Word: sondheimer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club's new production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's "Company" manages to achieve what many of the latest big-budget Broadway productions have not: chemistry. The combination of musical and acting talent and expert direction make "Company" one of the best pieces of student theater in recent memory...
Deceptively lightweight, "Company" nevertheless captures real moments of human emotion without weighing the audience down with sentimentality or artistic pretensions. Sondheim and Furth add irony, a much-needed quality in a musical, without being too self-consicous about it. Even their "types" (crusty matron, dim-but-nubile stewrdess), manage to escape cliche. And when the couples sing "The Little Things You Do Together," with barely-hidden hostility, they articulate the uncanny need for men and women to stay together, no matter how ridiculously miserable they might...
Even haters of Sondheim will still appreciate "Company's" talented cast. The singing and orchestration are almost uniformly good. Even a corny number like "Sorry-Grateful" holds up with the help of fine singing from Peter Friedland, Doug Rand and Jason Mills as David, Harry and Peter...
...Robert stands by, hidden in the shadows. The abrupt ending seems suprisingly insubstantial, resisting clear answers or profound revelations. Still, in an age where the ponderous pseudo-drama of "Les Mis" still packs the house most nights in New York (and, terrifyingly, in London, and Dallas, and Des Moines...), Sondheim provides a welcome respite. The HDRC's witty turn does him justice...
...Peter Pan syndrome--and a dozen other pop-psychological maladies illuminated on post-'70s talk shows. No wonder Company's director, Scott Ellis, so often has Gaines peering handsomely but dazedly into the spotlights. What's to become of him? He blinks with uncertainty--unlike his creator. After Company, Sondheim would move on to the even finer musicals--Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods--on which his reputation more securely rests...