Sondheim classic gets a gay makeover
The beloved 1970 musical Company about marriage and commitment by gay composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim is being re-worked into a version featuring a gay man as the central protagonist.
In its original form, Company‘s main character Bobby is a 35-year-old single man living in New York, and the musical follows Bobby’s interactions with his married friends and his girlfriends.
The revision is being helmed by Tony Award-winning director John Tiffany and Sondheim himself, who is reworking elements of the dialogue and lyrics to fit the new conceit.
Actors attached to the project at the preliminary stage include Daniel Evans as Bobby, Michael Urie, and Alan Cumming as a gender-reversed version of Joanne, the character originally played by Broadway legend Elaine Stritch who sings the showstopping number ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’.
Sondheim and the musical’s now-deceased book writer George Furth have for years denied Bobby was originally conceived as a closeted gay man, but that hasn’t stopped endless readings of Company as a story about a man struggling with sexuality.
The New York-based Roundabout Theatre Company is currently looking at picking up the revised musical as a full production.
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