MUSICAL MAYHEM: MY TOP TWENTY-FIVE MUSICALS – Part 13a
THE TOP TEN – #6
NOTE: Due to the
length of this post, I'm dividing it into two parts. THIS IS PART ONE OF TWO..
Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book
of a Musical, Best Score, Best Director of a Musical, Best Scenic Design. A
landmark musical. A musical definitely of its time, yet one that still is
relevant and current. "Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company."
Urban and urbane. Bitter,
disillusioned, yet ultimately hopeful. Populated with people that you knew you
shouldn't care about, yet, somehow, you did. From the driving title tune, to
"Another Hundred People" pulsating with the vibrancy of the city, to
the vaudevillian "What Would Be Do Without You?," to the
fierceness of "The Ladies Who Lunch," to the comic brilliance of
"Getting Married Today," to the tenderness of "Someone Is
Waiting," to the soaring "Being Alive," Stephen Sondheim's score
bristles, even today, with innovation, life, and sheer brilliance. George
Furth's book shows a bit of creakiness these days. The pot scene with Jenny and
David now seems a bit too coy, but in 1970, when Company debuted, this was really quite outré. And the depiction of
airline flight attendants, née stewardesses, as vapid, air-headed bimbo sex
objects is the stuff of the past, though, as a retired flight attendant I hang
my head in shame to admit this, very funny, and, I suspect, still the view held
by the more Neanderthal straight males in our society. And frankly, I don't
know how April's scenes could be rewritten to reflect the times and still be
that combination of innocence and comedy. (Character change to male perhaps?
Vapid, air-headed bimbo male sex object? Hmmm.)
Company has legions of
fans who adore it and legions of people who loathe it. Many feel it's anti-marriage.
I don't think it is, but I don't necessarily agree with its core premise that
one needs to be committed to someone to be happy, a premise that oddly
conflicts with the musical's conclusion when Bobby is alone on stage and he
happily smiles. Is that because his friends are leaving him alone for once or
is it because he is alone? The
question of Bobby's sexuality has been the subject of debate since the show
opened. By the time the 1995 revival rolled around, some tweaks
had been made to the show and the scene with Susan and Peter now concludes with
Peter coming on to Bobby to possibly rekindle a former liaison, indicating that
Bobby is bisexual or, perhaps, sexually fluid. (Yes, there's a difference.
Google it.) Many feel the character of Joanne was always meant to be male,
something Sondheim has vehemently denied over the decades. But time marches on. Views about relationships have matured, sexual dynamics have evolved. I've read
that a production of Company is being
mounted in the U.K. with a female lead, now called "Bobbie." Sondheim
has approved and tweaks to the script are being made. Perhaps it's time for an all-male Company, an all-female Company,
a Company with a sexually versatile
Bobby with gay, straight, transgender, and pansexual couples and lovers. Company may be, GASP!, a few years shy
of being fifty years old (!!), but it is still a powerful, relevant show. Long
live Company! "Company! Lots of
company. Life is company! Love is
company! Company!"
February, 1971. The lights dimmed. From the pit, hauntingly, teasingly,
voices sang "Bobby, Bobby, Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah Bah, Bobby…"
as the curtain rose on Boris Aronson's now iconic set of levels, scaffolding,
elevators, and projections, cold and utterly breathtaking at the same time. I
was hooked before a word was even spoken. I mean one of the characters was
wearing a wedding dress and another was wearing a flight attendant, née stewardess,
uniform, for crying out loud. Who wouldn't be hooked? Company was unlike anything I had seen up to that point. I was
twenty. This was only my second trip to New York, my third Broadway show. (The
first two were Coco and Applause.) I was dead center in the last
row of the rear mezzanine of the Alvin Theatre. It didn't take long for me to
realize that this wasn't a case of a legendary star single-handedly, with some
brilliant help from designer Cecil Beaton, making a mediocre show shine like a
diamond (Katharine Hepburn, Coco) or
a case of a legendary star taking on an iconic role in a musical version of an
iconic film and making it her own by sheer force of her personality (Lauren
Bacall, Applause). As the title
number came to a close, I knew I was watching something very special indeed. Harold
Prince's staging and Michael Bennett's choreography kept everything moving, and
in the case of "Tick Tock," Bennett's dazzling tour-de-force for the
character of Kathy, thrillingly so, foreshadowing Bennett's pinnacle of
choreographic genius, "The Music and the Mirror," which would be a
few years down the road. Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics always seemed so right, totally in sync with the
characters and the plot. I wanted to be Donna McKechnie, Susan Browning or
Pamela Myers so I could do "You Could Drive a Person Crazy." Pamela Myers' electrifying "Another
Hundred People" gave me chills of delight. Beth Howland's hysterical and
inimitable "Getting Married Today" was just about the funniest thing
I'd seen on stage. Is there a better Act Two opening number than "Side by
Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You?" Off-hand, I can't think of one.
