Company

[Gordonb]

Loved it!  So much so I can't really remember anything I disliked (and Craig sounded great to me )

That's good to hear. I think I had the hump with the production as soon as I saw the ticket prices,and I wasn't smitten with the idea of another Patti 'Ladies Who Lunch" (also because I knew I wouldn't get to see it). 

So I am glad that I was wrong in all counts and will need to listen again.  

[Chris L]

God, I wish Amy and I could see this, though at least we got to see the new production of Follies when it was at the National. I suppose it's too much to ask that this production could tour outside of London, yes? Though it wouldn't be the first production imported to New York from the West End. (Is the National considered part of the West End? From over here in the States, the entire London theater scene looks like one big version of Broadway.)

[Leighton]

The National in and of itself isn't a West End house though they are close!  There are rumours of it coming to Broadway (have been for months) with Anne Hathaway in the lead!

[scenicdesign71]

Ooh, I hadn't heard the Hathaway rumor, though I know there's been speculation about recasting Bobbie for B'way.  But I have to say: on the basis of the London cast recording, I'm more taken with Craig than I expected to be, so I'd be just as happy if they brought her over.

Ben Brantley finally weighed-in last week, as enthusiastic as his colleagues were last fall:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/theater/company-caroline-or-change-reviews-london.html

And as long as they're (presumably) bringing Company over here anyway, could someone please stow the Playhouse Theatre Caroline, or Change in their luggage as well?  My self-righteous-fanboy hunch is that Brantley's rave has as much to do with him taking fifteen years to FINALLY catch up to Caroline's greatness* as with anything particularly revelatory about the current cast or staging.  But he does succeed in making the Playhouse revival sound mighty nice.

(And never mind that I've yet to see any staging of it myself, knowing the show thus far solely by its libretto and the OBCR, which I bought -- and promptly fell in love with -- a few months after the show closed on Broadway in 2004.  To this day, I could kick myself for having missed it, both there and in its prior run at the Public; but for what it's worth, about half of that original production is viewable on YouTube in clips of not-great, but watchable quality).

____________________
* Yeah, yeah: "admirable" and all that.  I mean, better than not -- and if the original reviewers hadn't more-or-less unanimously conceded at least that speck of semi-approval (grudging or backhanded as it may have been), it would officially have been time to pronounce American theatre criticism an irredeemable wasteland.  But Caroline has always been a masterpiece to rank up there with anything of Sondheim's; and, as with his work, to dismiss Kushner/Tesori's as loftily cerebral -- or even, in their case, politically overdetermined -- is to have missed the boat by a comically wide margin.  Just my two pennies (see what I did there?).

[Leighton]

I saw it at the National - with Tonya Pinkins in the original staging - and this version at the Hampstead (it's second of three homes) and adored both productions.  I think I may have preferred this more recent staging.  Caroline or Change might be my favourite musical 

[scenicdesign71]

I remember briefly entertaining fantasies of booking a flight expressly to see that production, with Pinkins, in either its NT or its California run post-Broadway.  It might even have been technically possible, though certainly not financially advisable, at the time... but I sorta wish I had.

On the other hand, maybe someday I'll get to design a production of Caroline and it'll turn out to have been a blessing in disguise -- as with the NT's (and subsequently LCT's) Carousel a decade before -- not to have that original staging stuck in my head.  Riccardo Hernández's design registers only rather vaguely in the YouTube clips, due to fuzzy video, low lighting, and sometimes tight-ish framing; but even so, there are two exquisite images I'd be hard-pressed not to steal: the Moon, especially as revealed through parting tree branches at the bus stop; and the firmament of coins surrounding her in "Roosevelt Petrucius Coleslaw".

[Leighton]

This recent production's design was gorgeous, and very different! 

[scenicdesign71]

It certainly looks to have been, in photos at least:  http://www.flydavisdesign.com/productions/caroline-or-change/

I've been studying these pics with some ambivalence, but they're growing on me.  Any reservations aside, I still want someone to bring the production to Broadway (or Off-).  After fifteen years, Caroline is due for a revival here, and this one does look very interesting.

And the various video clips, including a generous 30 minutes of rehearsal footage, speak very well indeed for the performances.

One thing that excites me about this production is precisely that it does seem "very different" from George C. Wolfe's original staging -- and while I imagine (on admittedly limited evidence, having seen neither in the flesh) that I could probably find quibbles as well as praise for both versions, it's thrilling just to hear that this work can sustain such diverse interpretations.

I was fantasizing earlier today about hopping a flight to see both Follies and Company before the latter closes on the 30th.  And then it occurred to me that, had I had this brilliant idea months ago, I could have caught Caroline as well (and likely found a flight and/or accommodations cheap enough to keep the whole thing from being as financially reckless as it would be if I were to actually attempt it -- even for just the two Sondheim shows -- starting at this late date).

[Leighton]

15 years?  My goodness!

[Leighton]

That long video is great - hadn't seen it before! 

[MartinG]

Back on topic and just for the record in case anyone didn't know, Company won Olivier awards for Best Musical Revival, Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, and Best Set Design. 

[Jenniferlillian]

So has there been any official word about a broadway transfer? I desperately want to see this but it's nearly impossible for me to get to London right now. 

[Gordonb]

So has there been any official word about a broadway transfer? I desperately want to see this but it's nearly impossible for me to get to London right now.

Too late! It closed March 30th. There's not been any announcement about a transfer but I'm sure that it will happen. I suspect the powers-that-be are arguing about the casting. Patti seemed to imply that it needed to transfer with Rosalie Craig; no Craig, no LuPone perhaps?

[scenicdesign71]

Coming to Broadway next spring, to open on SJS's 90th birthday:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/30/theater/broadway-company-sondheim-elliott-katrina-lenk-patti-lupone.html

...with Katrina Lenk as Bobbie, and LuPone reprising her Joanne.

[scenicdesign71]

The full cast has been announced:

http://www.playbill.com/article/matt-doyle-jennifer-simard-christopher-fitzgerald-will-join-katrina-lenk-and-patti-lupone-in-broadways-company-revival