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->''"You've got so many reasons for not being with someone, but Robert, you haven't got one good reason for being alone."''
-->--'''Harry'''
''Company'' is an American musical with book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Music/StephenSondheim. The plot revolves around Bobby, a handsome and well-liked single man, the five married couples who are his best friends, and three of his girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, the show consists of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, all linked together by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday. One of its most notable aspects was that it was among the first musicals to deal with more adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, "they are middle-class people with middle class-problems."
The 2018 London production and subsequent 2021 Broadway revival reworks the story to GenderFlip several characters, turning Bobby into a woman named Bobbie, making her love interests men, and turning Amy into a gay man named Jamie. The story is otherwise largely the same.
----
!!''Company'' provides examples of:
* {{Absurdism}}: One of the few musicals clearly influenced by Theatre of the Absurd, with its lack of a conventional plot, BlackComedy {{Deconstruction}} of conventional married life, and cryptic dialogue.
-->"You know, a person like Bob doesn't have the good things, but he doesn't have the bad things, but he doesn't have the good things."
* AdaptationalNameChange: To accommodate the GenderFlip, the 2018 revival changes Bobby to Bobbie, April to Andy, Marta to PJ, Kathy to Theo, and Amy to Jamie.
* AdaptationalSexuality:
** In 2013, a rewritten version was in the works with Bobby as a gay man struggling to commit to one man, though a production of this script never made it to the stage. However, the 2018 and 2020 revivals rewrite Amy as a male character (Jamie), thus turning her fiancée Paul into an openly-gay man.
** In the original script, Peter reveals that he's attracted to men, and asks Bobby about the possibility of them ever getting together. The 2018 revival, however, completely omits this scene, implying that Peter may not be gay in this version.
* AmIJustAToyToYou: Marta, April and Kathy (and PJ, Andy, and Theo) to Bobby/Bobbie.
-->Then you leave a person dangling sadly outside your door\\
Which it only makes a person gladly want you even more
* TheAlcoholic: Bobbie in the 2018 London and later Broadway revival. In the opening scene, she arrives back at her apartment holding a bottle of Maker's Mark, which practically accompanied her along the musical. The piñata at her party's shaped like a bottle of Maker's Mark.
* AloneAmongTheCouples: Central to the plot.
* AmicableExes: An extreme example: by the second act Peter and Susan have gotten divorced but they are still living together and raising the children together, and have found that the divorce has actually strengthened their relationship. They express their happiness but also state that they aren't getting married again when Bobby asks.
** Taken up to eleven in the revival where it's revealed that Susan is pregnant again after the divorce.
** Kathy and Bobby, who used to date, but in their scene together are just friends.
* AnachronicOrder: There is no plot, just a series of vignettes depicting Bobby's relationships with his married friends and his three girlfriends, and the view he gets on love, relationship and marriage from his view of their lives. Consequently, it's unclear when most of the scenes take place in relation to each other, with the exception of the intercut sequences of his birthday party.
* AntiLoveSong: "Sorry-Grateful", downplayed. Bob asks Harry if he's ever sorry that he got married. Harry's answer is a yes, and a no -- he's sorry, and grateful, because married life is very different from being in love.
* ArcNumber: In the 2021 Broadway revival, the number 35 (for Bobbie's birthday) appears in virtually all the sets - as balloons in Bobbie's apartment, a painting in Sarah and Harry's apartment, across all the doors on Peter and Susan's block, and the clock in Paul and Jamie's kitchen is set to 3:05.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: With a little help from Joanne, Bobby actually delivers one to ''himself'':
-->'''Joanne:''' I'll take care of you.\\
'''Bobby:''' But who will I take care of?
* ArmorPiercingResponse: Near the end of Act I, Robert asks Amy to marry him. Amy turns him down, telling him "you have to want to marry ''some''body, not just some''body''."
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In "Poor Baby", as Bobby is seen sleeping with April, the wives are shown saying that he ought to have a woman, but not someone like [[BrainlessBeauty the woman he's with right now]]. They each state their criticisms of her, saying that she's "dumb", "tacky", "vulgar", "odd", etc. [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] complaint? She's "tall enough to be your mother."
* BirthdayHater: Bobbie. The show opens with her taking a shot to “celebrate” her turning thirty-five, and closes with her puncturing the massive 35-shaped balloons in her apartment with a knife, and blowing out the candles on her birthday cake '''with a fire extinguisher'''.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: A sort of meta one is the three most recognizable Joannes: Creator/ElaineStritch, the original, was blonde, Barbara Walsh in the 2006 revival was a brunette, and Creator/PattiLuPone in the 2011 concert version was a redhead.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" originally went, "I could understand a person/If it's not a person's bag./I could understand a person/If a person was a fag." Later productions changed it to, "I could understand a person/If he said to go away./I could understand a person/If he happened to be gay."
* BookEnds: Bobby's 35th birthday party opens and closes each act.
* BrainlessBeauty: April. She is completely aware of the fact.
-->'''April:''' I'm very dumb.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Done quite a few times during the 2011 concert performance. In one scene, Bobby and April treat the conductor like an interior decoration. During "Getting Married Today", Amy goes up to the conductor, takes his baton, and snaps it in half in order to stop the music. And at the end of "Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne literally ''tosses her drink into the audience''.
* BrokenBird:
** Depending on the interpretation, Joanne could be seen as a cynical example: She is an alcoholic who has been twice divorced and is currently on her third husband. She is rather different from Bobby's other friends, spends most of the scenes making occasional snarky remarks, and is shown being extremely critical of both her husband, who clearly loves her with all his heart, and of Bobby. However, Bobby describes her as "warm", and her husband says that her behaviour comes from the fact that she has "no self-esteem". In the end, she also plays something of a mentorly role to Bobby, as she is the one who makes him question what he wants from a relationship.
** Bobbie is desperately searching for something to make her whole.
* BrokenRecord: At the end of "The Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne repeatedly sings the word "rise."
* BSODSong: The second half of "The Ladies Who Lunch", where Joanne realizes that she has wasted her life criticizing others instead of trying to change for the better.
* ChivalrousPervert: Bobby can be played this way, as he is fooling around with multiple women and it's clear that he has no problem with casual sex and one-night stands, but seems to be genuinely kind and caring towards the women he knows and doesn't overstep his bounds with his married female friends. In "What Would We Do Without You?" as his married friends describe him as the perfect friend, they say that he is "a flirt but never a threat".
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Bobbie in the 2018 revival. She wears a bright red jumpsuit (with matching red lingerie), while the rest of the cast (and the set) is in shades of muted grey, black, and white.
* CoordinatedClothes: In the New York Philharmonic production, the married couples are colour-coordinated, with [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518107.jpg Joanne and Larry in black]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_finneranwm17085126518218.jpg Amy and Paul in white and grey]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_plimptonwm17085126518168.jpg Sarah and Harry in red]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_cryerwm17085126518175.jpg Jenny and David in yellow]], and [[http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Craig+Bierko+2011+New+York+Philharmonic+Orchestra+VulrO6GdK-Ol.jpg Susan and Peter in pink]]. [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_harriswm17085126518137.jpg Bobby wears blue and brown]], and his solo scenes are all lit with blue light. The lighting of each scene tends to go with the colour scheme of the couple (Joanne and Larry's lighting ending up as [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518099.jpg purple]]), and the pillows on the sofas are changed to match as well.
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Bobby. In ''Side By Side By Side'' his friends comment on how they've gotten older but he seems to stay the same, and at the end Joanne tells him that he's not a kid anymore.
* CompanionCube: Bobbie's bottle of Maker's Mark.
* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: The 1996 revival changed a lyric in "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" that went "I could understand a person if it's not a person's bag / I could understand a person if a person were a fag," to the more respectful "I could understand a person if he said to go away / I could understand a person if he happened to be gay." This wasn't consistent for all later productions, but the majority of productions since then have used the revised lyric.
* DeadpanSnarker: Joanne. She even has an entire song snarking about different types of women.
* DeconfirmedBachelor: Bobby.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: The various sorts of rich, middle-aged women that Joanne describes in "The Ladies Who Lunch." By the third verse, she is also including and describing herself. By the ending, Bobby has a bit of this, too.
* TheDitz: April, who's sweet but none too bright. She's totally aware of and comfortable with this fact.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Multiple different meanings of the word "company" (as relating to human relationships) are used throughout the show. And then there's the subtextual pun that the cast of a musical is referred to collectively as the "company".
* DrowningMySorrows: Bobbie, especially as she reaches thirty-five. Invoked by Joanne in "The Ladies Who Lunch", directed at Bobbie:
-->'''Joanne:''' And here's to the girls who just watch\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed it's a bottle of scotch\\
Plus a little jest
* DrunkenMontage: The staging of "What Would We Do Without You?", showing Bobbie's party with her friends, and constantly being poured shots of Maker's Mark. It ends with her throwing up in a bucket (held up by Joanne of course).
