Company (2006 Broadway Revival Cast)

Side by Side with great Company

I had seen this production in early 2008 when it aired on PBS and fell in love with the music. The production was beautiful, so when I bought this album I knew what i was in for. This CD is definitively one of the best recordings of a Sondheim show. It is expansive and yet intimate, it is polished and refined and yet modern and at sometimes bitingly truthful about marriage and being single and for that matter being alive!

July 4, 2008

DVD yes CD - likely no...

Saw the Show in NYC in 2006. Also on PBS (TV). It is a visual experience, but if you hear without seeing, you lose the essence of the show. I like the actors with instruments; moving in and out of the scenes. Remember that this is a series of vignettes and cannot be portrayed and appreciated without seeing the set. And the set is Marvelous. June 5, 2008

Always Good To Have Sondheim...Terrific New Production!

Although any Sondheim performed is pretty great, this scaled down version is missing something, but gains in other ways. Yeah, okay, the actors playing the musical instruments are fun (though the gimmick was far more effective in the recent Sweeney Todd), what's gone is the large, over the top brassiness of the original, which represented NYC itself, almost as an additional character. What's gained here is an intimacy with the characters, and imparticularly, the main character of Bobby, that hadn't been touched upon in more traditional productions. Raul Esparza is brilliant as Bobby!!
The rest of the cast are superb. A wonderfully sophisticated musical! It's now available on DVD, after being aired on PBS. I watched the televised version and enjoyed it more than the live performance (probably due to the fact that I was in the last row of the mezzanine and missed a lot of the intimate qualities of the production). I think the televised production adds a whole new dimension to the show, seeing Esparza's performance up close is a joy to see. If you want a traditional, song and dance musical comedy, this ain't it, but if you want mature, thought provoking musical theater, get this CD, or better yet, the DVD. January 29, 2008

BADBADBAD

This is such an abysmal show. Yes, Stephen, we understand that you can write music, but next time, try to get a lead who can actually sing that music. The first song I listened to on this soundtrack was Being Alive, sung by Raul Esparza, and I had to switch it off. Unfortunately, after taking a breath, I had to turn it back on again, 1. for morbid fascination, and 2. because I had to learn it. Needless to say, I decided to do a different song. If you want a good musical, go get [title of show], a brilliant new musical comedy. If it has to be Stephen Sondheim, try Into the Woodsor Assassins (the revival). And if you just want a musical in which people both sing and accompany themselves, the revival of Sweeny Todd with Patti Lupone is AMAZING. Save yourselves the pain that is this musical. January 8, 2008

A refreshingly new version of classic Sondheim

New voices, somewhat new orchestrations, but still one of the true breakthrough musicals.

"Being Alive" still talks to me as no other song ever has. December 22, 2007

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