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I've been thinking about "Company" all week--postponed, now, because of coronavirus. A few discoveries:

*Larry Kert won a Tony nomination for Bobby even though he didn't originate the role. (Dean Jones did the first few shows, then quickly dropped out.) To grant a nomination to a replacement cast member is strange; I'm not sure it has happened at other times.

*Sondheim said that Broadway audiences wanted escapism, and he was giving audiences the precise opposite of what they wanted. "Company" was a ticket-buyer's contemporary life--thrown back in that ticket-buyer's face. A little aggressive, but also inspiring. Your contemporary life is worthy of dramatization! (Even the subtext has subtext!)

*Who would think to make an opening number out of these apparently banal phrases? "Drop by any time...." "Bobby, we've been trying to call you...." "Bobby, baby, Robert, darling, Bobby, love....."

There's an obligatory thing for gay men--the "Sondheim saved my life" essay. Ben Brantley sort of offers one in the Times today. Tituss Burgess has done his own version of one. When I was a high schooler, I would play the LaChanze version of "Company" over and over again. So very, very grateful.....
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