A gender-switch production of Company is a triumph.
I CONFESS. I was sceptical when I heard that Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, was to be recast with a female lead. I have fond memories of the show on Broadway in 1970, when it struck me as a daringly brilliant musical about the dilemma of a 35-year-old unattached male. What, I wondered, could be gained by turning Robert into Bobbie?
Having now seen Marianne Elliott’s version, starring Rosalie Craig, at the Gielgud, I am entirely won over. This is, quite simply, the best musical in London.
The gender switch makes sense in myriad ways. The plight of a single woman, ever aware of the ticking biological clock, seems more intense than that of a man. Where Robert emerged as a cold fish, Miss Craig makes Bobbie a vibrant personality who would happily settle for a husband if only she could find the right man.
Bobbie still views her married friends with an amused curiosity,but there’s a crucial moment in which Miss Craig encounters three potential life partners: when the one she most fancies, subtly played by Matthew Seadon-Young, reveals that he’s leaving New York to get married, you see Miss Craig’s expressive features quiver with disappointment.
This story is from the November 07, 2018 edition of Country Life UK.
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This story is from the November 07, 2018 edition of Country Life UK.
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