Company

“There is a time to live in New York &
a time to leave it.”

I have not yet formed an opinion about this new-ish idea of filming Theatre pieces, opera & concerts & then being charged a hefty ticket price to watch a filmed version of the live event on a movie theatre screen. But I had an ache to see last April’s 4 performances only version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company with the NY Philharmonic & starring my boo- Neil Patrick Harris.

I shelled out $18 a piece for tickets for the Husband & Lil’Jake & your host to attend one of the screenings at noon yesterday. I have a history with Company, this production boasted a tasty cast from TV, Film & Broadway, & it was Portland Gay Pride Day & I gathered gay glorification would need to include the gay creators of this landmark musical: Stephen Sondheim, George Furth, Bob Avian, & Michael Bennett.

Getting to the theatre early & finding perfect seats, our trio settled in. Lil’ Jake & I had a nice session of our favorite game- Casting. We decided on a new film version of Guys & Dolls, since the original film is so very uneven & didn’t catch the magic of this classic, & what I find to be one of the very best NYC musicals. We decided on Vin Diesel & Ann Hathaway as Sky Masterson & Sarah Brown, with Amy Adams & Jason Segel as Adelaide & Nathan Detroit, & featuring me as Nicely-Nicely. Inspired?

I noticed that the Husband had opted out of playing & was trying to tune out the 3 minute Special Events advertisement/ promo that kept looping over & overt with evil clown music as the background. It became apparent to the full house; the operator of the program didn’t know how to perform the task.  We saw on the screen, a cursor pointing to the Dish Network Menu, choosing Special Event- Company, but she/he/it was not able to get the thing started. The clown music & narration about how lucky we were to be at the theatre continued as the audience began to get surly & the Husband began to go mad.

The event got off to a jerky start, with the sound not working properly for the first 5 minutes. I felt this was portentous & we were in for a terrible afternoon. I suspected that rabid Christian Right Wing warriors tricked us with the promise of Sondheim, & with the musical theatre queers & liberals held captive in the theatre, they might gas us all or simply play that endless loop until we might kill each other.

Company turned out to actually be a dream of an experience.  What might be lost in the experience of actual live theatre was made up for in seeing the nuance of the actors’ work, & being able to understand each & every syllable of the shockingly stunning Sondheim lyrics.

I held back my consternation at the casting of TV actors: Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer & Christina Hendricks, & had considered  the consummation of the Broadway vets: Neil Patrick Harris, who made a career for himself on Broadway between the time TV turned him out & the time it took him back;  2 time Tony nominee- Martha Plimpton, Katie Finneran, who won a Tony last year for a 7 minute role in Promises, Promises, & hunky Craig Bierko, who's done revivals of The Music Man & Guys & Dolls, & Anika Noni Rose, who nailed the very big number- Another Hundred People. & of course there was Patti LuPone who is, of course, Patti LuPone.

I would do it again if they were smart enough to offer Daniel Radcliff in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Sutton Foster in Anything Goes, or Bernadette Peters in Follies (now playing at The Kennedy Center with a possible Broadway transfer).

I received the Original Broadway cast album of Company for Christmas 1970. My parents were smart that way. Company was considered a revolutionary musical, with no conventional plot, & instead is a series of vignettes with no chronological order & songs that comment on the action, instead of moving it forward. I was revolutionized by it, for certain.

I had my first important adult affair that summer. I had spent the summer in my first professional engagement as an actor doing Summer Stock in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho. We performed 4 musicals in repertory & when all 4 shows were up & running, the rest of the summer was sunning, swimming, smoking & sexing. Ron was an older man, at 24years old, he was actually finished with university. He spent the summer teaching me, at 17 years old, how to give & receive love & pleasure from another man. The Broadway Cast Recording of Company was often our soundtrack.

Here I am being introduced to singer/actor Jack Wrangler circa 1971.

After the theatre season was over in September, I actually convinced my parents to let me fly from Spokane to San Francisco. I stayed with Ron at his perfect Russian Hill apartment. He showed me his city & introduced me to his friends, gay men in the late 20s-50s. I liked being looked up & down. I had never been with a group of gay people before. Ron treated me to a night at the theatre. We saw Company with the original cast, minus Larry Kert, who was replaced by George Chakiris. When we got back to his place, I found a way to thank him for the summer romance & the 3 day weekend in my new favorite city.

That is what I thought about on Portland’s Gay Pride Day. I remember those first carefully chosen moments when I realized I could be open & out for the first time. I discovered that there was a city full of gay people. I decided that summer that I would not be tragic. I would make a happy life. I would meet a man who loved me. I would perform in Sondheim musicals. I might figure out a way to make this gay thing work for me.