In Comes Company

I'm breaking a two month silence (I could mention again my good intentions to blog more, but you know what they say about the pavement on the road to hell....) to rave about Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, and the cast of Company!

You may recall that about three months back I bemoaned the fact that I hadn't been able to see the three night only concert performance of Company starring Neil Patrick Harris, one of my favorite men on the planet, and Patti LuPone, of whom I've become a huge fan over the last few years.

At the time, the most I dared to hope for was a cast recording (which I'd still love!). I never thought that I'd actually be able to see the show. Then, during last week's Tony Awards, the cast did a number from Company and it was mentioned that a filmed version of the show would be playing in select theaters.

Which brings us to today, when I was able to see one of my favorite Sondheim shows up on the big screen. When I arrived, I was honestly expecting to find only a handful of other people there. After all, it's hardly a mainstream film and it's not like there was any press (that I saw, anyway) about it playing. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to find that the theater was about two thirds full. I do have to say, though, that I seemed to be one of the youngest people there by a decade or two at least!

The experience, though, was a great one. Most of the audience applauded at the end of each number, as if we were actually seeing the show on stage. Now, I don't go to the movies all that often these days, but I really can't remember the last time I was in a crowd that laughed and applauded and just enjoyed themselves so much!

Neil Patrick Harris was phenomenal in the role of Bobby. Yes, I'm predisposed to love him, it's true, but I can honestly say that it felt like he was born to play this role. He was funny, he nailed the many moments where he had to mix serious subtext into his performance, and of course it goes without saying that he sang beautifully. On a shallow note, he also looked incredibly hot.

What can I even say about Patti LuPone? She brought the house down with her version of 'The Ladies Who Lunch', both in real time on the stage and today in the movie theater I was seeing the show in. I mentioned that most of the people I was watching with applauded at the end of all the songs, but it was especially loud after that show stopper!

Which, I confess, was a bit of a relief to me. I bought the DVD of the concert for Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday last year and I was less than thrilled with her version of the song then. I love Patti, but it just felt like it was lacking something, especially compared with Elaine Stritch's iconic performance of the song in the original Broadway cast. I did, though, absolutely love her Sweeney Todd number with her two Sweeney's, George Hearn and Michael Cerveris!

Anyway, Patti's two performances of 'Ladies' were like night and day. Obviously during the Sondheim birthday concert Ms. LuPone was just singing the song (and she of course sounded great doing so!). Here, she was acting, and that made all the difference in the world! Joanne came alive in her hands and she did the song brilliantly. I want to see it again, just for that one performance alone! I really hope they put out a DVD.

The rest of the cast was pretty fantastic, too. I thought Stephen Colbert was hilarious, though his performance of 'Sorry-Grateful' was the weakest vocal moment of the show. Still, watching him and Martha Plimpton as Harry and Sarah during the hilarious Karate scene more than made up for that! I also really liked Katie Finneran as Amy, especially during her very funny performance of 'Getting Married Today'.

There wasn't anyone onstage that I didn't like, though. All of the roles were perfectly cast. I loved the show and I'm so glad I got to see it, even if it wasn't live and in person!

The atmosphere in the movie theater today was so appreciative that I was very surprised to find myself walking out behind two middle aged women who seemed less than impressed. It turned out, as I shamelessly listened to them talk, that they were Stephen Colbert fans who'd heard he was great in this, but were disappointed that his role more or less comes to an end early on and then there are "so many songs" afterward!

Since I'm on the topic of Broadway, I wanted to mention that I thought Neil Patrick Harris was once again fantastic as the host of this year's Tony Awards. Can we just make him host for life of any and all major award shows? I especially enjoyed his number with Hugh Jackman.

As for the performances on this year's Tonys, I was surprised by how much I liked the number from The Book of Mormon. I really didn't expect to, somehow, but I think I'd like to see the show if it ever comes my way.

The number from Anything Goes was also very good, but then how could you mess up Cole Porter? I enjoyed the performance from Catch Me If You Can, though I wasn't really impressed by the song itself. The number from How To Succeed in Business was all right. Daniel Radcliffe is incredibly likable and seems like such a great guy in real life, but I'm not sure singing is really his forte.

The Spider Man and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert numbers both left me completely cold. The Spider Man performance was just kind of boring and bland, while Priscilla is a 'jukebox musical' made up exclusively of pre-existing songs, which just seems like a cop out to me, somehow. Maybe the show, when you sit and watch the whole thing, is really good, but for me it was the weakest moment of the Tonys, performance wise.

Stage Talk

At some point during my blogging hiatus I saw the news that Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone were starring in a three night only concert production of one of my favorite Sondheim shows, Company. As you can imagine, I wanted to buy a ticket the minute I read the news, but sadly my recent move didn't take me any closer to the East Coast and I still can't afford to make the trip.

It seems strange to me that just a few years ago, I wouldn't have known a Sondheim show from a Lloyd Webber show, and if you'd showed me a picture of Patti LuPone I would have hazily recalled seeing her on TV in the early 90's, but would best have remembered her as the daughter-in-law in the film Driving Miss Daisy!

Well, what a difference a few years makes. I'm still far from being an expert on the Broadway musical, of course. I've now read all of Ethan Mordden's excellent books on the history of the genre and I've listened to many cast albums. I've even seen three Sondheim shows (the original productions of Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park with George and the 2006 revival of Company) and two Sondheim concert tributes on DVD, but can you really be an expert in something you've never experienced first hand?

Still, just listening to the original cast albums of Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music convinced me quite quickly that Sondheim was a genius. I'd love to see one of his shows in person and how incredible would it be if it also happened to star one of my favorite men on the planet, Neil Patrick Harris?

Then, of course, you throw Patti LuPone into the mix just to make me want to see it even more! In the past few years I've become a fan of Patti through the cast albums of her revivals of Gypsy and Sweeney Todd (she also worked with NPH on a concert version of the latter show, which is available on DVD), her own albums, and her new autobiography.

Alas, I'll have to live vicariously through those who see the new concert production of Company and share their opinions with the rest of us. I wonder if there's any chance that they'll release a cast recording?

Meanwhile, a bit closer to home but probably still far enough away to be out of my reach at the moment, there's a brand new musical that I'm dying to see. I'm talking about the Tales of the City musical, based on Armistead Maupin's wonderful books. It opens on May 18 in San Francisco and plays there through July. If I can scrape together enough money before then I'd love to not only see the show but also the city itself.