'Company' at the Gielgud Theatre

'Company' by Stephen Sondheim has opened in the West End with a brand new production and some gender-swapped roles. I've never seen a fully staged production - costumes, scenery, lights - of 'Company' before but have seen an afternoon version as part of the 'Sondheim at 80' season in 2010 that starred Adrian Lester, Sophie Thompson and Haydn Gwynn, all in civvies. That was a 'traditional' version with Adrian Lester as Bobby considering marriage and commitment whereas this new version has Rosalie Craig as Bobbie and, you know what? I think it works better with a female lead.

It's a play very much of it's time - 1970 - on Bobbie's 35 birthday and all her friends are married but not necessarily happily. I can see how it would've been a breath of fresh air in 1970, challenging the traditional form of the musical with it's series of one act scenes with some narrative and a song all around the theme of marriage. Today, though, it seems a bit dated and that's where changing the gender of the lead player worked for me. Not only is there the question of settling down into a relationship (let's use that word rather than marriage) but there's also the biological clock ticking away. And, because it's updated, we also have a gay couple who are getting married (or possibly not).

I couldn't make up my mind about whether I liked the staging or not where most of the scenes took place in big neon light boxes that rolled on and off the stage effortlessly - I can't quite decide if they enhanced the production, detracted from it or were simply annoying. You have that nice big stage so use it, don't confine people in a claustrophobic box. Something that did annoy me was Rosalie Craig's red dress. Please people, give her a costume change? That red dress just really irritated me.

Rosalie Craig played Bobbie who was on stage for virtually the whole time, with friends played my Patti Lupone and Mel Giedroyc. I've seen Rosalie and Patti on stage before but this was the first time I'd seen Mel and I was quite impressed with her acting and (as you'd expect) her comic timing. It's odd to think that, as Chris mentioned, after the Sondheim nerds and theatre queens have seen the production, Mel's will be the biggest name on the bill but she's not very visible in the second half at all. I'm pleased we saw her.

The big draw for many people will be Patti Lupone, a Broadway legend who I saw in Sondheim's 'Gypsy' a decade ago. I saw her again five years ago in a short series of song and chat shows at Leicester Square Theatre. I liked her world-weary performance as the friend who's seen it all and then some, and her big song was 'Ladies Who Lunch' which was great fun.

I enjoyed the production and I'm pleased I saw it. It did rather make me want to see new productions of other Sondheim shows like 'Sunday in the Park'  and I'm sure that'll come back one day. In the meantime, enjoy 'Company'.

PS: I also liked the blue balloons that were all over the public areas of the theatre to mimic the poster for the show. Well done Gielgud!