YMMV / Company (Sondheim)

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Bobby is gay. Sondheim and Furth have stated that the reason Bobby hasn't been able to settle down is not because he's a closeted gay man, but for a while there was talk of a rewritten version where Bobby is openly gay and struggling to commit to one man. Since the original production though, there have been hints that Bobby is at least bicurious, as the current libretto has him admit to Peter that he's had a homosexual experience, though he laughs off the idea of him and Peter having one. Additionally, the genderbent Broadway revival had Bobbie swipe right on a woman using a dating app.
  • Exactly how serious Joanne is when she suggests that she and Bobby have an affair varies from production to production, especially depending on how much chemistry the actors involved have. Her comment "I just did someone a big favor" hints that she never intended to actually do it and was indeed hoping to illicit the reaction she got from Bobby, but it's worth noting that she is drunk when she suggests it.
  • Almost the entire show takes place inside Bobby's head, so there's a lot of ambiguity over whether we're seeing his friends as they actually are or as how Bobby sees them. For example, in "Poor Baby", do the wives really spend their nights worrying about their handsome, single male friend, or does Bobby just like to think that they do? Are they really that judgemental of his girlfriends, or is Bobby using their perceived criticisms as yet another excuse to avoid becoming emotionally vulnerable in his relationships?
  • Why do Peter and Susan get divorced, given that they remain close and actually seem happier than ever? Peter flirts with Bobby, implying that they're splitting up because he's gay. If so, that raises the question of whether Susan is just taking it very well, knew the whole time and was willingly The Beard, or might actually be queer herself. On the other hand, some stagings imply they're still a couple in everything except on paper—maybe they're still in love, but marriage wasn't for them. They might also be polyamorous, deciding to divorce but remain together and each seek other partners as well. Peter says he won't be moving out because he doesn't want to be apart from their kids or from Susan, but it's unclear whether they're still romantically linked or if they've settled into Platonic Life-Partners. Bobby's reactions imply he has no idea what their deal is, either.
• Award Snub: Raul Esparza was nominated for, but did not win, a Tony for Best Leading Actor in 2006. Many, if not all, Broadway fans still consider this to be an absolute travesty. (David Hyde Pierce won instead for a now near forgotten musical called Curtains.)
• Awesome Music: It's Sondheim, so there's quite an abundance, but "Being Alive", "The Ladies Who Lunch", "Marry Me a Little", and "Another Hundred People" are all showstopping pieces. "Getting Married Today" is also incredible, if for no other reason than the amount of effort and breath control required to keep up with the Motor Mouth verses.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Joanne seems to be very popular. Having been originated by Elaine Stritch and since then played by the likes of Patti LuPone helps, in addition to the fact that she is a Deadpan Snarker with a great many hilarious lines, and her song The Ladies Who Lunch is one of the best known numbers from the show, and can easily bring down the house.
  • Christina Hendricks' portrayal of April in the 2011 concert version was extremely well received as well, with her monologue actually stopping the show as the audience laughed and cheered.
• Crossover Ship: Bobby and Charley from another Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along.
• Fan-Preferred Couple - There is next to no Company fanfiction, but most of what little there is pairs Bobby with Joanne.
• Genius Bonus: Joanne comments that smoking is "the best", saying that it's "better than Librium". Librium was a precursor to Valium, a sedative/muscle relaxant/anti-convulsant/anti-anxiety drug, mostly prescribed short term for anxiety. You know what else it's prescribed for? Acute alcohol withdrawal.
• Growing the Beard: Sondheim has said that Company was the show where he really found his voice as a composer; after hearing the first orchestra rehearsal of the opening number, he thought, "Oh, that's who I am." The score also won him his first Tony Awards (for both music and lyrics), finally establishing him as Broadway's leading composer after years when he had been mostly in demand for lyrics only.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Dean Jones, who played Bobby, left the show early because of his divorce feeling the show's subject was too close to home. Even though he could have left earlier, he later admitted to having a mini epiphany on stage during the Boston Previews, specifically during the bleak Happily Ever After finale, which prompted him to leave as soon as he could.
• Refrain from Assuming: Amy's song is actually titled "Getting Married Today" but is often misreferred to as "Not Getting Married Today".
• Signature Song: "Being Alive" and "The Ladies Who Lunch", and to a lesser extent "Side By Side By Side" and "Another Hundred People."
• Tear Jerker: "Being Alive." Amy's Wham Line of "I don't love you enough" when she (briefly) attempts to call off the wedding to Paul - as well as Paul's reaction which, in most productions, consists of him blatantly trying his hardest not to cry while asking Bobby to call the church and explain the situation before stumbling out of the room as though he's just been punched - can very easily be this if done right. It's even more impressive that this comes towards the end of what's arguably one of the funniest scenes in the show.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Robert is dating three women at the same time and never gets called out for it. Of course, the show doesn't say he's in the right, and it's shown that none of them are actually healthy relationships, with both parties in all three being unhappy.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The original version of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" had the following lyric sung by the three women:
    I could understand a person
    If it's not a person's bag
    I could understand a person
    If a person was a fag
  • In the 1990s, Sondheim (himself gay) rewrote the lyric:
    I could understand a person
    If he said to go away
    I could understand a person
    If he happened to be gay
  • Given men in their thirties no longer face the same kind of pressure to be married or in a committed relationship nowadays, modernized revivals have changed up the character of Bobby to make the concept still work without portraying the events in the past. A production in Spain starring Antonio Banderas now put Bobby in his fifties where steady relationships are much more expected, and the West End (followed by a Broadway run) famously made Bobby a woman, with a noticeable emphasis on the biological clock of having to settle down.
• The Woobie:
  • Bobby, especially by the end. The wives even sing a song about him called "Poor Baby."
  • April can come off as this as well. Bobby pretty explicitly uses her for sex and she's put down by all the wives, despite coming off as a sweet, if dim, woman.
  • Jamie/Amy who has such low self esteem that they find it too hard to believe that their adoring husband loves them. They're also implied to have panic attacks of the nature seen in the wedding scene on a constant basis. Jamie in the revival has the added layer of suffering from internalised homophobia.
  • Joanne could also be viewed this way, similar to Jamie/Amy she finds it hard to believe that she is loved to the point of packing up her things twice a year just so Larry will ask her to stay. Not to mention her previous divorces.
  • Though the wedding happens anyway, its still hard not to feel bad for Paul when Amy/Jamie calls it off on the day of. He calmly and lovingly tries to calm down his betrothed, but eventually gives up and sadly walks away to tell everyone the ceremony is cancelled.