West End theatregoers are lining up Side By Side to see Patti LuPone and Rosalie Craig in this new gender-bending version of Stephen Sondheim’s marital musical comedy, Company.
It’s the legendary Broadway musical as you’ve never seen it before. Marianne Elliott directs Company in the West End in a stirring re-imagination of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical comedy about life, love and marriage. The latest show from Elliott & Harper Productions following Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle, this brilliant team present the iconic musical Company with the lead role of “Bobby” re-imagined for the first time as a woman.
At Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering: why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man? Why doesn’t she settle down and have a family? Featuring Stephen Sondheim’s iconic songs The Ladies Who Lunch, Being Alive and Side By Side, Company questions what it means to love, marry and mature.
Company first premiered on Broadway in 1970 and was nominated for a record setting fourteen Tony Awards, winning six. It premiered in London in 1972 and was revived in 1995, by Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse, later transferring to the Albery Theatre, starring Adrian Lester as Bobby.
Company writer Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers and lyricists of all time. He has received an Academy Award, eight Tony Awards (the most of any composer – including a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), eight Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and his work has received six Olivier Awards, including the Society’s Special Award in 2011.
Company marks the long-awaited return of celebrated actress Patti LuPone to the West End stage, performing in London’s Theatreland for the first time in over 20 years in the role of Joanne. A Broadway legend, Lupone has been nominated for 7 Tony Awards, winning for Best Actress in a Musical for both Gypsy and Evita.
Rosalie Craig, meanwhile, last worked with Marianne Elliott’s on The Light Princess at the National Theatre, for which she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress in a Musical and was nominated for an Olivier Award. One of the UK’s most beloved performers and former host of The Great British Bake Off, Mel Giedroyc, will play Sarah.
This musical masterpiece is now open at the Gielgud Theatre, posing us all the question: What do you want to get married for?
Looking to see some musical theatre? Find out more about London musicals.