Phone Rings, Door Chimes....
Jun. 20th, 2011 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteSo apparently there was a recent mini-revival of Stephen Sondheim's 'Company,' starring a bunch of really awesome people like Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Colbert, and Patti Lupone. And apparently the performance was filmed, and said film is showing in limited release, in a handful of theaters on a handful of dates.
If you have not had a chance to hear about this and see it, please do. I think there's one date left, and there are probably a handful of tickets still available (I was surprised and impressed by how full the theater was when we went to see it yesterday), and it is worth every penny and every minute.
'Company' isn't a show I knew much about, going into it. I was aware of maybe two of the songs, but I like musicals, I liked the cast, and I like Sondheim. And, to be honest, I just wanted to support this sort of endeavor - since I'm not independently wealthy, I don't get to see a lot of big Broadway shows, and this is a great way to make them more accessible to a larger audience.
It turns out, though, that my decade-plus of listening to the local all-Broadway radio show means that I did, in fact, know all of the songs from the show; I just hadn't put them together. They've always been good; now that I have a context they're even better. And watching the show taught me a few things.
1) Neil Patrick Harris is, in fact, as awesome as he seems.
2) Stephen Colbert is a much better singer and actor than I ever would have given him credit for. Not that I thought he was bad; he's just actually impressively good.
3) Some shows, even when they are incredibly dated in every possible way, are still fun and relevant and fascinating.
4) 'Being Alive' is the most painful, accurate, brilliant, beautiful description of love that I've ever heard, and a truly good rendition of it will always make me cry, no matter what.
I will caution you, though - if you go to this movie as a date, I'd honestly suggest either going with someone that you're still in the sparkly-pink New Relationship Energy gushy phase with, or with someone that you've been with for a decade or more. Anything else, and you'll find yourself furtively glancing over at them during the painful scenes, wondering if maybe that's what they're really thinking when they're looking at you.
And even then, it'll still be awesome. Just go. Seriously.
If you have not had a chance to hear about this and see it, please do. I think there's one date left, and there are probably a handful of tickets still available (I was surprised and impressed by how full the theater was when we went to see it yesterday), and it is worth every penny and every minute.
'Company' isn't a show I knew much about, going into it. I was aware of maybe two of the songs, but I like musicals, I liked the cast, and I like Sondheim. And, to be honest, I just wanted to support this sort of endeavor - since I'm not independently wealthy, I don't get to see a lot of big Broadway shows, and this is a great way to make them more accessible to a larger audience.
It turns out, though, that my decade-plus of listening to the local all-Broadway radio show means that I did, in fact, know all of the songs from the show; I just hadn't put them together. They've always been good; now that I have a context they're even better. And watching the show taught me a few things.
1) Neil Patrick Harris is, in fact, as awesome as he seems.
2) Stephen Colbert is a much better singer and actor than I ever would have given him credit for. Not that I thought he was bad; he's just actually impressively good.
3) Some shows, even when they are incredibly dated in every possible way, are still fun and relevant and fascinating.
4) 'Being Alive' is the most painful, accurate, brilliant, beautiful description of love that I've ever heard, and a truly good rendition of it will always make me cry, no matter what.
I will caution you, though - if you go to this movie as a date, I'd honestly suggest either going with someone that you're still in the sparkly-pink New Relationship Energy gushy phase with, or with someone that you've been with for a decade or more. Anything else, and you'll find yourself furtively glancing over at them during the painful scenes, wondering if maybe that's what they're really thinking when they're looking at you.
And even then, it'll still be awesome. Just go. Seriously.