* DownerEnding: One amateur production infamously ended the show with Robert DrivenToSuicide. Sondheim was not amused.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The opening scene is this for several of the characters. First, it shows Bobby's popularity and his friendship with the couples. Sarah and Harry's competitive and combative relationship is established as they give him their present. Amy's neurotic nature is shown as she presents him with the present from her and Paul. Joanne's cynical and sarcastic nature is shown when she snarks at the other wives and, when one of them asks Bobby who she is, responds thus:
-->'''Joanne:''' That is I, miss. I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* FantasySequence: The entire show - from the moment Robert leaves his voice message up until the final scene - takes place in Robert's head. The big clue is that we keep returning to Robert's 35th birthday party but it plays out differently every time.
** The genderflipped version has Bobbie watch several possible BadFutures play out after she and Andy go together, all represented by various doubles crossing the stage in increasingly tense repetition. Among them is a cold marriage marked by careerism, harried motherhood, the trials of pregnancy- but also the specter of ending up an aging still-single party girl who manages her alcoholism far more poorly than Bobbie does in the presence.
* FieryRedhead: Joanne, as played by [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518166.jpg Patti LuPone]] in the 2011 New York Philharmonic production.
* FriendshipSong: "Side By Side By Side/What Would We Do Without You?", Bobby's ode to his married friends and their description of him as the perfect friend, but it's ultimately a subversion as the brief UnDuet moment shows that even though he has friends, Bobby is still, ultimately, alone, and the lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that his married friends use him as something of a crutch to help them through their own marital difficulties.
* GenderFlip: The 2018 London revival reimagines Bobby as a woman (Bobbie), and the three girlfriends are now a trio of boyfriends. Amy has also been reworked as a gay man named Jamie.
* GirlNextDoor: Kathy, Bobby's longtime girlfriend. She is a sweet, wholesome girl from Cape Cod who feels out of place in New York, and Bobby admits that at the beginning of their relationship he wanted to marry her. She admits that she felt the same way before telling him that she's moving back to Cape Cod to get married and have a family.
* GrowingUpSucks: "You're not a kid anymore, Robby! I don't think you'll ever be a kid again, kiddo!"
* HandsomeLech: Bobby can be played this way.
* HappilyMarried: It's very clear that all of the couples have far from fairy-tale marriages, but in the end one is left with the impression that they are, ultimately, happy and fulfilled in their relationships.
* HappyRain: A practical effect causes rain to fall down on Bobbie at the end of “Marry Me a Little”
* HeroicSeductress: Bobbie.
* IWantSong: First, "Someone is Waiting" depicts Bobby's impossible dream of finding the perfect woman, who combines the best parts of all of his female friends. Then in "Marry Me a Little" (cut from the original production but added to the revivals), he expresses a desire for an easy, no-strings marriage, but it's clear that what he's hoping for isn't realistic or sustainable. Finally in "Being Alive" he starts by decrying marriage, but ultimately expresses a strong desire for someone to share his life with.
* IdleRich: In the 2011 New York Philharmonic production, as Bobby describes each of his female friends in "Someone Is Waiting", they are shown each doing their normal household activities, such as reading a magazine or folding children's clothes, but Joanne is shown lounging and staring off into the distance.
* IncrediblyLongNote: "We looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove you." This infamous forty-second-long note (18 in the recording) comes from a peculiarity in the staging of the original production: the note was held for exactly the duration of how long it took the two elevators in Boris Aronson's set to do a complete raise! In other productions, including the 2007 revival, the note is sometimes shortened. The 2011 concert retains the full length.
* IronicBirthday: It's on his 35th birthday that Bobby finally realizes that "alone is alone, not alive" and realizes that he does want commitment.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Joanne is usually played this way. Drunk, sarcastic and abrasive, but she does care about Bobby and Larry (and sometimes, she'll even act like it).
* LadyDrunk: Joanne.
-->'''Joanne:''' What was that clock chime?\\
'''Larry:''' Five-o'-clock.\\
'''Joanne:''' Thank ''God'', cocktail hour!
* {{Leitmotif}}: The descending minor third, most recognisably set to the central character's name: "Bobby". Nearly every melody in the score is based around it, and it occurs frequently as an accompaniment motif. Fitting, as the entire show revolves around Bobby and his being a [[JustForPun third wheel]] to various couples.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: When Larry is talking about why he loves Joanne so much in spite of her behaviour, he mentions that his mother was a "very difficult woman", suggesting that there's an element of this.
* ListSong: "The Little Things You Do Together" describes the ways that couples interact and the activities they share that can make (or break) a relationship. "The Ladies Who Lunch" describes different sorts of rich, middle-aged women who while away their time trying to escape or ignore their directionless, unfulfilled lives. "Someone Is Waiting" also has Bobby describing the best qualities of all of his married female friends as he imagines what his perfect woman would be like.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: The lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that Bobby's married friends use him as this to help them through their marital difficulties.
-->What would we do without you?\\
How would we ever get through?\\
Should there be a marital squabble,\\
Available Bob'll\\
Be there with the glue.
* LoveDodecahedron: In addition to his three girlfriends, "Someone is Waiting" shows that Bobby does find all of his married female friends attractive in one way or another, and he is depicted as innocently flirting with them (there's even a line in "What Would We Do Without You?" that states that one of the reasons he is such a good friend is that he is "a flirt but never a threat"). There's also the scene where he proposes to Amy on the spur of the moment, the one where Peter asks him if he's ever had a homosexual experience, and the one where Joanne asks him when they're going to "make it" before suggesting he visit her the next day while her husband is at work and declaring that she'll "take care of him".
* LyricalDissonance:
** While the show we all know and love has some of this, mostly when involving [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne]], the CutSong "Happily Ever After" would have absolutely taken the cake. It's a peppy, cheerful song about how life is dismal and horrible for everyone.
** "The Little Things You Do Together", an incredibly catchy song that shows marriage getting progressively bleaker.
* MinorCharacterMajorSong: "Another Hundred People" for Marta. As noted above, it was written just to showcase Pamela Myers.
* MustHaveNicotine: [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] first line after her epic BSODSong:
-->'''Joanne:''' I would like a cigarette, Larry.
* [[MsFanservice Mr/MsFanservice]]: Andy/April's big scene involves them stripping down before having sex with Bobby.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: How the 2018 revival characterizes PJ, the [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] Marta. He PrefersGoingBarefoot, busks on a street corner, and wears a vest with no shirt.
* NiceGuy: Bobby's a very sweet, charming man, which is partially why all the wives ''adore'' him and really want him to find somebody to settle down with. Larry's also a genuinely pleasant, nice guy who loves Joanne dearly -- even when she's not at her most lovable.
* NoAccountingForTaste: Joanne tends to get practically abusive towards her husband Larry, who makes it clear he still loves her, even if this bothers him.
* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: Whatever it is Bobby/Bobbie does for a living. It must pay well to allow them to afford a large apartment in Manhattan.
* OffTheWagon: Harry claims to be on the wagon, but is seen sneaking sips of bourbon. Meanwhile, his wife Sarah is on a diet but is seen sneaking bites of a brownie.
* OneOfTheGirls: The genderbent revival has Jamie (previously Amy) singing "Have I Got a Guy For You" with the wives, while not joining his husband Paul and the other men in singing "Poor Baby".
* PatterSong:
** A decent amount of "Another Hundred People" is also very fast and wordy.
** Amy's part of "Getting Married Today." It's the second-fastest Broadway song ever written, with an average of 6.2 words per second.
* PerkyGoth: The Marta of the 2006 Broadway revival (played by Angel Desai) came across this way.
* RandomEventsPlot: It started out as a series of one-act plays written by George Furth, so it was easier to just adapt them into a vignette format.
* ReallyGetsAround: Bobby is fooling around with three attractive young women and has had countless other girlfriends.
* RichBitch: Joanne seems to be this, as exemplified by the following quote from the opening scene, but there are a few moments that show a slightly softer side of her. Bobby also describes her as "warm" in "Someone is Waiting."
-->'''Joanne:''' I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* RichBoredom: "The Ladies Who Lunch" is Joanne's scathing description of the empty and ultimately meaningless lives of rich, middle-aged women, herself included, and the various ways they try to distract themselves or remain in denial of how unfulfilled they feel.
* SanitySlippageSong:
** "Getting Married Today."
** Some interpretations of "The Ladies Who Lunch", such as [=Patti LuPone's=], have shades of this, especially in the last two verses.
* SerialSpouse: Joanne has been married "three or four times". (According to Bobby, it's three.)
* SettingIntroductionSong: "Another Hundred People", halfway through the first act, describes the city of New York and the busy lives of the people living in and passing through it.
* SettingUpdate: Thanks to the leniency of the script, the show can easily be updated for whatever year (or decade) it's performed in. For example, the 2020 revival is clearly set in today's times, with selfies and social media playing a role in the story. The nightclub that Joanne and Bobbie go to even plays a dubstep remix of the title song.
* SexEqualsLove: Averted; the difference is explored in "Tick-Tock."
* SexGod: Bobbie in the 2018 London revival. Confirmed by PJ, Theo, and Andy in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."
-->'''Andy''': She's ''good!''\\
'''PJ and Theo''': No shit!
* SexyStewardess: April, especially when played by Creator/ChristinaHendricks. And Andy, her [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] counterpart. He emerges in one scene with Bobbie's panties in his mouth.