Donna McKechnie blazed through "Tick Tock" with a passion and a
precision that was breathtaking to behold. Larry Kert thrilled the audience
with a heartfelt and hopeful "Being Alive" that pretty much wrapped
up the evening. But Company reached
its peak when the incomparable Elaine Stritch uttered "I'd like to propose
a toast" and then proceeded to give a master class in what happens on that
rare occasion when performer and
material are totally and unequivocally aligned. Her performance of "The
Ladies Who Lunch" is justifiably considered one of the great moments in
musical theatre. This was a true show-stopping moment, back when stopping the
show meant more than over-amplified screeching. You can see videos of Stritch
performing the number on various specials, but, trust me, while it's thrilling
to watch her on film, it's nothing compared to seeing her do the number, live
and in character, in total command of the stage and taking no prisoners. To Company. I'd like to propose a toast! – at the Alvin Theatre, New York
Sidebar:
Although
I have never been in a production of Company,
that show was an important part of my performing life during the 70s. In
1974, at Fort Sheridan, my acting/directing home-away-from-home, I performed in
a Sondheim revue conceived by Ft. Sheridan's artistic director called A Funny Thing Happened to Stephen Sondheim.
This was a few years before Side by Side
by Sondheim and before Sweeney Todd,
Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park
with George, etc. The set, a riff on Boris Aronson's design, was levels and
steps, simple and elegant. (Partially because the set looked good and partially
because it was, if you'll pardon the expression, built like a brick shithouse,
it would stay up for years and be the basis for other shows' scenic designs. It
was a concept that was rarely successful, scenically speaking.) In the show, my
solo was "The Ladies Who Lunch," sung in tandem with "The Little
Things You Do Together," which was performed by a group of ladies sitting
downstage. In another revue at Ft. Sheridan, I would sing, at last!, the Donna
McKechnie part in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy." I would perform
"Ladies" off and on at singing engagements, but my biggest Sondheim
"hit," to use the term loosely…very, very loosely, was "Getting Married Today" a song I would
perform often in gigs with my singing partner, Pat. (She sang the Teri Ralston
and Steve Elmore parts; I sang the Beth Howland part. And, yes, I could rattle
off those lyrics at breakneck speed when I was younger. Today? Not a prayer.) This
all seems like a lifetime ago. Ironically, the last show I performed in before
taking a twenty-four year hiatus, was a production of another Sondheim revue, Side by Side by Sondheim, where my big
solo was "Could I Leave You?" In both "Ladies" and
"Leave You," I was too young to really appreciate what I was singing.
Now in my late 60s, I could do killer versions of both.
Sidebar
of the Above Sidebar: A Funny
Thing…Stephen Sondheim was Ft. Sheridan's entry in a Army-wide
competition, the big prize being the Irving Berlin Award. At the time, fine
arts programs were widely supported by Army brass, and, as a result, good work
was frequently presented on Army base stages.
Actor Jerry Orbach spent part of his youth in my hometown of Waukegan,
Illinois. He went to Waukegan Township High School and was a friend of our set
designer. For whatever reason, Orbach was in town and came to our Saturday
performance. Added a bit of show-biz pizzazz to the evening.
Casting
Fun Fact: Elaine Stritch's understudy was Sandra Deel, who would play Lucille
Early in the Chicago company of No, No,
Nanette.
June, 1971. In late May/early June, 1971, I made my first
"official" trip to New York, i.e. the first trip to New York my
parents knew about. I was twenty, still a minor according to the laws of the
day. (!!) In the intervening months since my first visit to Company, many cast changes had occurred,
the most intriguing being the casting of film star, WWII pin-up goddess, and
Playtex "'Cross-Your-Heart Bras' for us full-figured gals"
spokeswoman Jane Russell in her Broadway debut, and only Broadway appearance,
in the Elaine Stritch role of Joanne. (Stritch left to join the First National
Tour.) Russell was noted for being a devout Christian and to accommodate her
beliefs, Sondheim temporarily changed lyrics in "The Little Things You Do
Together" from "And, Jesus Christ, is it fun!" to "And, my
oh my, is it fun!" I don't think it bothered anyone in the audience, but,
since by this time, I knew the cast recording forwards and backwards, I found
the change jarring. But lyric changes and breast-size notoriety
notwithstanding, her performance was polished, totally professional, and suitably
acerbic. She seemed to be enjoying herself, and the audience clearly loved her.
