Company
Reviewed by Steven Leigh Morris
Long Beach Playhouse
Through August 7
Despite the actors’ 21st century haircuts and designer Christina Bayer’s era-fluid costumes, Sean Gray’s production of the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth 1970 musical, Company, is a vestibule of the 20th century, more by omitting the gender issues that evolved over the past half century in faithfulness to the original libretto and music. In this regard, the Long Beach Playhouse itself, where it’s being presented, is a kind of museum of recent history that nonetheless feels so, so long ago. As in any museum experience, it serves as a measure of where we’ve come – not how far we’ve come, which is far too optimistic for our times; more like the ditch where we’ve landed. How did we get here? Long Beach Playhouse’s Company provides a window onto that.
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Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 7 pm; thru Aug. 7. https://lbplayhouse.org Playing time 2 hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
