A 1970 show about a 35-year-old man facing disppproval and worry from his friends over his single status has little relevance in 2018.
Gender flip Bobby into Bobbie and suddenly (and sadly) it exposes how much and how little has changed since then.
Marianne Elliott’s dazzlingly smart production revives the Sondheim classic from a period piece to a brash and bold examination of love, relationships, hypocricy and social one-upmanship in 2018.
It must be practically impossible for the glorious Lupone not to steal the scene in any show, but she is surrounded by an agile and bright cast which brings this show back to life, mining every scene for laughter and painful truths.
Of course, like so many fans, I waited the entire show for Lupone to deliver the iconic Ladies Who Lunch and she did not disappoint. Less abrasive and bitter than than the legendary Elaine Stritch version, it becomes a world-weary anthem to survival and sass.
I’ll drink to that.
However, the show is primarily an ensemble piece, with five couples circling poor confused Bobbie. They shine in unison on the unsettling Side By Side By Side and the cuttingly witty The Little Things You Do Together.
Former Great British Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc is already the best known Brit on stage, but she impresses as the passive-aggressive Sarah, while Gavin Spokes brings a beautiful voice and appealing resignation to her put-upon husband, Harry.
The undeniable scene-stealing rival to Lupone, though, is Jonathan Bailey’s Jamie – Amy in the original version. Now one half of a gay couple, he is relentlessly neurotic on the show-stopping Not Getting Married. Combined with the extraordinarily clever and inventive staging, the song brought the house down and raised the biggest cheer of the night.
The other familiar face on stage is Richard Fleeshman as one of Bobbie’s three suitors, now flipped to men. He is delightfully gauche as the clueless (some might say thick) but buff flight attendant Andy, excelling with physical comedy in Bobbie’s nightmarish Tick Tock.
The former Corrie child star is now a seasoned West End performer and is joined by his two love rivals for the wonderful You Could Drive A Person Crazy, as it becomes a close-harmony barbershop trio treat – and far less uncomfortably sexiest, too.
Rosalie Craig has nabbed the West End role of the year and she brings an intelligent and cool reading to the role, if not one that completely won me over. She is brittle and bright on Someone Is Waiting and prettily plaintive on Marry Me A Little.
I understand this is a well-conceived and smart take on a traditionally difficult and unsympathetic character but it just didn’t quite connect for me. It felt a tiny bit clinical. The climactic Being Alive was cleanly and elegantly sung but it lacked the guts and final desperation to feel something, anything.
I’d take the raw Bernadette Peters concert recital version anyday, but then that would require two huge divas on stage at once, and perhaps not even the West End is big enough for that.
Special note should also go to Bunny Christie’s striking set. A series of boxes for rooms and apartments roleld on and off stage, shrinking and expanding with the themes and emotions on display. One particularly marvellous moment saw them transformed into subway carriages during Another Hundred People.
Cool pale grey and cream tones were punctured with vivid pink and blue neon as Sondheim’s impossibly smart and perceptive score pierced the heart of human frailties with renewed bite and brio.
RATING: 4 stars.
Company is on at the Gielgud Theatre, currently booking until March 30.