Company | Raul Esparza | Company Better than the original

Company | Raul Esparza | Stupendous. Watching it makes you "Sorry-Grateful."

DVDs:

Company

	Company Raul Esparza IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT, 2008 average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Company Better than the original

This Company is way and beyond the original staging and way beyond the talent of Dean Jones as Bobby. The songs are eternal. The staging wicked and wonderful.

Stupendous. Watching it makes you "Sorry-Grateful."

When I was younger I saw this show and shrugged it off as a fun but two-dimensional spoof of marital relations. Now that I am the age of the characters and a bit more seasoned in the ways of the world, however, I see things differnetly. This show is an emotional knock-out. Company is a gentle whirlwind of humor, desperation, hurt, love and alienation, delivered through great songs and quirky performances. The production and the material are amazing, wringing out thoughts and fears that I was not even aware were simmering below the surface.

Raul Esparza has a Bob Newhart-type delivery that works well in playing Bobby, and the character is all too familiar to anyone who has been the lonely but loved buddy-brother-father confessor to an extended group of friends. The other actors are equally good. While I don't have all of their names handy, I offer extensive applause to the women who played Amy, Marta, and JoAnn. I also applaud Bruce Sabbath, who plays Larry with a sense of kindness and patience even though he knows he is underappreciated and mistreated by his wife.

The staging and costuming evoke an upscale, Bobby Short-type piano lounge, communicating simultaneously a sense of Upper East Side glamour and urban world worriness. Given the setting and millieu of the show,this visual effect is brilliant.

I saw the version of Sweeney Todd that had the cast accompanying themselves on musical instruments. In that production, the approach seemed to be a pointless gimmick. In Company, however, the approach works. The cast members are a "company," in a musical, acting and social sense.

Watching this production will hurt a little but will also be rewarding.

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company

the dvd was in excellent condition....but the actual production was very amateur..not very entertaining....great show..bad production

Must-have for musical theatre buffs

John Doyle's unusual staging of this Sondheim-Furth-Prince classic won critical acclaim. While the cast give excellent performances and are true to the characters, Doyle also has them playing the musical instruments. Perhaps musical lovers will miss the original orchestrations of Jonathan Tunick, however, this staging is for the most part, an intriguing version of this classic piece and was a 2007 Tony Award winner. The DVD comes from the PBS telecast that has been beautifully photographed at a live performance at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in NYC. Multiple camera angles are used and are seamlessly edited, in high definition widescreen and Dolby Digital for first-rate visual interpretation of this staging. Bonus features include interviews with Doyle and leading actor Raul Esparza and more importantly, a 40-minute edited 'Audience with Stephen Sondheim' (filmed live in Sydney, Australia, in July 07, on the set of an Aussie revival of COMPANY). This excellent DVD is a must-have for musical theatre buffs.

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A decent version of COMPANY, but far from its greatest

This new version of COMPANY is the first widely-available recording of the show, and that in and of itself holds a certain level of appeal. I always appreciate the opportunity to snatch up recordings of some of my favorite shows.

Sadly, this isn't my favorite version of COMPANY. While the staging is inventive in concept (to an extent... this was also done with the revival of SWEENEY TODD), this isn't the lively, fun version that I grew to love. The set is sparse and cold, and a lot of the portrayals carry the same aura.

And despite all the acclaim, I just don't like Raul Esparza. For a guy who's supposed to be nice and fun, but emotionally shut off, he's far too internalized and far too intense. It's an oddly misguided performance, and it feels quite inappropriate given all the things we hear about his character.

Still, it's well worth a look.

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