Company remains one of the most insightful and sophisticated musicals, even 50 years on from its 1970 debut. The Tony Award-winning Sondheim classic takes a deep dive into what it means to connect and commit in the modern world, with an acclaimed 2022 Broadway revival vouching for the story’s continuing relevance and resonance with contemporary audiences.
From Saturday, June 6 to Thursday, June 11, the State Theatre Centre’s Studio Underground will be taken over by a production of Company directed by Sonya Suares (The Lucky Country) and performed by the next generation of performers in WAAPA’s 3rd Year Music Theatre students.
Company follows Bobby, a single New Yorker about to turn 35, surrounded by five married couples gathered to throw him a surprise birthday party. The story unfolds through fast-paced vignettes as Bobby navigates the complexities of love, commitment and connection in a world that insists on ‘coupling up.’
Some of Sondheim’s most iconic songs hail from Company, including Ladies Who Lunch and Being Alive, with the score being one of the most admired in the musical theatre canon. The funny, witty and deeply moving musical offers a timeless reflection on relationships through a series of sharply observed character studies, comic set-pieces, and devastating emotional songs. Company celebrates the joys, fears and contradictions of being alive and in love.
Director Sonya Suares, founder and first Artistic Director of Australia’s critically acclaimed Sondheim repertory company, Watch This, described the musical – “Company is a sharp and deeply moving examination of romance, connection and relationships – its “laugh out loud” funny, brilliantly cutting and deals squarely in paradox, which is something we humans tend to shy away from.”
Of the cast, Suares went on to say that “working with the third year Music Theatre students on something as meaty and masterful as one of Sondheim’s works is always a delight. This cast is eating these characters up with a spoon, they will delight audiences with the sheer joy and raw talent they bring to the stage.”
Company lights up Studio Underground at the State Theatre Centre from Saturday, June 6, to Thursday, June 11. Tickets are on sale now.
