Company

Company, Southwark Playhouse, 2011

Cast: Rupert Young, Leigh McDonald, Matthew White, Adam Venus, Cassidy Janson, Greg Castiglioni, Siobhan McCarthy, Julia J Nagle, Mark Curry, Steven Serlin, Laura Main, Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Michelle Bishop.

Music & lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: George Furth

Director: Joe Fredericks

I think Company was my first deliberate exposure to Sondheim when I saw the 1996 Donmar Warehouse production on TV on BBC2 one evening, back when they did plays on the telly. Before then I might have seen some American (PBS?) recordings of shows which often turned up on TV over Christmas but didn't necessarily mean much to me. Company did and it remains the work of his I've seen most, and I think I've amassed four different cast recordings of it. As a perpetually single person who is friends with couples it was bound to resonate.

This was on at the Southwark Playhouse's original home, in a vault under the railway at London Bridge. It was the only time I've ever been there but since then I've been to their other place in Elephant & Castle a lot and it's become one of my favourite theatres because of the interesting stuff they put on. I must go back soon.

I remember finding the leading man very attractive although this doesn't even get a mention on his Wikipedia page now. I remember the set being a series of boxes on wheels that got pushed around the stage to suggest different locations.