THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD – BRYCE HALLET
JULY 9 2007

It has been 20 years since Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Company was professionally staged in Australia and director Gale Edwards's fluent and bold production would suggest that it's long overdue.

Furth's wryly observant book about relationships, self-loathing and love finds an ideal companion in Sondheim's playful, ironic lyrics and vibrant, brassy score. The music evokes the pulse of New York as well as the varying rhythms of a mini-populace of cynical, hapless, needy, loud, dotty and yearning types.

Five married couples are poised to throw a surprise party for their single friend Robert's 35th birthday, a ritual of excitement and dread which bookends both acts and is given a new twist each time. The characters ponder Bobby's lack of commitment and presumed lonely fate, and most get a big moment in song.

Economical and witty, Company is interspersed with self-contained songs which amplify emotions yet mainly comment on the action and loosely propel Bobby (David Campbell) along his journey and awakening.

The ambiguous Sorry-Grateful is beautifully interpreted by Simon Burke, Rodney Dobson and William Zappa as a trio of fretting husbands whose demeanour finds stark counterpoint in Bobby's footloose girlfriends, played by Christie Whelan, Tamsin Carroll and Trisha Crowe, and their plucky showtune, You Could Drive a Person Crazy.

Edwards's production has an elegant simplicity as well as a thumping theatrical heart that seems ready to burst out of designer Brian Thomson's large-framed, red ribbon-tied set. Julie Lynch's eye-catching costumes and Damien Cooper's lighting reinforce the comic book effect of a social milieu where the men are mostly subdued and the women, by and large, are self-centred and shrill. The harsher caricatured edges fend off delicacy and warmth.

There is a fleeting moment in the love-crazy puzzle when Bobby confesses to having had a homosexual experience. He quickly laughs it off as though such a revelation hardly matters. The scene is more comical than convincing, and a little jarring.

Campbell delivers an assured, brilliantly sung performance although there's room for additional light and shade to round things out. His vocal power brings both acts to a rousing close: first the passionate Marry Me a Little, then the joyously liberating soliloquy song Being Alive, which he renders with heartbreaking command.

Carroll never misses a beat as the oddball Marta. Her version of Another Hundred People is dazzling and lifts the ensemble's energy level up a few notches. Burke's portrayal of Harry is invested with great feeling and depth while Chelsea Plumley is terrifically engaging as the neurotic bride Amy, as is Whelan as the perky April, whose blabbering and squawking make patience a virtue in men.

Anne Looby practically leaps off the stage as the drunkenly arch extrovert Joanne. Her stormy account of The Ladies Who Lunch recalls the infallible Elaine Stritch, for whom the part was written, but it's amazing to witness Looby hit the part, and the bottle as it were, with such cyclonic, crowd-pleasing force.

The show's timeless insights and talented cast, including Katrina Retallick, Scott Irwin and Pippa Grandison, means there's plenty to enjoy in this Company.

© 2007 Simon Burke