In addition to Russell, there was one other standout replacement: Marian Hailey
in the Beth Howland role of Amy. Funny and touching as Amy, her career as an
actress was short-lived, despite critical success, especially in the film Lovers and Other Strangers, and she is
now the author of children's books and a psychotherapist. Larry Kert was still on hand as Robert. Future
Tony-winner Priscilla Lopez was an understudy. This production was a perfect
example of how, with careful and thoughtful recasting and TLC from its director
and choreographer, a show can remain as vibrant, as exciting as it was with the
original cast. – at the Alvin Theatre, New York
Sidebar:
Today
the Tony Award broadcast takes place in
early June, with a qualification cutoff date around May 1. But that wasn't
always the case. In 1971, the Tony broadcast was held on March 28. So when Company won its Tonys, it had been open
for almost a year.
November, 1971. On my way to New York for a Thanksgiving weekend of
Broadway, I decided to stop over in Cleveland for the night to catch the First
National Tour of Company starring Oscar-winner
George Chakiris as Robert and the indomitable Elaine Stritch as Joanne. Some
folks from the New York company I saw in June, most notably Marian Hailey
reprising her triumph as Amy, had left the Broadway company by this time to
tour the provinces and were in the Cleveland cast. (Mini Sidebar: In the
dance-centric role of Kathy was Carolyn Kirsch, who, a few years later, would
play the Blackstone Theatre in Chicago as Velma Kelly in Chicago.) As Joanne, Stritch commanded the stage with ease and the
ferocity of her interpretation remained intact. George Chakiris brought a
smoldering sexuality to the part of Robert, contrasting with the easygoing good
pal vibe Larry Kert brought to the role. Both valid interpretations, but this
Bobby positively sizzled, boy, did he sizzle, and the penultimate scene between
Joanne and Robert crackled with sensuality and electricity. A memorable evening
in Cleveland. – at the Hanna Theatre, Cleveland
Sidebar:
The
Hanna Theatre was a lovely legitimate house that seated approximately 1500
patrons. Built in 1921, for many years it was Cleveland's theatre of choice for
touring shows. But theatre economics changed, and producers began to book
larger, more impersonal houses, and the charming Hanna fell out of favor,
closing in 1989. After an extensive renovation which reduced capacity to 550,
it reopened in 2008 and, though perhaps no longer used to house touring Broadway
hits, it is still a viable venue and the main performing space for the Great
Lakes Theater. And a theatre being used as a theatre is always a good thing.
The original London cast.
OMG! Those prices!!!
(revised from an earlier post)
May, 1972. My first West End show. My first trip to London. I was 21. I
was pretty much obsessed with Company
back then, so it's not surprising I would see it in London. A chance to see
Elaine Stritch again in her landmark performance? Well, duh! Actually, I saw it
twice that week. Another reason I really wanted to see Company in London was to see Dilys Watling, who was Tony-nominated
for her role in the short-lived Georgy.
She played Amy and was very good in the role, but it was Julia McKenzie as
April who captured my heart. I adore this woman and have seen her in several
shows since then, both in London and New York, and even had the privilege of
sharing a drink with her after a performance of Sweeney Todd back in 1994. This was a replacement cast with London
actors taking over from their American counterparts who opened the show. Larry
Kert, Marti Stephens (from the Cleveland cast), and Elaine Stritch were the
holdovers, and all of them, not surprisingly, gave assured performances. What was surprising, however, was that this
very New York show was quite a success in London. A perfect introduction to the
West End and a perfect way to begin my love affair, not only with Ms. McKenzie,
but also with the London theatre scene. – at Her Majesty's Theatre, London.
Sidebar:
In
1972, a decent, modest B&B-type hotel cost under 2 quid a night (The
Crescent Hotel, Cartwright Gardens, London. Still in business, though my single
with shared facilities is now ₤78/night…a bit of an increase!). You could see a
show in the gallery for 40p. I left the States with just over $100 and lived
off that for my week's stay and even came back with about $10. Ah….those were
the days!
Stritch
Sidebar: London loved Stritch and Stritch loved London. She would move there and
not return to the United States until the mid-1980s.
And that's it for part one. Part two coming soon.
©
2017Jeffrey Geddes
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