seat venue were the mother of many inventions, especially in direction, set design and choreography.
While the show is famous for such solos as (It's the) "Little Things" (you do together), "Another Hundred People" (just got off of the train), (I'm not) "Getting Married Today," and (Here's to) "The Ladies Who Lunch," which pack as much verbal punch as possible into a musical score, it's the ensemble pieces that make "Company" live up to its name.
The Gallery Players' rendition of the opening, title number is pitch and picture perfect: "Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company!/No strings, good times, room hums, company!/Late nights, quick bites, party games, Deep talks, long walks, telephone calls,/Thoughts shared, souls bared, private names, All those photos up on the walls..." So much so that they almost set an impossible standard for themselves to follow.
With Bobby at center stage in his cage of an apartment, he conducts, like a maestro who knows the score all too well, the greetings of the couples ranged around him on his 35th birthday. As his friends figuratively come into his life, they literally roll out the walls of his apartment and descend from a frosted-glass balcony, behind which sits the orchestra like musical window-washers ably conducted by Charlotte Evans. Such economy of execution is the mark of a director, Andrew Block, and scenic designer, Kathryn Lieber, who have their act together.
In "Have I Got a Girl for You," the five husbands who are Bobby's peers try to woo him with dance steps as nimble as such lyrics: "She's into all those exotic mystiques: The Kama/Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than/seventy five.../Call me tomorrow if you're still alive." This is one of several examples when Melissa Riker's choreography is at its best but sometimes she relies too much on spoofing oldtime Broadway moves.
Of course, Bobby has his tried and "true" ways. Sleeping with the stewardess April conjures dreams of women in nightgowns coming out of the woodwork and snaking around his bed. Whether these are meant to be the wives dressed similarly in the previous scene, who lamented Bobby's poor choices in women, or merely a nightmarish reminder of all his one-night stands, it is another ingenious bit of staging, if only because the confusion also foreshadows Bobby's ultimate willingness to "make it" with Joanne, the most jaded of his married friends, (Granted they are both drunk at the time.)
The challenge for any actor who plays Bobby is not only his detachment from his friends and lovers but also from his own ambivalent feelings. How do you demonstrate the slow, stumbling growth of the character toward a self-awareness that depends not on the mere choice between being single or married but on the commitment to feeling deeply or really "Being Alive," as Bobby croons in the end?
It's hard to tell whether David Schoonover is opting to be a slow starter or lacks the subtlety of expression necessary for the role. However, he makes up for this ambiguity with a singing range that reveals Bobby gradually embracing his own potential.
Another possible difficulty is a tendency to overplay the comic routines. (I'm not) "Getting Married Today" is one of the funniest because it sounds like one of those declaimers in which the fine print is crammed at the end of a commercial. Sarah Stevens as Amy clearly gulps the lines down but is too hysterical (psychologically). Likewise, Diana Rose Becker's April is too cloying in her babbling foreplay with Bobby yet in parting the next morning for "Barcelona" she finds the right note of musical coyness.
Darcy Yellin and Cindy Marchionda also preen for laughs now and then. However, Yellin generally plays Marta, the Puerto Rican pistol, as just hot enough for the audience to handle and Marchionda keeps Joanne's drunkeness in cheeky check on (Here's to) "The Ladies Who Lunch."
In a play where the men are foils for their more colorful wives, and Bobby is in over his head with his girlfriends (who serenade him "You Could Drive A Person Crazy"), it's easy to conclude that the women in the cast, also including Debra Carozza, Dana Domenick, MargareEllen Jeffreys, and Katie Johannigman, are the stronger performers. This is reinforced by the evidence that, with the exception of David Schoonover, they are the better singers and dancers. But Chris Caron, Thom Christensen, Dominic Cuskern, John Gazzle, and Greg Horton hold down the marital fort with aplomb.
Finally, Bobby's comings and goings are framed by his friends gathering for a surprise birthday party in his apartment. Even theater-goers who have seen "Company" before may not remember the ending. Thus, the Gallery Players' production is well worth the reminder.
Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m.; also Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and children 12 and under. Call TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101 or go online at www.galleryplayers.com for box office purchases. You will find the theater at 199 14th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, in Park Slope. Take the F train to 4th Avenue or the R to 9th Street. Or drive the BQE to Hamilton Avenue.
When "Company" was first produced on Broadway in 1970, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and dialogue by George Furth, the setting was "NEW YORK CITY," the time: NOW. Of course, New York City was synonymous with Manhattan then, especially when you realize "company" had the double meaning of not only the hero bachelor Bobby's circle of married friends but also how Bobby's social life was a kind of rehearsal for...if not marriage, what? Perhaps he could play the swinging single forever!
