A reboot of classic Sondheim musical 'Company' is coming to Providence. See what's new.
Refer to a Broadway show as a “revival” and reactions are strong but mixed.
Purists worry that the original version they love will become unrecognizable. Those yearning for new yawn at the thought of a show rising from mothballs. Enthusiasts relish the possibility that a new creative team will lend a twist or two and create something fresh.
Fans of Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical “Company,” which won six Tony Awards, should embrace its revival, opening April 23 at the Providence Performing Arts Center, says Judy McLane, the actress playing the lead’s saucy, cynical best friend, Joanne.
“This is the first time ‘Company’ tours, and while not everybody is into Sondheim, this has been made more accessible and modern,” she says.
Director Marianne Elliott takes some creative license in giving the cast a more diverse feel. Originally crafted as a series of vignettes revolving around a bachelor and his coupled friends – his company – the touring production features a female lead, a gay couple and Black and brown performers.
“That’s changed, but the songs are the same wonderful songs,” says McLane, who delivers show favorite “The Ladies Who Lunch.” “I love to listen to the lyrics in that, and ‘Marry Me A Little.’ The more you listen to Sondheim, the more you get him. People forget his lyrics are funny, and give the grit, heart and realness of humanity.”
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In “The Ladies Who Lunch,” for example, she finds the chorus – “A toast to that invincible bunch, the dinosaurs surviving the crunch, let’s hear it for the ladies who lunch” – a hysterical ode to gossiping women drowning social anxiety in Scotch and vodka.
As for main character Bobbie, a third wheel to the couples in her circle, McFarlane says the audience absorbs the familiar angst, jealousy and sadness she feels.
“Once you hear and understand the show, you’ll be thinking about it for a week later," she says. "It’s the realness of it.”
Coming in after star Joannes such as Patti Lupone and Elaine Stritch was slightly daunting for McLane, despite the fact that she holds the distinction as the longest-running lead in “Mamma Mia!” She logged more than 4,000 Broadway performances in that show, plus work with Chita Rivera in “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and played the narrator alongside Donny Osmond in the tour of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
“I had to find my Joanne, not Elaine’s or Patti’s,” she says, describing her interpretation of the role as less caustic. “She’s extreme, both fun and dangerous. When you’re out with her, you have to watch yourself. She throws daggers at you before you can throw them at her.”
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Experience led her to find her way into Joanne through humor and the role’s physicality.
“I started with the similarities, coming in with my physicality. [Joanne] leads with her body,” she explains. “I then went with 'as if' moments – what if I had three husbands? What if I drank too much? I’d expand on them. It’s constantly peeling away at the onion.”
If you go ...
What: "Company"
When: April 23-28
Where: Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St., Providence
Tickets: $38-$80
Info: ppacri.org, (401) 421-2787
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Modern reboot of Sondheim's classic 'Company' is coming to Providence
