Soundheim's just not my thing. Neither is Jazz.
So I'm working on my Performance Goals for the year while watching Company. My first impression is that the music is very Gershwinny with lyrics that come so fast that I'm not sure who is singing what. The lyrics and dialogue come way too fast for me to really get any sense of the characters. The format seems to be splatastic group number and then a vingette to have these characters establish themselves. Then splat all over again.
I'm not loving it or hating it. The music isn't grabbing me and I'm not really relating to it. Maybe my dark side only has black furred bunnies. Who knows. It reminds me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in its dysfunctional characters, only a cast a size of soap and not enough air time to go around. I do appreciate the fact it's a production where the players are also the orchestra.
I'm trying to understand the plot and the themes. I guess it's a look at the changes through the various stages of life, centered around someone who's at the very midpoint - unchanged and unaffected by the cycles of life. Starting out with the younger hopefuls (nervous excitement with the awful patter), the reality of your age peers (the realization that what you thought things were turned out to be far from reality), and then the older generation (where the winter of discontent sets within one's heart). Or something like that... despite the trials and tribulations of the "company" of marriage, there is a want and a need to be part of a pair.
Either way, I still think Anna Kendrick's shorter Ladies who Lunched was still the best I've ever heard/seen. And speaking of Anna Kendrick, had I known she was in Twilight, I would have watched it in the theater. She's fierce, and I hope to see more of her talent.
Ah well, time to get back to the goals. Ugh - I really hate the Bobby recurring motif. Ooh, he just screamed "STOP." Thanks, guy!
I'm not loving it or hating it. The music isn't grabbing me and I'm not really relating to it. Maybe my dark side only has black furred bunnies. Who knows. It reminds me of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf in its dysfunctional characters, only a cast a size of soap and not enough air time to go around. I do appreciate the fact it's a production where the players are also the orchestra.
I'm trying to understand the plot and the themes. I guess it's a look at the changes through the various stages of life, centered around someone who's at the very midpoint - unchanged and unaffected by the cycles of life. Starting out with the younger hopefuls (nervous excitement with the awful patter), the reality of your age peers (the realization that what you thought things were turned out to be far from reality), and then the older generation (where the winter of discontent sets within one's heart). Or something like that... despite the trials and tribulations of the "company" of marriage, there is a want and a need to be part of a pair.
Either way, I still think Anna Kendrick's shorter Ladies who Lunched was still the best I've ever heard/seen. And speaking of Anna Kendrick, had I known she was in Twilight, I would have watched it in the theater. She's fierce, and I hope to see more of her talent.
Ah well, time to get back to the goals. Ugh - I really hate the Bobby recurring motif. Ooh, he just screamed "STOP." Thanks, guy!