NOW that Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, it's easy to imagine "Company" taking place in Park Slope. So it's doubly a propos that the Gallery Players, at 199 14th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, is staging this musical comedy Thursday through Sunday, November 8 - 11. And although the individual efforts of the actors on October 21 (pre-Sandy) may not have equaled the gold standard of the 2007 Tony Award-winning revival cast, the overall performance was as high-spirited as an audience could desire. In fact, the physical limitations of this 120-seat venue were the mother of many inventions, especially in direction, set design and choreography.
While the show is famous for such solos as (It's the) "Little Things" (you do together), "Another Hundred People" (just got off of the train), (I'm not) "Getting Married Today," and (Here's to) "The Ladies Who Lunch," which pack as much verbal punch as possible into a musical score, it's the ensemble pieces that make "Company" live up to its name.
The Gallery Players' rendition of the opening, title number is pitch and picture perfect: "Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company!/No strings, good times, room hums, company!/Late nights, quick bites, party games, Deep talks, long walks, telephone calls,/Thoughts shared, souls bared, private names, All those photos up on the walls..." So much so that they almost set an impossible standard for themselves to follow.
With Bobby at center stage in his cage of an apartment, he conducts, like a maestro who knows the score all too well, the greetings of the couples ranged around him on his 35th birthday. As his friends figuratively come into his life, they literally roll out the walls of his apartment and descend from a frosted-glass balcony, behind which sits the orchestra like musical window-washers ably conducted by Charlotte Evans. Such economy of execution is the mark of a director, Andrew Block, and scenic designer, Kathryn Lieber, who have their act together.
In "Have I Got a Girl for You," the five husbands who are Bobby's peers try to woo him with dance steps as nimble as such lyrics: "She's into all those exotic mystiques: The Kama/Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than/seventy five.../Call me tomorrow if you're still alive." This is one of several examples when Melissa Riker's choreography is at its best but sometimes she relies too much on spoofing oldtime Broadway moves.
Of course, Bobby has his tried and "true" ways. Sleeping with the stewardess April conjures dreams of women in nightgowns coming out of the woodwork and snaking around his bed. Whether these are meant to be the wives dressed similarly in the previous scene, who lamented Bobby's poor choices in women, or merely a nightmarish reminder of all his one-night stands, it is another ingenious bit of staging, if only because the confusion also foreshadows Bobby's ultimate willingness to "make it" with Joanne, the most jaded of his married friends, (Granted they are both drunk at the time.)
The challenge for any actor who plays Bobby is not only his detachment from his friends and lovers but also from his own ambivalent feelings. How do you demonstrate the slow, stumbling growth of the character toward a self-awareness that depends not on the mere choice between being single or married but on the commitment to feeling deeply or really "Being Alive," as Bobby croons in the end?
It's hard to tell whether David Schoonover is opting to be a slow starter or lacks the subtlety of expression necessary for the role. However, he makes up for this ambiguity with a singing range that reveals Bobby gradually embracing his own potential.
Another possible difficulty is a tendency to overplay the comic routines. (I'm not) "Getting Married Today" is one of the funniest because it sounds like one of those declaimers in which the fine print is crammed at the end of a commercial. Sarah Stevens as Amy clearly gulps the lines down but is too hysterical (psychologically). Likewise, Diana Rose Becker's April is too cloying in her babbling foreplay with Bobby yet in parting the next morning for "Barcelona" she finds the right note of musical coyness.
Darcy Yellin and Cindy Marchionda also preen for laughs now and then. However, Yellin generally plays Marta, the Puerto Rican pistol, as just hot enough for the audience to handle and Marchionda keeps Joanne's drunkeness in cheeky check on (Here's to) "The Ladies Who Lunch."
In a play where the men are foils for their more colorful wives, and Bobby is in over his head with his girlfriends (who serenade him "You Could Drive A Person Crazy"), it's easy to conclude that the women in the cast, also including Debra Carozza, Dana Domenick, MargareEllen Jeffreys, and Katie Johannigman, are the stronger performers. This is reinforced by the evidence that, with the exception of David Schoonover, they are the better singers and dancers. But Chris Caron, Thom Christensen, Dominic Cuskern, John Gazzle, and Greg Horton hold down the marital fort with aplomb.
Finally, Bobby's comings and goings are framed by his friends gathering for a surprise birthday party in his apartment. Even theater-goers who have seen "Company" before may not remember the ending. Thus, the Gallery Players' production is well worth the reminder.
Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m.; also Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and children 12 and under. Call TheaterMania at (212) 352-3101 or go online at www.galleryplayers.com for box office purchases. You will find the theater at 199 14th Street, between 4th and 5th avenues, in Park Slope. Take the F train to 4th Avenue or the R to 9th Street. Or drive the BQE to Hamilton Avenue.
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