Life is ‘Company’

What’s even more amazing is that it remains relevant for college students in 2010, 40 years after its debut. Princeton University Players proved that with its recent production, directed by Dave Holtz ’10 and starring Billy Hepfinger ’10. Much was made about this production not being relevant to Princeton, but it’s actually hard to see how it isn’t. In a word, the show is about commitment.

Of course, the sheer artistic value of the show should be enough. Unlike the work of Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein or Andrew Lloyd Weber, Sondheim doesn’t write “normal” Broadway songs. His numbers are witty, insightful and nearly impossible to sing. The result is that they pack an emotional punch rivaled by few other writers.

One barrier to the powerful message of “Company” is its somewhat untraditional structure. It lacks a plot, per se. Instead, it is a “concept musical” of many characters and no single storyline. Sondheim and George Furth, the librettist, play with all of the rules of musical theater. Songs don’t tell a tale — as they might in “The Music Man” — but they do paint portraits of the characters. For a musical aficionado, this only makes “Company” a historic turning point. For casual theater-goers, it can be imposing.

But beyond — or in spite of — the structure, the themes are timeless. Amy struggles with commitment, Paul with Amy’s hesitation to love him as much as he loves her, Jenny with “keeping up” with the cool parents, Peter with his sexual identity, Sarah with dieting and Harry with a drinking problem. Joanne struggles with life, and her husband tries to understand just why he loves her so much despite her rage. These problems, if not exactly our own, are surely sympathetic.

Though all of the characters have their problems, the show is truly about Robert. The director and the ‘Prince’ review both point out that “Company” is about love, growing up and risk. They’re right, but to be even more explicit, “Company” is a show about fully committing. And though commitment is purely romantic in “Company,” the theme is broader than just love, extending to anything personal in our lives. (Also, consider this a “spoiler alert” — though the show is even better on subsequent viewings. Read on at your own risk, at any rate).

Bobby isn’t just trying to get someone to marry him. He’s coming to grips with an entire idea. At least outwardly, he talks non-stop about how he’s ready to marry, but the right girl just isn’t there yet (perhaps a “Susan sort of Sarah, a Jenny-ish Joanne” would do the trick, he ruminates in Act I). But when everyone around him ends up married or committed, more or less happily, and he faces yet another meaningless sexual relationship, he finally realizes what commitment means. In the final song, he embraces it fully, not tentatively as he does at the end of the first act. As much as the media makes a big deal of falling marriage rates and rising divorce rates, this has to be a sympathetic question to all of us in some way.

In fact, Robert is surely a relatable character as he shies away from a committed lifestyle. It is, after all, a huge choice. And it’s not entirely clear what you get — to borrow Robert’s words — from commitment. His friends prod him and endlessly set him up with new girls, but he lets what is perhaps his most meaningful relationship slip away. Instead, he’s left with a dim-witted if well-meaning girl, and Marta. Marta is ... fun, as Robert puts it. But even though his friends worry, they realize that the final decision must be Robert’s.

That is another key point: Even though they see what Robert should see, and eventually does see, it is Robert himself who must get the “door open,” to borrow Joanne’s words. Beyond that door are strange relationships like those of his friends, and doubts about what the good life is. Nevertheless, he comes to accept that beyond that door is “someone you have to let in” and someone “who’ll ruin your sleep.”

Commitment is a theme that resonates through the arches and halls of Princeton, in 1970 or 2010. But it’s not just about love or marriage. It’s about anything in our lives that’s truly important. That’s what has to resonate with a senior choosing a job. That’s what has to resonate with a sophomore choosing a major. Peter says, “Don’t be afraid it won’t be perfect,” be afraid that it won’t happen at all. That’s what Robert finally realizes, what even Joanne realizes and what makes “Company” a perfect show for the college campus.

Brian Lipshutz is a sophomore from Lafayette Hill, Pa. He can be reached at lipshutz@princeton.edu.