For better, for worse: Sondheim’s Company (playing Belk Theater Nov. 21 – 26) explores the downs, and ups, of marriage
Nov 15, 2023 / Blog
Stehen Sondheim's Company is a musical about marriage.
But you don’t have to be coupled up to appreciate it. “This show is for anyone who’s ever been in love or wanted to be,” said Judy McLane, the theater veteran who’s playing Joanne. She encourages audiences to come ready to laugh.
(Derrick Davis as Larry, Judy McLane as Joanne and Britney Coleman as Bobbie in the North American Tour of COMPANY. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
They are, McLane said. In fact, they’re “coming back because they miss dialogue from laughing so hard,” she said. “It’s a comedy – unusual for Sondheim – that hits all the right buttons.”
Company doesn’t follow a linear timeline. Instead, in a series of vignettes, Bobbie (who was Bobby, played by Dean Jones, in the original) observes her married friends, many of them unhappy, and wonders if marriage is for her. She’s turning 35, and everyone keeps asking when she plans to settle down.
Company premiered on Broadway in 1970 and has been revived many times, including in 2021 after being shut down in 2020 due to COVID. That show won five Tony Awards, including one for Best Revival of a Musical.
An iconic character
Patti LuPone played the caustic, cynical Joanne – the life of every party – in 2021, as she did in 2018 in London’s West End. And Elaine Stritch originated the role, which is said to have been based on her.
McLane feels the weight of playing an iconic character who’s been played by icons. And she’s not out to imitate her predecessors. “I’m different from Elaine and Patti in a lot of ways,” she said. “I’m not trying to play her as either of them did. And I’m pleased that people have said to me, ‘You really found your own way into that character.’”
(The North American Tour of COMPANY. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
She prepared the way she always does – by asking herself: “How am I like, and how am I different from, this character?”
“I try to find some commonality,” she said. “Joanne walks into a room, surveys the people there and quickly sizes up the situation. I do, too. She’s probably an alcoholic, which I’m not. I’m not acerbic like she is, but I understand where that comes from. It’s from feeling vulnerable.
“She’s strong and overbearing. She’ll throw a dagger – but in a comical way. She’s fun, but dangerous. A risk-taker. We all know a Joanne.”
The character has been thrice married, and “there’s a lot of pain in that,” McLane said. “She’s a ‘woman of a certain age’ living in an agist society. When the gang is out in clubs, she doesn’t quite fit in.”
McLane said Joanne and Bobbie have an interesting dynamic and thinks “Joanne, who’s older, is threatened by self-assured Bobbie. Joanne appears that way, but hers is a false self-assurance.”
(James Earl Jones II as Harry, Kathryn Allison as Sarah, Britney Coleman as Bobbie and Judy McLane as Joanne in the North American Tour of COMPANY. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
McLane’s a nonsmoker, and Joanne smokes and drinks heavily. McLane uses vape cigarettes on stage and doesn’t inhale.
Joanne may be trouble, but audiences adore her. “She gets a great reaction when she begins her solo, The Ladies Who Lunch,” McLane said. “Just by saying, ‘I’d like to propose a toast,’ Joanne gets laughs.”
Let’s drink to Sondheim
McLane has performed in Sondheim’s Follies, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Side by Side By Sondheim.
It’s remarkable she found time, since she played both Donna (the lead) and Tanya (Donna’s bestie) on Broadway in over 4,000 performances of Mamma Mia!, making her the longest running lead in the show’s history.
Other Broadway credits include Kiss of the Spider Woman with Chita Rivera, Aspects of Love and Chess. She’s toured with Big, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Donny Osmond and more.
“It’s an honor to perform Sondheim,” she said. “He’s a genius. And I don’t mean to take anything away from George Furth, who wrote the book. Those words and lyrics still ring true today, 50 years after the show premiered.”
It remains so relevant that other artists reference it. In Noah Baumbach’s 2019 Oscar-nominated Marriage Story, Scarlett Johansson sings the show’s You Can Drive a Person Crazy in one scene, and Adam Driver (playing her husband) sings Being Alive in another.
The latter is the song most associated with Company, and it’s McLane’s favorite tune in the show. A hopeful ode to marriage, it paints the institution as “not always a bed of roses, but worth it,” McLane said.
Company is currently in Minneapolis, where audiences “are eating this show up,” McLane said. “People have been so effusive. They’re getting the jokes and laughing in all the right places."
(Britney Coleman as Bobbie (center) and the North American Tour of COMPANY. Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)
She's been delighted by throngs of 20-somethings coming to a show about characters a decade, or more, older.
She said, “Leave it to Sondheim to still be bringing young people into the theater.”
Due to mature themes and explicit language, Company is recommended for ages 13+.
Article by Page Leggett