* SlapSlapKiss: Sarah and Harry's scene involves them continuously contradicting each other before getting into a definitely-not-playful karate demonstration, but ends with this:
-->'''Sarah:''' I'll turn out the lights. I always do.\\
'''Harry:''' No you don't.\\
'''Sarah:''' Oh Harry, I love you.
* SmallStartBigFinish: "Being Alive" starts at speaking volume and gets bigger and bigger as the song goes on, eventually reaching full on belt at the line "But alone, is alone, not alive" and continues in this manner until the end.
* SmokingIsCool: It was made in the 70's so several of the characters smoke. The most notable is Joanne (in the DVD of the 2011 concert version, you can see that her cigarettes are Pall Malls) who states that smoking is "the best", and who mocks Bobby for saying that he "meant to" smoke but never did, pointing out that that statement sums up his life and his lack of resolve and commitment.
* SmokingIsNotCool: Bobby/Bobbie, who refuses to join Joanne after "The Ladies Who Lunch." They will smoke marijuana though (and Bobbie vapes in the 2018 revival).
-->'''Bobby/Bobbie''': I do not smoke. My age group is a very uptight age group.
* StarterMarriage: Joanne's first marriage happened when she was just out of college, and apparently lasted only a year, until her husband announced that he wanted to move back to Chicago and she refused. As she tells Bobby:
-->'''Joanne:''' I was too young, but I was old enough to know where I was living, and I had no intention of leaving New York.
* StepfordSmiler: Bobby. To begin with he appears genial, charming and pleasantly baffled by his "crazy" married friends. As the show wears on it becomes clear that he spends time with them because he's desperately lonely, but also scared of being emotionally vulnerable.
* StepfordSnarker: Joanne could be seen as an example, depending on the interpretation. She is a snarky, abrasive alcoholic who has been divorced twice. Her current husband, Larry, says that she is "wildly conceited" with "no self-esteem", and that she still is unable to believe that he loves her and continues to be fascinated by her. Her song, "The Ladies Who Lunch", starts as her critique of rich middle-aged women who while away their lives with meaningless activities but turns into a scathing description of her own directionless life.
* StonersAreFunny: The scene with Jenny and David.
* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion:
** Although it's not used for comedic effect, there is one in ''Poor Baby'':
--->There's no one\\
In his life,\\
Robert ought to have a woman...
** There's another one that ''is'' used for comic effect at the end of "Barcelona", the morning after Bobby and April have slept together and she is getting ready to leave to be on a flight to Barcelona. Bobby makes the usual false pleas that she stay, clearly wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, leading to this exchange:
--->'''April:''' That's not to say\\
That if I had my way...\\
Oh, well...I guess...okay!\\
'''Bobby:''' What?\\
'''April:''' I'll stay!\\
'''Bobby:''' But...oh ''God!''
* SurpriseParty: The show starts (and [[BookEnds ends]]) with the surprise party Bobby's married friends have thrown for his 35th birthday.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: [[http://orlandotheater.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/walsh-company.jpg Joanne]], as played by Barbara Walsh in the 2006 Broadway revival.
* TheElevenOClockNumber: "Being Alive."
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Joanne gives a minor one to Bobby in the scene following "The Ladies Who Lunch":
--->'''Bobby:''' I never smoked.\\
'''Joanne:''' Why not?\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't know. I meant to, does that count?\\
'''Joanne:''' "Meant to"? "Meant to"? Story of your ''life'', "meant to". Jesus, you were lifted right out of a Kraft-Ebbing case history. You were always outside staring in the window while everyone was inside dancing at the party. Now, I insist you smoke. Here, Rob, smoke. \\
'''Bobby:''' No thank you. You smoke. I'll watch.\\
'''Joanne:''' "Watch"? Did you hear yourself? Did you hear what you just said, kiddo? ''"Watch"!'' I'm offering you the chance to-\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't want one!\\
'''Joanne:''' Because you're ''weak!'' I hate people who are ''weak!''
** The third verse of [[BSODSong "The Ladies Who Lunch"]] could also be seen as Joanne giving one to ''herself'':
--->And here's to the girls who just watch--\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed,\\
It's a bottle of Scotch,\\
Plus a little jest.\\
Another chance to disapprove,\\
Another brilliant zinger,\\
Another reason not to move,\\
Another vodka stinger.\\
''(screamed)'' I'll drink to that!
* ThreeFacesOfEve: Bobby's girlfriends – April is the Child, Marta is the Seductress, and Kathy is the Wife.
* ThreesomeSubtext: While his relationship with his married friends seems to be completely platonic, in "Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You?" Bobby talks about how his married friends are all he needs and the couples talk about what a perfect friend he is and how his presence helps them through all of their marital difficulties.
* TimePassesMontage: Overlaps with AnxietyDreams; the staging of "Tick-Tock", showing Bobbie settling down, getting married, having children, growing old, fat and frazzled (and constantly having to put the toilet seat back down) with Andy the flight attendant.
* TitleDrop: As with many musicals, the opening song.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Joanne and her vodka stingers. Bobby also seems to have a fondness for bourbon. Bobbie and Maker's Mark in the 2018 revival, as a giant bottle appears at one point in the vignettes.
* UnDuet: A brief one appears in "What Would We Do Without You?".
* VanillaProtagonist: Invoked. The married couples and the girlfriends come across as much more lively and colourful than Bobby himself. This is because Bobby is ''deliberately'' keeping anyone from getting to know him too well. The other characters keep trying to help Bobby realise that this is ultimately leaving him empty, unfulfilled and lonely.
* WholePlotReference: Or rather, Whole Staging Reference in the 2018 revival to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', with Bobbi being shown climbing through either oversized or undersized versions of her empty apartment to reach each individual vignette.
----
->''"You've got so many reasons for not being with someone, but Robert, you haven't got one good reason for being alone."''
-->--'''Harry'''
''Company'' is an American musical with book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Music/StephenSondheim. The plot revolves around Bobby, a handsome and well-liked single man, the five married couples who are his best friends, and three of his girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, the show consists of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, all linked together by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday. One of its most notable aspects was that it was among the first musicals to deal with more adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, "they are middle-class people with middle class-problems."
The 2018 London production and subsequent 2021 Broadway revival reworks the story to GenderFlip several characters, turning Bobby into a woman named Bobbie, making her love interests men, and turning Amy into a gay man named Jamie. The story is otherwise largely the same.
----
!!''Company'' provides examples of:
* {{Absurdism}}: One of the few musicals clearly influenced by Theatre of the Absurd, with its lack of a conventional plot, BlackComedy {{Deconstruction}} of conventional married life, and cryptic dialogue.
-->"You know, a person like Bob doesn't have the good things, but he doesn't have the bad things, but he doesn't have the good things."
* AdaptationalNameChange: To accommodate the GenderFlip, the 2018 revival changes Bobby to Bobbie, April to Andy, Marta to PJ, Kathy to Theo, and Amy to Jamie.
* AdaptationalSexuality:
** In 2013, a rewritten version was in the works with Bobby as a gay man struggling to commit to one man, though a production of this script never made it to the stage. However, the 2018 and 2020 revivals rewrite Amy as a male character (Jamie), thus turning her fiancée Paul into an openly-gay man.
** In the original script, Peter reveals that he's attracted to men, and asks Bobby about the possibility of them ever getting together. The 2018 revival, however, completely omits this scene, implying that Peter may not be gay in this version.
* AmIJustAToyToYou: Marta, April and Kathy (and PJ, Andy, and Theo) to Bobby/Bobbie.
-->Then you leave a person dangling sadly outside your door\\
Which it only makes a person gladly want you even more
* TheAlcoholic: Bobbie in the 2018 London and later Broadway revival. In the opening scene, she arrives back at her apartment holding a bottle of Maker's Mark, which practically accompanied her along the musical. The piñata at her party's shaped like a bottle of Maker's Mark.
* AloneAmongTheCouples: Central to the plot.
* AmicableExes: An extreme example: by the second act Peter and Susan have gotten divorced but they are still living together and raising the children together, and have found that the divorce has actually strengthened their relationship. They express their happiness but also state that they aren't getting married again when Bobby asks.
** Taken up to eleven in the revival where it's revealed that Susan is pregnant again after the divorce.
** Kathy and Bobby, who used to date, but in their scene together are just friends.
* AnachronicOrder: There is no plot, just a series of vignettes depicting Bobby's relationships with his married friends and his three girlfriends, and the view he gets on love, relationship and marriage from his view of their lives. Consequently, it's unclear when most of the scenes take place in relation to each other, with the exception of the intercut sequences of his birthday party.
* AntiLoveSong: "Sorry-Grateful", downplayed. Bob asks Harry if he's ever sorry that he got married. Harry's answer is a yes, and a no -- he's sorry, and grateful, because married life is very different from being in love.
* ArcNumber: In the 2021 Broadway revival, the number 35 (for Bobbie's birthday) appears in virtually all the sets - as balloons in Bobbie's apartment, a painting in Sarah and Harry's apartment, across all the doors on Peter and Susan's block, and the clock in Paul and Jamie's kitchen is set to 3:05.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: With a little help from Joanne, Bobby actually delivers one to ''himself'':
-->'''Joanne:''' I'll take care of you.\\
'''Bobby:''' But who will I take care of?
