REVIEW: Company – Edinburgh Fringe C Venue C

Director: Dominic Hill

The Public Reviews Rating: 

Bobby is 35 and in the opinion of his friends and multiple girlfriends it’s high time he settled down. As he watches the couples around him disintegrate, the single guy wonders: Is this worth giving up my life for?

One Academy, the production arm of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, take on Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning look at relationships in Company, bringing a freshness and life to this classic.

As Bobby analyses his way through the relationships in his life, this highly polished company remind us why Sondheim is hailed as a genius, and the Conservatoire lauded for producing the best new talent. The quality and class of this production just shines through: they deliver a sound of richness and depth that does full justice to the multi-layered music that defines Sondheim. As Bobby, Douglas Walker gets to play one of the most iconic roles in musical theatre and does so with believable emotion, but this isn’t a one man show, this soul-searching piece is brimming with witty and sharply written songs which give the rest of the cast ample opportunity to shine and they do, in particular Kylie McMahon who gets to deliver the show-stopping ‘Getting Married Today’.

Where the production falls down is the set and costumes don’t represent the upper middle class New Yorkers that Sondheim wrote this piece for, but his message is still loud and clear: life is a journey to find what’s right for you, not what others want for you.

There’s so much here to delight, there’s never a dull moment musically, it’s brilliantly written and this cast is absolutely teeming with talent and despite being written in 1970 it’s as fresh and relevant as the day it was written.

A must-see production.

Runs until 27^th August