Re-re-review: Company, Gielgud Theatre

I can’t keep away from Marianne Elliott’s award-winning Company, and it richly repays the rewatching

“A festive atmosphere pervades the room”

Hot on the heels of its double Evening Standard-award winning weekend, Company remains in sparkingly good form. And from the seats in the dress circle box (a bargainous £20 if you can find ’em), the slightly restricted view matters not a jot as the extreme proximity means you have something of the intimacy of watching a show at the Donmar. Which in a show of this quality means that there’s all sorts of detail that you can see, which isn’t immediately apparent from the back of the stalls.

Some of my key revelations from this visit (not necessarily restricted to things that we discovered by being close) :

  • it’s Daisy Maywood who plays the priest. D’oh!
  • just how cutting Joanne’s “and here’s to the girls who just watch…” is as she directs it straight to Bobbie
  • the way that LuPone basically freestyles the opening of ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ makes it feel different everytime
  • and by god, those mmm-hmms…
  • the silkiness of Jonny Bailey’s hips
  • and just how frigging heartbreaking the wedding breakfast scene actually is, so well acted
  • and those pink trainers!
  • the full intricacy of Liam Steel’s choreography and how it navigates such tight spaces with real elegance
  • the chemistry between the cast is palpable from all the shared looks you can see up close (plus Ben Lewis is a winker…)
  • they’ve obviously worked on velcroing the big 3 and 5 to the walls so that they don’t go haywire in ‘Side By Side…’

Previous reviews of the show can be found here and here. And those seats really are great for rewatching the show from, getting to see how bloody well-acted this show is is a real treat, Craig is worth the award she has got and the ones she has yet to receive and I really hope that the Broadway transfer takes her with it. I don’t think this will be the last we hear of this show on this blog…

Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (with interval)
Photo: Brinkhoff Mogenburg
Company is booking at the Gielgud Theatre until 30th March

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