* ArmorPiercingResponse: Near the end of Act I, Robert asks Amy to marry him. Amy turns him down, telling him "you have to want to marry ''some''body, not just some''body''."
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In "Poor Baby", as Bobby is seen sleeping with April, the wives are shown saying that he ought to have a woman, but not someone like [[BrainlessBeauty the woman he's with right now]]. They each state their criticisms of her, saying that she's "dumb", "tacky", "vulgar", "odd", etc. [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] complaint? She's "tall enough to be your mother."
* BirthdayHater: Bobbie. The show opens with her taking a shot to “celebrate” her turning thirty-five, and closes with her puncturing the massive 35-shaped balloons in her apartment with a knife, and blowing out the candles on her birthday cake '''with a fire extinguisher'''.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: A sort of meta one is the three most recognizable Joannes: Creator/ElaineStritch, the original, was blonde, Barbara Walsh in the 2006 revival was a brunette, and Creator/PattiLuPone in the 2011 concert version was a redhead.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" originally went, "I could understand a person/If it's not a person's bag./I could understand a person/If a person was a fag." Later productions changed it to, "I could understand a person/If he said to go away./I could understand a person/If he happened to be gay."
* BookEnds: Bobby's 35th birthday party opens and closes each act.
* BrainlessBeauty: April. She is completely aware of the fact.
-->'''April:''' I'm very dumb.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Done quite a few times during the 2011 concert performance. In one scene, Bobby and April treat the conductor like an interior decoration. During "Getting Married Today", Amy goes up to the conductor, takes his baton, and snaps it in half in order to stop the music. And at the end of "Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne literally ''tosses her drink into the audience''.
* BrokenBird:
** Depending on the interpretation, Joanne could be seen as a cynical example: She is an alcoholic who has been twice divorced and is currently on her third husband. She is rather different from Bobby's other friends, spends most of the scenes making occasional snarky remarks, and is shown being extremely critical of both her husband, who clearly loves her with all his heart, and of Bobby. However, Bobby describes her as "warm", and her husband says that her behaviour comes from the fact that she has "no self-esteem". In the end, she also plays something of a mentorly role to Bobby, as she is the one who makes him question what he wants from a relationship.
** Bobbie is desperately searching for something to make her whole.
* BrokenRecord: At the end of "The Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne repeatedly sings the word "rise."
* BSODSong: The second half of "The Ladies Who Lunch", where Joanne realizes that she has wasted her life criticizing others instead of trying to change for the better.
* ChivalrousPervert: Bobby can be played this way, as he is fooling around with multiple women and it's clear that he has no problem with casual sex and one-night stands, but seems to be genuinely kind and caring towards the women he knows and doesn't overstep his bounds with his married female friends. In "What Would We Do Without You?" as his married friends describe him as the perfect friend, they say that he is "a flirt but never a threat".
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Bobbie in the 2018 revival. She wears a bright red jumpsuit (with matching red lingerie), while the rest of the cast (and the set) is in shades of muted grey, black, and white.
* CoordinatedClothes: In the New York Philharmonic production, the married couples are colour-coordinated, with [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518107.jpg Joanne and Larry in black]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_finneranwm17085126518218.jpg Amy and Paul in white and grey]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_plimptonwm17085126518168.jpg Sarah and Harry in red]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_cryerwm17085126518175.jpg Jenny and David in yellow]], and [[http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Craig+Bierko+2011+New+York+Philharmonic+Orchestra+VulrO6GdK-Ol.jpg Susan and Peter in pink]]. [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_harriswm17085126518137.jpg Bobby wears blue and brown]], and his solo scenes are all lit with blue light. The lighting of each scene tends to go with the colour scheme of the couple (Joanne and Larry's lighting ending up as [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518099.jpg purple]]), and the pillows on the sofas are changed to match as well.
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Bobby. In ''Side By Side By Side'' his friends comment on how they've gotten older but he seems to stay the same, and at the end Joanne tells him that he's not a kid anymore.
* CompanionCube: Bobbie's bottle of Maker's Mark.
* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: The 1996 revival changed a lyric in "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" that went "I could understand a person if it's not a person's bag / I could understand a person if a person were a fag," to the more respectful "I could understand a person if he said to go away / I could understand a person if he happened to be gay." This wasn't consistent for all later productions, but the majority of productions since then have used the revised lyric.
* DeadpanSnarker: Joanne. She even has an entire song snarking about different types of women.
* DeconfirmedBachelor: Bobby.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: The various sorts of rich, middle-aged women that Joanne describes in "The Ladies Who Lunch." By the third verse, she is also including and describing herself. By the ending, Bobby has a bit of this, too.
* TheDitz: April, who's sweet but none too bright. She's totally aware of and comfortable with this fact.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Multiple different meanings of the word "company" (as relating to human relationships) are used throughout the show. And then there's the subtextual pun that the cast of a musical is referred to collectively as the "company".
* DrowningMySorrows: Bobbie, especially as she reaches thirty-five. Invoked by Joanne in "The Ladies Who Lunch", directed at Bobbie:
-->'''Joanne:''' And here's to the girls who just watch\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed it's a bottle of scotch\\
Plus a little jest
* DrunkenMontage: The staging of "What Would We Do Without You?", showing Bobbie's party with her friends, and constantly being poured shots of Maker's Mark. It ends with her throwing up in a bucket (held up by Joanne of course).
* DownerEnding: One amateur production infamously ended the show with Robert DrivenToSuicide. Sondheim was not amused.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The opening scene is this for several of the characters. First, it shows Bobby's popularity and his friendship with the couples. Sarah and Harry's competitive and combative relationship is established as they give him their present. Amy's neurotic nature is shown as she presents him with the present from her and Paul. Joanne's cynical and sarcastic nature is shown when she snarks at the other wives and, when one of them asks Bobby who she is, responds thus:
-->'''Joanne:''' That is I, miss. I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* FantasySequence: The entire show - from the moment Robert leaves his voice message up until the final scene - takes place in Robert's head. The big clue is that we keep returning to Robert's 35th birthday party but it plays out differently every time.
** The genderflipped version has Bobbie watch several possible BadFutures play out after she and Andy go together, all represented by various doubles crossing the stage in increasingly tense repetition. Among them is a cold marriage marked by careerism, harried motherhood, the trials of pregnancy- but also the specter of ending up an aging still-single party girl who manages her alcoholism far more poorly than Bobbie does in the presence.
* FieryRedhead: Joanne, as played by [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518166.jpg Patti LuPone]] in the 2011 New York Philharmonic production.
* FriendshipSong: "Side By Side By Side/What Would We Do Without You?", Bobby's ode to his married friends and their description of him as the perfect friend, but it's ultimately a subversion as the brief UnDuet moment shows that even though he has friends, Bobby is still, ultimately, alone, and the lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that his married friends use him as something of a crutch to help them through their own marital difficulties.
* GenderFlip: The 2018 London revival reimagines Bobby as a woman (Bobbie), and the three girlfriends are now a trio of boyfriends. Amy has also been reworked as a gay man named Jamie.
* GirlNextDoor: Kathy, Bobby's longtime girlfriend. She is a sweet, wholesome girl from Cape Cod who feels out of place in New York, and Bobby admits that at the beginning of their relationship he wanted to marry her. She admits that she felt the same way before telling him that she's moving back to Cape Cod to get married and have a family.
* GrowingUpSucks: "You're not a kid anymore, Robby! I don't think you'll ever be a kid again, kiddo!"
* HandsomeLech: Bobby can be played this way.
* HappilyMarried: It's very clear that all of the couples have far from fairy-tale marriages, but in the end one is left with the impression that they are, ultimately, happy and fulfilled in their relationships.
* HappyRain: A practical effect causes rain to fall down on Bobbie at the end of “Marry Me a Little”
* HeroicSeductress: Bobbie.
* IWantSong: First, "Someone is Waiting" depicts Bobby's impossible dream of finding the perfect woman, who combines the best parts of all of his female friends. Then in "Marry Me a Little" (cut from the original production but added to the revivals), he expresses a desire for an easy, no-strings marriage, but it's clear that what he's hoping for isn't realistic or sustainable. Finally in "Being Alive" he starts by decrying marriage, but ultimately expresses a strong desire for someone to share his life with.
* IdleRich: In the 2011 New York Philharmonic production, as Bobby describes each of his female friends in "Someone Is Waiting", they are shown each doing their normal household activities, such as reading a magazine or folding children's clothes, but Joanne is shown lounging and staring off into the distance.
* IncrediblyLongNote: "We looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove you." This infamous forty-second-long note (18 in the recording) comes from a peculiarity in the staging of the original production: the note was held for exactly the duration of how long it took the two elevators in Boris Aronson's set to do a complete raise! In other productions, including the 2007 revival, the note is sometimes shortened. The 2011 concert retains the full length.
* IronicBirthday: It's on his 35th birthday that Bobby finally realizes that "alone is alone, not alive" and realizes that he does want commitment.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Joanne is usually played this way. Drunk, sarcastic and abrasive, but she does care about Bobby and Larry (and sometimes, she'll even act like it).
* LadyDrunk: Joanne.
-->'''Joanne:''' What was that clock chime?\\
'''Larry:''' Five-o'-clock.\\
'''Joanne:''' Thank ''God'', cocktail hour!
