The Carnegie opens its 2015-2016 theater season with Stephen Sondheim’s Company, with elusive Robert at the center of a circle of married friends (with occasional appearances by a trio of girlfriends).
On the occasion of his 35th birthday, he starts asking Big Questions: Love can hurt, so is it worth it? Does he want a life partner? His friends are “Sorry-Grateful.”
Is being alone being alive?
Under its new theater director Maggie Perrino, The Carnegie is putting the emphasis on community — not surprising since the theater is located in a community arts center. What is surprising is to take on the challenges of Company, with its emotional ambivalence and setting of New York circa 1970.
Not surprisingly, the production is a mixed bag of good and not-so good as we meet Robert and his friends in a collection of vignettes in a variety of locations. I wish it looked a little less like a furniture showroom.
Among the very good is the vocal ensemble under the direction of Erin McCamley. (The band is good, too, but the sound wasn’t at the matinee I attended – the trumpet drowned out too many lyrics.)
The cast includes capable community theater performances, but they aren’t the range of ages the show requires – and there’s a range of acting abilities, too, in a musical where character comes first.
Director Corrie Danieley doesn’t get them all to the same place and there’s a suburban feel to some of the performances so that you can’t quite figure out how all these people came to be together. This isn’t a production that lets you know why this is a great musical.
Stand-outs include Megan Ainsley Callahan as self-aware April, who knows she’s a not-smart blonde; Stephanie Louise Parker as Joanne, whose zingers are as sharp as her vodka stingers; and good work, from Marta Backman Hyland and Kathryn Zajac, updating Sarah and Harry to a lesbian couple for the 21st century, and John Langley as Joanne’s insightful spouse.
Huffman has a strong vocal presence as Robert (a.k.a. Bobby), although when he breaks loose from his emotional cocoon, his acting needs to be more internal than external.
Mary Kate Vanegas and Jeremy Montana Long have some of the heaviest lifting as staid marrieds, trying out pot. (Talk about an anachronism.)
One of the oddest choices in the Carnegie production is choreographer Jen Martin tipping her hat to Bob Fosse. I’ve never seen jazz hands in a Sondheim musical and hope I never do again. (I couldn’t interpret the interpretive dance during Robert and April’s bedroom scene, although I did see a flash of Flashdance).
Company, Aug. 15-30. The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington. 7:30 p.m. Friday- Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $28, $21 students. 859-957-1940, or online at www.thecarnegie.com
Written by Jackie Demaline, RCN Arts
