Playwright: George Furth (book),
Stephen Sondheim (music & lyrics)
At: Porchlight Music Theatre Chicago at Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont
Phone: (773) 327-5252; $23
Ferocious! That's my one word for Porchlight's production of Company. As Robert, the show's affable anti-hero, darkly appealing Charlie Clark literally is shoved, tripped and battered across the stage, especially in Act II's rousing 'Side By Side By Side,' which becomes an explosive vaudeville as choreographed by Katrina Williams Brunner. Later, Rebecca Finnegan as jaded Joanne practically bites heads off in the darkest, angriest, most frightening 'Ladies Who Lunch' I've ever heard. Her big voice is surpassed only by the huge belt of Linda Kernan as Marta, who trumpets out 'Another Hundred People.'
The intent of soft-spoken director L. Walter Stearns is to up the ante of this 1970 musical; to increase the intensity level of this semi-antique so that it matches the speed, din and high-decibel attack of today's media-glutted world. It's no period piece in Stearns' view, as scenic designer Robbie Hayes makes clear in his 3-D bird's eye backdrop of Lower Manhattan, with an empty space where the World Trade Center was. This Company is meant to be today.
And yet Company IS something of a period piece. The book by George Furth is a model of tight construction and character development, but shows its age in a pot-smoking scene. If written today, surely it would have at least one out gay character or a gay couple (it touches on the gay thing in a half measure that probably was bold 33 years ago). The score, however, is notably early-middle Sondheim, with a low ratio of music to dialogue. Company is a number musical and, as such, atypical of the Sondheim work that followed. Furth's book is extraordinarily long, while most of the numbers are reasonably short.
Nonetheless, the score features more stand-alone songs than any other Sondheim show. A good half-dozen have become cabaret mainstays or have been incorporated into Sondheim reviews. So the trick is to come up with a Company company of actors who are strong singers, and Stearns and his always-on-the-money musical director, Eugene Dizon, have done that. To be sure, they've had to sacrifice a truly appropriate age range—youthful Steve Best as Peter is not credible claiming to be a budding middle-ager—but it's an acceptable sacrifice, especially with performers such as Finnegan who epitomizes style.
Does Stearns' aggressive approach work? Well, yes and no. The fierce energy of the show is impossible to ignore, and impossible not to admire. Ditto, the superior musical values. But at heart, the Company message is a sad one: we cling to each other out of need rather than out of conviction. There's no escape from that sentiment in this production, which emphasizes the show's angst over its considerable social charm.