* {{Leitmotif}}: The descending minor third, most recognisably set to the central character's name: "Bobby". Nearly every melody in the score is based around it, and it occurs frequently as an accompaniment motif. Fitting, as the entire show revolves around Bobby and his being a [[JustForPun third wheel]] to various couples.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: When Larry is talking about why he loves Joanne so much in spite of her behaviour, he mentions that his mother was a "very difficult woman", suggesting that there's an element of this.
* ListSong: "The Little Things You Do Together" describes the ways that couples interact and the activities they share that can make (or break) a relationship. "The Ladies Who Lunch" describes different sorts of rich, middle-aged women who while away their time trying to escape or ignore their directionless, unfulfilled lives. "Someone Is Waiting" also has Bobby describing the best qualities of all of his married female friends as he imagines what his perfect woman would be like.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: The lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that Bobby's married friends use him as this to help them through their marital difficulties.
-->What would we do without you?\\
How would we ever get through?\\
Should there be a marital squabble,\\
Available Bob'll\\
Be there with the glue.
* LoveDodecahedron: In addition to his three girlfriends, "Someone is Waiting" shows that Bobby does find all of his married female friends attractive in one way or another, and he is depicted as innocently flirting with them (there's even a line in "What Would We Do Without You?" that states that one of the reasons he is such a good friend is that he is "a flirt but never a threat"). There's also the scene where he proposes to Amy on the spur of the moment, the one where Peter asks him if he's ever had a homosexual experience, and the one where Joanne asks him when they're going to "make it" before suggesting he visit her the next day while her husband is at work and declaring that she'll "take care of him".
* LyricalDissonance:
** While the show we all know and love has some of this, mostly when involving [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne]], the CutSong "Happily Ever After" would have absolutely taken the cake. It's a peppy, cheerful song about how life is dismal and horrible for everyone.
** "The Little Things You Do Together", an incredibly catchy song that shows marriage getting progressively bleaker.
* MinorCharacterMajorSong: "Another Hundred People" for Marta. As noted above, it was written just to showcase Pamela Myers.
* MustHaveNicotine: [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] first line after her epic BSODSong:
-->'''Joanne:''' I would like a cigarette, Larry.
* [[MsFanservice Mr/MsFanservice]]: Andy/April's big scene involves them stripping down before having sex with Bobby.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: How the 2018 revival characterizes PJ, the [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] Marta. He PrefersGoingBarefoot, busks on a street corner, and wears a vest with no shirt.
* NiceGuy: Bobby's a very sweet, charming man, which is partially why all the wives ''adore'' him and really want him to find somebody to settle down with. Larry's also a genuinely pleasant, nice guy who loves Joanne dearly -- even when she's not at her most lovable.
* NoAccountingForTaste: Joanne tends to get practically abusive towards her husband Larry, who makes it clear he still loves her, even if this bothers him.
* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: Whatever it is Bobby/Bobbie does for a living. It must pay well to allow them to afford a large apartment in Manhattan.
* OffTheWagon: Harry claims to be on the wagon, but is seen sneaking sips of bourbon. Meanwhile, his wife Sarah is on a diet but is seen sneaking bites of a brownie.
* OneOfTheGirls: The genderbent revival has Jamie (previously Amy) singing "Have I Got a Guy For You" with the wives, while not joining his husband Paul and the other men in singing "Poor Baby".
* PatterSong:
** A decent amount of "Another Hundred People" is also very fast and wordy.
** Amy's part of "Getting Married Today." It's the second-fastest Broadway song ever written, with an average of 6.2 words per second.
* PerkyGoth: The Marta of the 2006 Broadway revival (played by Angel Desai) came across this way.
* RandomEventsPlot: It started out as a series of one-act plays written by George Furth, so it was easier to just adapt them into a vignette format.
* ReallyGetsAround: Bobby is fooling around with three attractive young women and has had countless other girlfriends.
* RichBitch: Joanne seems to be this, as exemplified by the following quote from the opening scene, but there are a few moments that show a slightly softer side of her. Bobby also describes her as "warm" in "Someone is Waiting."
-->'''Joanne:''' I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* RichBoredom: "The Ladies Who Lunch" is Joanne's scathing description of the empty and ultimately meaningless lives of rich, middle-aged women, herself included, and the various ways they try to distract themselves or remain in denial of how unfulfilled they feel.
* SanitySlippageSong:
** "Getting Married Today."
** Some interpretations of "The Ladies Who Lunch", such as [=Patti LuPone's=], have shades of this, especially in the last two verses.
* SerialSpouse: Joanne has been married "three or four times". (According to Bobby, it's three.)
* SettingIntroductionSong: "Another Hundred People", halfway through the first act, describes the city of New York and the busy lives of the people living in and passing through it.
* SettingUpdate: Thanks to the leniency of the script, the show can easily be updated for whatever year (or decade) it's performed in. For example, the 2020 revival is clearly set in today's times, with selfies and social media playing a role in the story. The nightclub that Joanne and Bobbie go to even plays a dubstep remix of the title song.
* SexEqualsLove: Averted; the difference is explored in "Tick-Tock."
* SexGod: Bobbie in the 2018 London revival. Confirmed by PJ, Theo, and Andy in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."
-->'''Andy''': She's ''good!''\\
'''PJ and Theo''': No shit!
* SexyStewardess: April, especially when played by Creator/ChristinaHendricks. And Andy, her [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] counterpart. He emerges in one scene with Bobbie's panties in his mouth.
* SlapSlapKiss: Sarah and Harry's scene involves them continuously contradicting each other before getting into a definitely-not-playful karate demonstration, but ends with this:
-->'''Sarah:''' I'll turn out the lights. I always do.\\
'''Harry:''' No you don't.\\
'''Sarah:''' Oh Harry, I love you.
* SmallStartBigFinish: "Being Alive" starts at speaking volume and gets bigger and bigger as the song goes on, eventually reaching full on belt at the line "But alone, is alone, not alive" and continues in this manner until the end.
* SmokingIsCool: It was made in the 70's so several of the characters smoke. The most notable is Joanne (in the DVD of the 2011 concert version, you can see that her cigarettes are Pall Malls) who states that smoking is "the best", and who mocks Bobby for saying that he "meant to" smoke but never did, pointing out that that statement sums up his life and his lack of resolve and commitment.
* SmokingIsNotCool: Bobby/Bobbie, who refuses to join Joanne after "The Ladies Who Lunch." They will smoke marijuana though (and Bobbie vapes in the 2018 revival).
-->'''Bobby/Bobbie''': I do not smoke. My age group is a very uptight age group.
* StarterMarriage: Joanne's first marriage happened when she was just out of college, and apparently lasted only a year, until her husband announced that he wanted to move back to Chicago and she refused. As she tells Bobby:
-->'''Joanne:''' I was too young, but I was old enough to know where I was living, and I had no intention of leaving New York.
* StepfordSmiler: Bobby. To begin with he appears genial, charming and pleasantly baffled by his "crazy" married friends. As the show wears on it becomes clear that he spends time with them because he's desperately lonely, but also scared of being emotionally vulnerable.
* StepfordSnarker: Joanne could be seen as an example, depending on the interpretation. She is a snarky, abrasive alcoholic who has been divorced twice. Her current husband, Larry, says that she is "wildly conceited" with "no self-esteem", and that she still is unable to believe that he loves her and continues to be fascinated by her. Her song, "The Ladies Who Lunch", starts as her critique of rich middle-aged women who while away their lives with meaningless activities but turns into a scathing description of her own directionless life.
* StonersAreFunny: The scene with Jenny and David.
* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion:
** Although it's not used for comedic effect, there is one in ''Poor Baby'':
--->There's no one\\
In his life,\\
Robert ought to have a woman...
** There's another one that ''is'' used for comic effect at the end of "Barcelona", the morning after Bobby and April have slept together and she is getting ready to leave to be on a flight to Barcelona. Bobby makes the usual false pleas that she stay, clearly wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, leading to this exchange:
--->'''April:''' That's not to say\\
That if I had my way...\\
Oh, well...I guess...okay!\\
'''Bobby:''' What?\\
'''April:''' I'll stay!\\
'''Bobby:''' But...oh ''God!''
* SurpriseParty: The show starts (and [[BookEnds ends]]) with the surprise party Bobby's married friends have thrown for his 35th birthday.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: [[http://orlandotheater.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/walsh-company.jpg Joanne]], as played by Barbara Walsh in the 2006 Broadway revival.
* TheElevenOClockNumber: "Being Alive."
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Joanne gives a minor one to Bobby in the scene following "The Ladies Who Lunch":
--->'''Bobby:''' I never smoked.\\
'''Joanne:''' Why not?\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't know. I meant to, does that count?\\
'''Joanne:''' "Meant to"? "Meant to"? Story of your ''life'', "meant to". Jesus, you were lifted right out of a Kraft-Ebbing case history. You were always outside staring in the window while everyone was inside dancing at the party. Now, I insist you smoke. Here, Rob, smoke. \\
'''Bobby:''' No thank you. You smoke. I'll watch.\\
'''Joanne:''' "Watch"? Did you hear yourself? Did you hear what you just said, kiddo? ''"Watch"!'' I'm offering you the chance to-\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't want one!\\
'''Joanne:''' Because you're ''weak!'' I hate people who are ''weak!''
