Five couples whose lives are examined in ‘Company’ are framed and ready for their closeups. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden.
By WOODY WEINGARTEN
Legendary composer Stephen Sondheim enjoyed turning concepts on their heads in his lyrics, and writing music that likewise broke an oeuvre of rules. When he finished a Broadway show, or a single song, he’d often find himself at a destination difficult for many theatergoers to fully comprehend.
Company is less problematic. Sondheim’s 1970 breakthrough musical comedy slyly — despite little deep diving — deconstructs the institution of marriage and its equally troubled partner, singlehood by focusing on paradoxical relationships and obstacles to commitment.
Via lots of humor. With several touches of pathos.
Sophistication might be Sondheim’s middle name. Too much for high school-age actors to fathom, much less stage? Nope!
The Throckmorton Theatre Youth Performers is producing an extraordinary version of the show through March 22 in Mill Valley. Opening weekend, the actors had almost as much fun as the screeching/hooting/clapping audience that clearly was crowded with friends and families.
Bobby (Parker Hall, in foreground) and Amy (Sam Garfinkle) both contemplate marriage — in very different ways. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden.
In that production, which spotlighted one of two large ensemble casts, Parker Hall portrayed Bobby, a well-liked perma-bachelor whose friends had planned a non-surprise 35th birthday party. They long ago launched a nag-nag-nag campaign aimed at convincing him to get a wife.
Hall is masterful as he solos on “Someone Is Waiting,” performs a duet with April (Anya Lamb) on “Barcelona,” and gracefully leads the entire ensemble on “The Little Things You Do Together.”
Five couples find themselves at various levels of disintegration. One is divorcing, another’s lived together for years but is imperiled by the female’s fear of getting married, a third pictures a woman experiencing momentary freedom by inhaling pot even though she doesn’t really want it, yet another contains a male partner constantly demeaned by his thrice-married wife, and the last spotlights two quasi-addicts, one a recovering drunk and the other a practicing ultra-foodie.
Each couple literally gets its time in the limelight by singing behind a large wooden frame that’s the most striking part of a marvelous atmosphere created by set designers Steve Coleman and Jean-Paul LaRosee.
The complex but superb show — whose book was written by George Furth, and which was nominated after its debut for a record-breaking 14 Tony awards, winning six — is peppered with simply wonderful songs.
The biggest laugh-evoking, show-stopping tune, “Getting Married Today,” is exquisitely performed — over-the-top both physically and musically — by Sara Garfinkel in the role of Amy, the reluctant bride. It’s impossible not to laugh when she, at great length, sings with the frenetic speed of an auctioneer or horse race caller.
Sarah (Madison Bishop) shows that her yoga lessons have paid off. Photo by Michael Pringle @illumigarden
Poignant but mocking tones are interjected by Joanne (fleshed out perfectly by Noa Weis) in “The Ladies Who Lunch,” and in “Sorry/Grateful,” which features three guys (Harry, David, and Larry, portrayed, respectively, by Beckett Hepp, Lucas Cedolin, and Morgan Hunt).
That one shows how marriage simultaneously changes everything and nothing.
Plaudits are also especially deserved by co-directors Erin Gentry and Adam Maggio for keeping the two-plus-hour musical snug. Gentry’s playful choreography, not incidentally, draws smiles and appreciation.
To be sure, not everything works perfectly in the 142 Throckmorton production. Choruses occasionally muffle lyrics, and excessively loud music by a seven-piece adult band at the foot of the stage drowns out some others.
Not surprisingly, since Sondheim was gay, the show includes passing references to homosexual relationships. Also predictable is that the inherent sexuality in Company is played down in this production.
Sondheim musically painted the multiple vignettes of Company, which began as 11 separate one-act plays, so cleverly he was able to successfully observe marriage in such universal ways they’re just as recognizable today as when first staged more than half a century ago.
Company will run at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley, through March 22. Tickets: $30 to $38. Info: 415-383-9600 or throckmortontheatre.org.
Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime voting member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.comand https://vitalitypress.com. His books include Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner’s breast cancer, aimed at male caregivers; MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of his newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that he co-authored with his then 8-year-old granddaughter.
