In Marianne Elliott’s cheeky, gender-flipped revival of “Company,” Bobbie is a hip 35-year-old woman in a flirty scarlet-red pantsuit awaiting a big party.
At first that might seem like an audacious tweak on George Furth and Stephen Sondheim’s vintage 1970 homage to the polyester-clad bachelors of yore. However, this remodel, running through June 29 at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, isn’t as transformative as you might think, given that the “Sex in the City” pantheon began exploding these gender tropes back in the ‘90s with more panache.
Fortunately it turns out that some shows don’t need extreme makeovers to be relevant. Sondheim’s genius score is ageless, frankly, and the core of human behavior remains much the same. The trials and tribulations of mortality and commitment and urban landscapes are actually pretty timeless.
While questioning the validity of marriage as an institution may seem old hat today, doubts about whether permanence exists never lose their edge. Diamonds might be forever but precious little else seems to be.
One of this revival’s strengths is Britney Coleman, who gives Bobbie the right mix of strength and vulnerability as she closes in on her 35th birthday party. Set designer Bunny Christie traps the Manhattanite in a tiny box with sharp lines and neon lights, casting her growing sense of claustrophobia into high relief. Coleman projects the ease of wryly coasting through life even if she misses the turmoil that ought to crack through Bobbie’s facade.
Elliott, best known for “War Horse” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” updates the musical to the pulse of the now, cell phones and same-sex marriages are part of the ecosystem, but the heart of the piece remains the same. A wistfulness lurks around the edges of Bobbie’s hectically happy exchanges. Her ambivalence seems to suggest how quickly the endless possibilities of the big city can turn into a list of what-might-have-beens.
Bobbie’s brief encounter with Andy (Jacob Dickey), a dim-witted flight attendant with the chiseled abs, is a delight, particularly in the deconstructed dance sequence that transpires the morning after. Bobbie seems to dream of all the possible permutations of where the romance might lead, from babies to boredom, but all the paths point to a patriarchal limbo.
The score still sparkles, particularly the wedding scene, where Jamie (Matt Rodin) a gay man headed to the altar, suffers from jitters and hallucinations in the brightly funny “I’m Not Getting Married Today” number.
There are a few moments where past and present collide with jarring results, such as “Ladies Who Lunch,” which should be a little more carpe diem and a little less pathetic, despite a solid turn by Judy McLane as Joanne, the witty, serial divorcee.
She’s always been caustic and dark, throwing shade like a redwood, but this time around there’s a sinking feeling that Joanne has had way too much. Too many vodka stingers and too many husbands and too much decadence.
That judgmental rigor seems out of place with Sondheim’s emotional generosity. The scene also lacks the buoyant survivor vibe that made it so compelling in past iterations, notably the iconic Elaine Stritch version.
The scene also reveals the lack of emotional complexity in the production because there’s so little intensity in Joanne’s clash with Bobbie. The stakes are just too low for us to care as much as we should for either of them as they keep each other “Company.”
Contact Karen D’Souza at karenpdsouza@yahoo.com.
‘COMPANY’
Book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, presented by BroadwaySF
Through: June 29
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco
Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes, one intermission
Details: $55-$148; 888-746-1799, www.broadwaysf.com