** The third verse of [[BSODSong "The Ladies Who Lunch"]] could also be seen as Joanne giving one to ''herself'':
--->And here's to the girls who just watch--\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed,\\
It's a bottle of Scotch,\\
Plus a little jest.\\
Another chance to disapprove,\\
Another brilliant zinger,\\
Another reason not to move,\\
Another vodka stinger.\\
''(screamed)'' I'll drink to that!
* ThreeFacesOfEve: Bobby's girlfriends – April is the Child, Marta is the Seductress, and Kathy is the Wife.
* ThreesomeSubtext: While his relationship with his married friends seems to be completely platonic, in "Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You?" Bobby talks about how his married friends are all he needs and the couples talk about what a perfect friend he is and how his presence helps them through all of their marital difficulties.
* TimePassesMontage: Overlaps with AnxietyDreams; the staging of "Tick-Tock", showing Bobbie settling down, getting married, having children, growing old, fat and frazzled (and constantly having to put the toilet seat back down) with Andy the flight attendant.
* TitleDrop: As with many musicals, the opening song.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Joanne and her vodka stingers. Bobby also seems to have a fondness for bourbon. Bobbie and Maker's Mark in the 2018 revival, as a giant bottle appears at one point in the vignettes.
* UnDuet: A brief one appears in "What Would We Do Without You?".
* VanillaProtagonist: Invoked. The married couples and the girlfriends come across as much more lively and colourful than Bobby himself. This is because Bobby is ''deliberately'' keeping anyone from getting to know him too well. The other characters keep trying to help Bobby realise that this is ultimately leaving him empty, unfulfilled and lonely.
* WholePlotReference: Or rather, Whole Staging Reference in the 2018 revival to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', with Bobbi being shown climbing through either oversized or undersized versions of her empty apartment to reach each individual vignette.
----
to:
->''"You've got so many reasons for not being with someone, but Robert, you haven't got one good reason for being alone."''
-->--'''Harry'''
''Company'' is an American musical with book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Music/StephenSondheim. The plot revolves around Bobby, a handsome and well-liked single man, the five married couples who are his best friends, and three of his girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, the show consists of short vignettes, presented in no particular chronological order, all linked together by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday. One of its most notable aspects was that it was among the first musicals to deal with more adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, "they are middle-class people with middle class-problems."
The 2018 London production and subsequent 2021 Broadway revival reworks the story to GenderFlip several characters, turning Bobby into a woman named Bobbie, making her love interests men, and turning Amy into a gay man named Jamie. The story is otherwise largely the same.
----
!!''Company'' provides examples of:
* {{Absurdism}}: One of the few musicals clearly influenced by Theatre of the Absurd, with its lack of a conventional plot, BlackComedy {{Deconstruction}} of conventional married life, and cryptic dialogue.
-->"You know, a person like Bob doesn't have the good things, but he doesn't have the bad things, but he doesn't have the good things."
* AdaptationalNameChange: To accommodate the GenderFlip, the 2018 revival changes Bobby to Bobbie, April to Andy, Marta to PJ, Kathy to Theo, and Amy to Jamie.
* AdaptationalSexuality:
** In 2013, a rewritten version was in the works with Bobby as a gay man struggling to commit to one man, though a production of this script never made it to the stage. However, the 2018 and 2020 revivals rewrite Amy as a male character (Jamie), thus turning her fiancée Paul into an openly-gay man.
** In the original script, Peter reveals that he's attracted to men, and asks Bobby about the possibility of them ever getting together. The 2018 revival, however, completely omits this scene, implying that Peter may not be gay in this version.
* AmIJustAToyToYou: Marta, April and Kathy (and PJ, Andy, and Theo) to Bobby/Bobbie.
-->Then you leave a person dangling sadly outside your door\\
Which it only makes a person gladly want you even more
* TheAlcoholic: Bobbie in the 2018 London and later Broadway revival. In the opening scene, she arrives back at her apartment holding a bottle of Maker's Mark, which practically accompanied her along the musical. The piñata at her party's shaped like a bottle of Maker's Mark.
* AloneAmongTheCouples: Central to the plot.
* AmicableExes: An extreme example: by the second act Peter and Susan have gotten divorced but they are still living together and raising the children together, and have found that the divorce has actually strengthened their relationship. They express their happiness but also state that they aren't getting married again when Bobby asks.
** Taken up to eleven in the revival where it's revealed that Susan is pregnant again after the divorce.
** Kathy and Bobby, who used to date, but in their scene together are just friends.
* AnachronicOrder: There is no plot, just a series of vignettes depicting Bobby's relationships with his married friends and his three girlfriends, and the view he gets on love, relationship and marriage from his view of their lives. Consequently, it's unclear when most of the scenes take place in relation to each other, with the exception of the intercut sequences of his birthday party.
* AntiLoveSong: "Sorry-Grateful", downplayed. Bob asks Harry if he's ever sorry that he got married. Harry's answer is a yes, and a no -- he's sorry, and grateful, because married life is very different from being in love.
* ArcNumber: In the 2021 Broadway revival, the number 35 (for Bobbie's birthday) appears in virtually all the sets - as balloons in Bobbie's apartment, a painting in Sarah and Harry's apartment, across all the doors on Peter and Susan's block, and the clock in Paul and Jamie's kitchen is set to 3:05.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: With a little help from Joanne, Bobby actually delivers one to ''himself'':
-->'''Joanne:''' I'll take care of you.\\
'''Bobby:''' But who will I take care of?
* ArmorPiercingResponse: Near the end of Act I, Robert asks Amy to marry him. Amy turns him down, telling him "you have to want to marry ''some''body, not just some''body''."
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In "Poor Baby", as Bobby is seen sleeping with April, the wives are shown saying that he ought to have a woman, but not someone like [[BrainlessBeauty the woman he's with right now]]. They each state their criticisms of her, saying that she's "dumb", "tacky", "vulgar", "odd", etc. [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] complaint? She's "tall enough to be your mother."
* BirthdayHater: Bobbie. The show opens with her taking a shot to “celebrate” her turning thirty-five, and closes with her puncturing the massive 35-shaped balloons in her apartment with a knife, and blowing out the candles on her birthday cake '''with a fire extinguisher'''.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: A sort of meta one is the three most recognizable Joannes: Creator/ElaineStritch, the original, was blonde, Barbara Walsh in the 2006 revival was a brunette, and Creator/PattiLuPone in the 2011 concert version was a redhead.
* {{Bowdlerise}}: "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" originally went, "I could understand a person/If it's not a person's bag./I could understand a person/If a person was a fag." Later productions changed it to, "I could understand a person/If he said to go away./I could understand a person/If he happened to be gay."
* BookEnds: Bobby's 35th birthday party opens and closes each act.
* BrainlessBeauty: April. She is completely aware of the fact.
-->'''April:''' I'm very dumb.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Done quite a few times during the 2011 concert performance. In one scene, Bobby and April treat the conductor like an interior decoration. During "Getting Married Today", Amy goes up to the conductor, takes his baton, and snaps it in half in order to stop the music. And at the end of "Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne literally ''tosses her drink into the audience''.
* BrokenBird:
** Depending on the interpretation, Joanne could be seen as a cynical example: She is an alcoholic who has been twice divorced and is currently on her third husband. She is rather different from Bobby's other friends, spends most of the scenes making occasional snarky remarks, and is shown being extremely critical of both her husband, who clearly loves her with all his heart, and of Bobby. However, Bobby describes her as "warm", and her husband says that her behaviour comes from the fact that she has "no self-esteem". In the end, she also plays something of a mentorly role to Bobby, as she is the one who makes him question what he wants from a relationship.
** Bobbie is desperately searching for something to make her whole.
* BrokenRecord: At the end of "The Ladies Who Lunch", Joanne repeatedly sings the word "rise."
* BSODSong: The second half of "The Ladies Who Lunch", where Joanne realizes that she has wasted her life criticizing others instead of trying to change for the better.
* ChivalrousPervert: Bobby can be played this way, as he is fooling around with multiple women and it's clear that he has no problem with casual sex and one-night stands, but seems to be genuinely kind and caring towards the women he knows and doesn't overstep his bounds with his married female friends. In "What Would We Do Without You?" as his married friends describe him as the perfect friend, they say that he is "a flirt but never a threat".
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Bobbie in the 2018 revival. She wears a bright red jumpsuit (with matching red lingerie), while the rest of the cast (and the set) is in shades of muted grey, black, and white.
* CoordinatedClothes: In the New York Philharmonic production, the married couples are colour-coordinated, with [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518107.jpg Joanne and Larry in black]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_finneranwm17085126518218.jpg Amy and Paul in white and grey]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_plimptonwm17085126518168.jpg Sarah and Harry in red]], [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_cryerwm17085126518175.jpg Jenny and David in yellow]], and [[http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Craig+Bierko+2011+New+York+Philharmonic+Orchestra+VulrO6GdK-Ol.jpg Susan and Peter in pink]]. [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_harriswm17085126518137.jpg Bobby wears blue and brown]], and his solo scenes are all lit with blue light. The lighting of each scene tends to go with the colour scheme of the couple (Joanne and Larry's lighting ending up as [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518099.jpg purple]]), and the pillows on the sofas are changed to match as well.
