Rice University’s Wiess Tabletop Theatre will present “Company” at 8 p.m. April 17-19 in the Wiess Commons (6340 Main St.). The show is free to Rice students, and others can attend for a $5 general admission fee.
“Company” is a musical created by librettist George Furth and composer Stephen Sondheim. The show first premiered on Broadway in 1970 and was so acclaimed that it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won six, a record at the time. “Company” is considered one of the first popular concept musicals.
Director Auggie Schwarz explained the logic that led to selecting the show for this year’s production.
“What really spoke to me about ‘Company’ was that even though it’s about a 35-year-old man, somehow all of his struggles and the struggles of the couples in the show related to things that I feel just as a 20-year-old,” Schwarz said. “It was really odd that I felt such a connection to him. It’s an amazingly written show. The music is really great, the book is really great, and it felt like the right time to put it on.”
“Company” follows Bobby, who is single and surrounded by married people, on the eve of his 35th birthday. Instead of a linear story, in a series of disparate scenes Bobby watches the interaction of his married friends and debates whether or not to settle down himself. “Company” may not have a traditional plot, but what it does have are songs that are now musical theater anthems such as “Being Alive,” “Not Getting Married Today” and “The Ladies Who Lunch.”
Wiess Tabletop Theatre will present an augmented format for the show. Instead of a traditional proscenium theater, the audience will sit on three sides of the stage, and the cast members will fill the fourth side.
“Whenever audiences see the show, all of the cast creates the back half of the audience,” Schwarz said. “They’re in the audience the entire show. They come down from the audience [during their scenes]. They are allowed to react to the scenes going on and are allowed to actually watch the show and engage with it. There is a lot of audience interaction, because we are sort of inviting the audience to be a part of Bobby’s audience in some way.
“Bobby is unaware of the audience being there, which plays into the idea of Bobby being unable to change and being unable to look inside himself and reflect, and that is explored later in the show through his actual interactions with the audience.”
The cast includes George Bickham, Claire Dean, Paola Hoffman, Sofija Jiotis, Michael Li, Ella Martinez, Birdie McCain, Bella Mendoza, Julian Puerto, Elbread Roh, Belén Szentes, Celeste Uribe, Emma Vasilakopoulos, Matthew Yim and Jeffrey Youngson.
The technical crew includes Matthew Bischoff, Noah Chelius, Harrison Conway, Aidan Davenport, Shelby Flavin-Rosales, Jonathan Goldfeder, Ellis Ibizugbe, Emily Man, Ava McClung and Lucas Williams.
The artistic team includes Kelly Dahlin, Davenport, Abigail Grayson, Ibizugbe, John Israel, Flavin-Rosales, Puerto, Emily Quin, Ell Roseborrough, Dorsa Sattari Khavas, Schwarz, Oliver Szabo, Williams and Youngson.
The orchestra includes Kelley Briggs, Daniela Bonscher, Andy Corliss, Maria Angelica Hernandez, Connie Huang, Hong Lin Tsai, Adina Olson, Emma Phipatanakul, Thomas Pickell, Charles Dyall, Elise Stewart and Szabo.
For more information about Wiess Tabletop Theatre, visit instagram.com/wiesstabletoptheatre.