Company

26th to 29th March

Altrincham Little Theatre

*** West End comes to Altrincham ***

*** A simple set and dynamic casts vocals ***

Company is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This production is by the Sale and Altrincham Musical Theatre who are currently celebrating their 90th year in showbusiness and brings arts to the local area. Company is part of a mini-Sondheim season which also saw ‘A little night music’ play last week at the theatre.

Company and its opening number is a stalwart of musical theatre. Original premiered on Broadway in 1970 and has been entertaining audience ever since. During the opening number we are introduced to the cast as they prepare for their friend – Bobby – and his 35th birthday. His friends are all married, but they don’t understand why Robert is and would want to be single, I mean he’s a good-looking guy living in New York, what’s not to like. During the celebrations with Robert blowing out his birthday candles the couples all promise to meet up with him soon.

The rest of the show is a number of mini unconnected scenes where we explore Bobby‘s relationships with each of the couples. In each of these vignettes we slowly understand why Bobby is happy in himself, how he loves his friends but come his next birthday will he still be single or have company?

Tim Wood plays Bobby, Tim is well-known across the musical arts scene of Manchester playing in Bonnie and Clyde, Sister Act, as well as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Tim serves us a wonderful Bobby where we see him enjoying his bachelorhood he considers dipping his foot in a long-term relationship, but is he ready for it? Tim who is on stage pretty much all the time has a joyful vocal range that we enjoyed and brought everything together.

Deborah Lowe (Jenny) and Kieran Hickey (David) were a wonderful comedy duo playing a pair of stoners in one scene both voices where on point and balanced with the right amounts of comedic timing. One wonders if they had to do any research into this scene! Francesca Bowman (April) one of Bobby’s love interests played the perfect role, a powerful vocal with just the right amount of sass which we saw during her and Tim’s rendition of ‘Barcelona’. Eilidh Pollard (Amy) voice was subline signing the showstopper ‘Getting married today’ This is quite a demanding number, with its fast passed rhythm and Eilidh made it look easy, she was well matched with Nick Livesey (Paul) who was also outstanding.

There were a few glitches with the sounds and mics tonight that I am sure will be sorted out for the rest of the run. We enjoyed the lighting effects, led strip lights gave the feeling of being on a subway, taking us to the next destination/scene. These also double up as disco lights in a night club scene. The scenes where we saw the whole cast singing together were electric such as ‘Company’. You can see why this Musical theatre group have stood the test of time. You could easily put this cast on a West End or Broadway stage, and they would rock it. This production did feel very off-Broadway with a simple set and dynamic casts vocals. Company is playing until Saturday 29th March and you can book ticket now via the link below.

https://www.samtheatre.co.uk/company-tickets