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Bobby. In ''Side By Side By Side'' his friends comment on how they've gotten older but he seems to stay the same, and at the end Joanne tells him that he's not a kid anymore.
* CompanionCube: Bobbie's bottle of Maker's Mark.
* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: The 1996 revival changed a lyric in "You Can Drive a Person Crazy" that went "I could understand a person if it's not a person's bag / I could understand a person if a person were a fag," to the more respectful "I could understand a person if he said to go away / I could understand a person if he happened to be gay." This wasn't consistent for all later productions, but the majority of productions since then have used the revised lyric.
* DeadpanSnarker: Joanne. She even has an entire song snarking about different types of women.
* DeconfirmedBachelor: Bobby.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: The various sorts of rich, middle-aged women that Joanne describes in "The Ladies Who Lunch." By the third verse, she is also including and describing herself. By the ending, Bobby has a bit of this, too.
* TheDitz: April, who's sweet but none too bright. She's totally aware of and comfortable with this fact.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: Multiple different meanings of the word "company" (as relating to human relationships) are used throughout the show. And then there's the subtextual pun that the cast of a musical is referred to collectively as the "company".
* DrowningMySorrows: Bobbie, especially as she reaches thirty-five. Invoked by Joanne in "The Ladies Who Lunch", directed at Bobbie:
-->'''Joanne:''' And here's to the girls who just watch\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed it's a bottle of scotch\\
Plus a little jest
* DrunkenMontage: The staging of "What Would We Do Without You?", showing Bobbie's party with her friends, and constantly being poured shots of Maker's Mark. It ends with her throwing up in a bucket (held up by Joanne of course).
* DownerEnding: One amateur production infamously ended the show with Robert DrivenToSuicide. Sondheim was not amused.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The opening scene is this for several of the characters. First, it shows Bobby's popularity and his friendship with the couples. Sarah and Harry's competitive and combative relationship is established as they give him their present. Amy's neurotic nature is shown as she presents him with the present from her and Paul. Joanne's cynical and sarcastic nature is shown when she snarks at the other wives and, when one of them asks Bobby who she is, responds thus:
-->'''Joanne:''' That is I, miss. I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* FantasySequence: The entire show - from the moment Robert leaves his voice message up until the final scene - takes place in Robert's head. The big clue is that we keep returning to Robert's 35th birthday party but it plays out differently every time.
** The genderflipped version has Bobbie watch several possible BadFutures play out after she and Andy go together, all represented by various doubles crossing the stage in increasingly tense repetition. Among them is a cold marriage marked by careerism, harried motherhood, the trials of pregnancy- but also the specter of ending up an aging still-single party girl who manages her alcoholism far more poorly than Bobbie does in the presence.
* FieryRedhead: Joanne, as played by [[http://images.bwwstatic.com/upload5/226003/tn-500_luponewm17085126518166.jpg Patti LuPone]] in the 2011 New York Philharmonic production.
* FriendshipSong: "Side By Side By Side/What Would We Do Without You?", Bobby's ode to his married friends and their description of him as the perfect friend, but it's ultimately a subversion as the brief UnDuet moment shows that even though he has friends, Bobby is still, ultimately, alone, and the lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that his married friends use him as something of a crutch to help them through their own marital difficulties.
* GenderFlip: The 2018 London revival reimagines Bobby as a woman (Bobbie), and the three girlfriends are now a trio of boyfriends. Amy has also been reworked as a gay man named Jamie.
* GirlNextDoor: Kathy, Bobby's longtime girlfriend. She is a sweet, wholesome girl from Cape Cod who feels out of place in New York, and Bobby admits that at the beginning of their relationship he wanted to marry her. She admits that she felt the same way before telling him that she's moving back to Cape Cod to get married and have a family.
* GrowingUpSucks: "You're not a kid anymore, Robby! I don't think you'll ever be a kid again, kiddo!"
* HandsomeLech: Bobby can be played this way.
* HappilyMarried: It's very clear that all of the couples have far from fairy-tale marriages, but in the end one is left with the impression that they are, ultimately, happy and fulfilled in their relationships.
* HappyRain: A practical effect causes rain to fall down on Bobbie at the end of “Marry Me a Little”
* HeroicSeductress: Bobbie.
* IWantSong: First, "Someone is Waiting" depicts Bobby's impossible dream of finding the perfect woman, who combines the best parts of all of his female friends. Then in "Marry Me a Little" (cut from the original production but added to the revivals), he expresses a desire for an easy, no-strings marriage, but it's clear that what he's hoping for isn't realistic or sustainable. Finally in "Being Alive" he starts by decrying marriage, but ultimately expresses a strong desire for someone to share his life with.
* IdleRich: In the 2011 New York Philharmonic production, as Bobby describes each of his female friends in "Someone Is Waiting", they are shown each doing their normal household activities, such as reading a magazine or folding children's clothes, but Joanne is shown lounging and staring off into the distance.
* IncrediblyLongNote: "We looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove you." This infamous forty-second-long note (18 in the recording) comes from a peculiarity in the staging of the original production: the note was held for exactly the duration of how long it took the two elevators in Boris Aronson's set to do a complete raise! In other productions, including the 2007 revival, the note is sometimes shortened. The 2011 concert retains the full length.
* IronicBirthday: It's on his 35th birthday that Bobby finally realizes that "alone is alone, not alive" and realizes that he does want commitment.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Joanne is usually played this way. Drunk, sarcastic and abrasive, but she does care about Bobby and Larry (and sometimes, she'll even act like it).
* LadyDrunk: Joanne.
-->'''Joanne:''' What was that clock chime?\\
'''Larry:''' Five-o'-clock.\\
'''Joanne:''' Thank ''God'', cocktail hour!
* {{Leitmotif}}: The descending minor third, most recognisably set to the central character's name: "Bobby". Nearly every melody in the score is based around it, and it occurs frequently as an accompaniment motif. Fitting, as the entire show revolves around Bobby and his being a [[JustForPun third wheel]] to various couples.
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: When Larry is talking about why he loves Joanne so much in spite of her behaviour, he mentions that his mother was a "very difficult woman", suggesting that there's an element of this.
* ListSong: "The Little Things You Do Together" describes the ways that couples interact and the activities they share that can make (or break) a relationship. "The Ladies Who Lunch" describes different sorts of rich, middle-aged women who while away their time trying to escape or ignore their directionless, unfulfilled lives. "Someone Is Waiting" also has Bobby describing the best qualities of all of his married female friends as he imagines what his perfect woman would be like.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: The lyrics of "What Would We Do Without You?" show that Bobby's married friends use him as this to help them through their marital difficulties.
-->What would we do without you?\\
How would we ever get through?\\
Should there be a marital squabble,\\
Available Bob'll\\
Be there with the glue.
* LoveDodecahedron: In addition to his three girlfriends, "Someone is Waiting" shows that Bobby does find all of his married female friends attractive in one way or another, and he is depicted as innocently flirting with them (there's even a line in "What Would We Do Without You?" that states that one of the reasons he is such a good friend is that he is "a flirt but never a threat"). There's also the scene where he proposes to Amy on the spur of the moment, the one where Peter asks him if he's ever had a homosexual experience, and the one where Joanne asks him when they're going to "make it" before suggesting he visit her the next day while her husband is at work and declaring that she'll "take care of him".
* LyricalDissonance:
** While the show we all know and love has some of this, mostly when involving [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne]], the CutSong "Happily Ever After" would have absolutely taken the cake. It's a peppy, cheerful song about how life is dismal and horrible for everyone.
** "The Little Things You Do Together", an incredibly catchy song that shows marriage getting progressively bleaker.
* MinorCharacterMajorSong: "Another Hundred People" for Marta. As noted above, it was written just to showcase Pamela Myers.
* MustHaveNicotine: [[DeadpanSnarker Joanne's]] first line after her epic BSODSong:
-->'''Joanne:''' I would like a cigarette, Larry.
* [[MsFanservice Mr/MsFanservice]]: Andy/April's big scene involves them stripping down before having sex with Bobby.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: How the 2018 revival characterizes PJ, the [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] Marta. He PrefersGoingBarefoot, busks on a street corner, and wears a vest with no shirt.
* NiceGuy: Bobby's a very sweet, charming man, which is partially why all the wives ''adore'' him and really want him to find somebody to settle down with. Larry's also a genuinely pleasant, nice guy who loves Joanne dearly -- even when she's not at her most lovable.
* NoAccountingForTaste: Joanne tends to get practically abusive towards her husband Larry, who makes it clear he still loves her, even if this bothers him.
* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: Whatever it is Bobby/Bobbie does for a living. It must pay well to allow them to afford a large apartment in Manhattan.
* OffTheWagon: Harry claims to be on the wagon, but is seen sneaking sips of bourbon. Meanwhile, his wife Sarah is on a diet but is seen sneaking bites of a brownie.
* OneOfTheGirls: The genderbent revival has Jamie (previously Amy) singing "Have I Got a Guy For You" with the wives, while not joining his husband Paul and the other men in singing "Poor Baby".
