Hi everyone.
First of all, I am most excited because today I booked my ticket to see Stephen Sondheim’s Company at the Gielgud Theatre next year! Like most theatre fans, I adore this show, and am so happy to see some more Sondheim on the West End.
Second of all, I am very excited for the show’s casting. It was announced today that Broadway legend, superstar singer, and general love of my life, Patti LuPone, will be reprising her role of Joanne in the West End production! My heart leapt into my mouth this morning when I read the casting, 1. because I LOVE HER, and 2. because Patti had recently stated that she wouldn’t be performing in musicals once her current Broadway production War Paint wraps. I never dreamt that I would get the chance to see Patti grace the stage, nevermind toss a vodka stinger into my face!
Nominated for 14 Tony awards (a record-setting figure), Company is a wonderful play that tackles the issue of being left behind as your friends get married, and not wanting to settle down. This West End revival is particularly interesting, as director Marianne Elliott subverts the starring role of Bobby into Bobbi. Rosalie Craig is billed to play the main character in an exciting twist on the show’s traditionally male role.
Without even considering the bonus of belting out Sondheim’s classic, Being Alive, Bobby is a fascinating role for any actor (or actress!) to play. Completely complex, one minute Bobby loves being single, the next, he’s proposing to his best friend. At one point in the show, Bobby is even approached with the prospect of having an affair with his independent and assured married friend, before realising that he needs someone who he can look after – “I’ll take care of you.”/”But who will I take care of?”
Now, this is where it really gets interesting. Patti has played the role of Joanne before, but of course, never opposite a woman. So upon hearing the announcement of a female Bobbi playing against Patti, her gay female fans were, understandably, thrilled. However, being the dedicated fan I am, I stumbled across this quote from Patti in a Daily Mail article:
“Joanne will ask Bobbi when she’s going to make it with my husband”.
According to the story, the show’s team felt it necessary to switch the proposed relationship between Bobbi and Joanne to a relationship between Bobbi and Joanne’s husband. This small difference has left some fans disappointed.
Patti LuPone as Joanne making her move on Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby in the New York Philharmonic’s concert production of Company.
Of course, it was never certain that Bobbi’s partners would be women or that Joanne would make an advance towards her. So perhaps this dismay comes too soon and without reason, as one theatre fan has commented. However, I think we must consider the excitement and importance of seeing an older Broadway star play a gay character for young gay theatre fans. Many now question the point in altering Bobby’s gender, if her relationships will also change to reflect her gender. What was perceived as a bold move in contemporary theatre now doesn’t seem so ballsy.
This reveal has come as a particularly hard blow to Patti fans. Perhaps surprisingly, Patti has amassed something of a cult following of young, and more often than not, gay women. At 10 o’clock this morning, there was much excitement over Patti’s casting, and most importantly, what was affectionately (and maybe prematurely) referred to as “gay Company“. As one dismayed fan put it, “this is so unnecessary. Who asks if someone would like to have an affair with their husband?”.
Indeed, as another fan rightfully noted, the switch from Joanne’s proposed relationship with Bobbi to a proposed relationship with Joanne’s husband Larry, seems to make little sense in the show’s context. In its other productions, Joanne suggests an affair with Bobby after singing Sondheim’s acclaimed standard, The Ladies Who Lunch. This frenetic number where Joanne both parodies and laments the post-marital decline experienced by middle-class women swells to a gorgeous climax, where Joanne demands, and, yearns, that “everybody rise” for these women. This creates a frantic and emotional atmosphere building up to Joanne’s proposal of an affair. It looks as though this impassioned song is then out of context, and may ruin the tension and energy of such a scene: it doesn’t seem to follow that Joanne should pour her heart out in this elegy for women whose lives are empty and lacking, for her to then propose that Bobbi should start an affair with her husband.
Perhaps I should trust Elliott’s direction on this one, and trust that Patti will deliver it well no matter what. Perhaps I should accept that just because Bobby’s character will be female, it doesn’t mean that her love interest should also be female. But, despite this, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t slightly upset. The romantic and sexual tension between Joanne and Bobby that lingers throughout the show and climaxes with the aftermath of Joanne’s solo shall be lost. Moreover, as gay woman, seeing representation of yourself is important, especially in things you love. Seeing a show I love, with an actress I love, playing a character I love, who is bisexual, means everything to me. Simple or silly as it may sound, seeing somebody like you in that way is so powerful and says that it is ok and good that you exist.
Gay or not, seeing Patti LuPone perform The Ladies Who Lunch? I’ll drink to that.
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