* PatterSong:
** A decent amount of "Another Hundred People" is also very fast and wordy.
** Amy's part of "Getting Married Today." It's the second-fastest Broadway song ever written, with an average of 6.2 words per second.
* PerkyGoth: The Marta of the 2006 Broadway revival (played by Angel Desai) came across this way.
* RandomEventsPlot: It started out as a series of one-act plays written by George Furth, so it was easier to just adapt them into a vignette format.
* ReallyGetsAround: Bobby is fooling around with three attractive young women and has had countless other girlfriends.
* RichBitch: Joanne seems to be this, as exemplified by the following quote from the opening scene, but there are a few moments that show a slightly softer side of her. Bobby also describes her as "warm" in "Someone is Waiting."
-->'''Joanne:''' I'm very rich and I'm married to him, and I'd introduce him but I forgot his name.
* RichBoredom: "The Ladies Who Lunch" is Joanne's scathing description of the empty and ultimately meaningless lives of rich, middle-aged women, herself included, and the various ways they try to distract themselves or remain in denial of how unfulfilled they feel.
* SanitySlippageSong:
** "Getting Married Today."
** Some interpretations of "The Ladies Who Lunch", such as [=Patti LuPone's=], have shades of this, especially in the last two verses.
* SerialSpouse: Joanne has been married "three or four times". (According to Bobby, it's three.)
* SettingIntroductionSong: "Another Hundred People", halfway through the first act, describes the city of New York and the busy lives of the people living in and passing through it.
* SettingUpdate: Thanks to the leniency of the script, the show can easily be updated for whatever year (or decade) it's performed in. For example, the 2020 revival is clearly set in today's times, with selfies and social media playing a role in the story. The nightclub that Joanne and Bobbie go to even plays a dubstep remix of the title song.
* SexEqualsLove: Averted; the difference is explored in "Tick-Tock."
* SexGod: Bobbie in the 2018 London revival. Confirmed by PJ, Theo, and Andy in "You Could Drive a Person Crazy."
-->'''Andy''': She's ''good!''\\
'''PJ and Theo''': No shit!
* SexyStewardess: April, especially when played by Creator/ChristinaHendricks. And Andy, her [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] counterpart. He emerges in one scene with Bobbie's panties in his mouth.
* SlapSlapKiss: Sarah and Harry's scene involves them continuously contradicting each other before getting into a definitely-not-playful karate demonstration, but ends with this:
-->'''Sarah:''' I'll turn out the lights. I always do.\\
'''Harry:''' No you don't.\\
'''Sarah:''' Oh Harry, I love you.
* SmallStartBigFinish: "Being Alive" starts at speaking volume and gets bigger and bigger as the song goes on, eventually reaching full on belt at the line "But alone, is alone, not alive" and continues in this manner until the end.
* SmokingIsCool: It was made in the 70's so several of the characters smoke. The most notable is Joanne (in the DVD of the 2011 concert version, you can see that her cigarettes are Pall Malls) who states that smoking is "the best", and who mocks Bobby for saying that he "meant to" smoke but never did, pointing out that that statement sums up his life and his lack of resolve and commitment.
* SmokingIsNotCool: Bobby/Bobbie, who refuses to join Joanne after "The Ladies Who Lunch." They will smoke marijuana though (and Bobbie vapes in the 2018 revival).
-->'''Bobby/Bobbie''': I do not smoke. My age group is a very uptight age group.
* StarterMarriage: Joanne's first marriage happened when she was just out of college, and apparently lasted only a year, until her husband announced that he wanted to move back to Chicago and she refused. As she tells Bobby:
-->'''Joanne:''' I was too young, but I was old enough to know where I was living, and I had no intention of leaving New York.
* StepfordSmiler: Bobby. To begin with he appears genial, charming and pleasantly baffled by his "crazy" married friends. As the show wears on it becomes clear that he spends time with them because he's desperately lonely, but also scared of being emotionally vulnerable.
* StepfordSnarker: Joanne could be seen as an example, depending on the interpretation. She is a snarky, abrasive alcoholic who has been divorced twice. Her current husband, Larry, says that she is "wildly conceited" with "no self-esteem", and that she still is unable to believe that he loves her and continues to be fascinated by her. Her song, "The Ladies Who Lunch", starts as her critique of rich middle-aged women who while away their lives with meaningless activities but turns into a scathing description of her own directionless life.
* StonersAreFunny: The scene with Jenny and David.
* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion:
** Although it's not used for comedic effect, there is one in ''Poor Baby'':
--->There's no one\\
In his life,\\
Robert ought to have a woman...
** There's another one that ''is'' used for comic effect at the end of "Barcelona", the morning after Bobby and April have slept together and she is getting ready to leave to be on a flight to Barcelona. Bobby makes the usual false pleas that she stay, clearly wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, leading to this exchange:
--->'''April:''' That's not to say\\
That if I had my way...\\
Oh, well...I guess...okay!\\
'''Bobby:''' What?\\
'''April:''' I'll stay!\\
'''Bobby:''' But...oh ''God!''
* SurpriseParty: The show starts (and [[BookEnds ends]]) with the surprise party Bobby's married friends have thrown for his 35th birthday.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: [[http://orlandotheater.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/walsh-company.jpg Joanne]], as played by Barbara Walsh in the 2006 Broadway revival.
* TheElevenOClockNumber: "Being Alive."
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Joanne gives a minor one to Bobby in the scene following "The Ladies Who Lunch":
--->'''Bobby:''' I never smoked.\\
'''Joanne:''' Why not?\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't know. I meant to, does that count?\\
'''Joanne:''' "Meant to"? "Meant to"? Story of your ''life'', "meant to". Jesus, you were lifted right out of a Kraft-Ebbing case history. You were always outside staring in the window while everyone was inside dancing at the party. Now, I insist you smoke. Here, Rob, smoke. \\
'''Bobby:''' No thank you. You smoke. I'll watch.\\
'''Joanne:''' "Watch"? Did you hear yourself? Did you hear what you just said, kiddo? ''"Watch"!'' I'm offering you the chance to-\\
'''Bobby:''' I don't want one!\\
'''Joanne:''' Because you're ''weak!'' I hate people who are ''weak!''
** The third verse of [[BSODSong "The Ladies Who Lunch"]] could also be seen as Joanne giving one to ''herself'':
--->And here's to the girls who just watch--\\
Aren't they the best?\\
When they get depressed,\\
It's a bottle of Scotch,\\
Plus a little jest.\\
Another chance to disapprove,\\
Another brilliant zinger,\\
Another reason not to move,\\
Another vodka stinger.\\
''(screamed)'' I'll drink to that!
* ThreeFacesOfEve: Bobby's girlfriends – April is the Child, Marta is the Seductress, and Kathy is the Wife.
* ThreesomeSubtext: While his relationship with his married friends seems to be completely platonic, in "Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You?" Bobby talks about how his married friends are all he needs and the couples talk about what a perfect friend he is and how his presence helps them through all of their marital difficulties.
* TimePassesMontage: Overlaps with AnxietyDreams; the staging of "Tick-Tock", showing Bobbie settling down, getting married, having children, growing old, fat and frazzled (and constantly having to put the toilet seat back down) with Andy the flight attendant.
* TitleDrop: As with many musicals, the opening song.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Joanne and her vodka stingers. Bobby also seems to have a fondness for bourbon. Bobbie and Maker's Mark in the 2018 revival, as a giant bottle appears at one point in the vignettes.
* UnDuet: A brief one appears in "What Would We Do Without You?".
* VanillaProtagonist: Invoked. The married couples and the girlfriends come across as much more lively and colourful than Bobby himself. This is because Bobby is ''deliberately'' keeping anyone from getting to know him too well. The other characters keep trying to help Bobby realise that this is ultimately leaving him empty, unfulfilled and lonely.
* WholePlotReference: Or rather, Whole Staging Reference in the 2018 revival to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', with Bobbi being shown climbing through either oversized or undersized versions of her empty apartment to reach each individual vignette.
----
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trope is renamed Prefers Going Barefoot. Dewicking old name
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* NewAgeRetroHippie: How the 2018 revival characterizes PJ, the [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] Marta. He DoesNotLikeShoes, busks on a street corner, and wears a vest with no shirt.
to:
* NewAgeRetroHippie: How the 2018 revival characterizes PJ, the [[GenderFlip gender flipped]] Marta. He DoesNotLikeShoes, PrefersGoingBarefoot, busks on a street corner, and wears a vest with no shirt.
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Is now YMMV, so moving to that page.
[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Picture_29.png]]
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* RefrainFromAssuming: Amy's song is actually titled "Getting Married Today" but is often misreferred to as "Not Getting Married Today".
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** Kathy and Bobby, who used to date, but in their scene together are just friends.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope
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** Taken UpToEleven in the revival where it's revealed that Susan is pregnant again after the divorce.
to:
** Taken UpToEleven up to eleven in the revival where it's revealed that Susan is pregnant again after the divorce.
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* ArcNumber: In the 2021 Broadway revival, the number 35 (for Bobbie's birthday) appears in virtually all the sets - as balloons in Bobbie's apartment, a painting in Sarah and Harry's apartment, across all the doors on Peter and Susan's block, and the clock in Paul and Jamie's kitchen is set to 3:05.
