AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

info-12388 I had a hard time deciding whether to give this mess one star or two, then decided, thanks for the holiday season, to bump it up... but no higher.Poor Stephen Sondheim. This much ballyhooed revival consists of the cast, each playing an instrument (except, of course, for Robert! -- think Concept, people!), as they also sing and dance through one of Sondheim's most brilliant scores. The original production had the added benefit of Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations, while this has the thinness of sound that suggests a dress rehearsal with a proxy orchestra cobbled together while we wait for the real thing to get changed and appear in the pit.It is, in a word, dreadful. The opening number is staged not unlike a marching band encircling the woefully miscast actor playing Bobby. While they stumble (in some cases, literally) through the music, he does his level best to sing. Were this a UFC battle, he would have bludgeoned the score to a pulpy mass; as it is, he just sings, and we all cringe in response.Were that not bad enough, we have to suffer through John Doyle's remarkably inept staging, in which everyone circles and circles and circles around the centre column that makes up most of the "set", if one can call it that. The design is remarkably unimaginative, especially when seen in comparison to Boris Aaronson's original design, and the pitch black backdrop (or at least it looked that way under the highly focused lighting) simply swallows up the nearly all-black costumes, reducing everyone to disembodied hands and heads holding their instruments as they march ever more in circles around and around and around.The actor (and I use the term loosely here) playing Bobby does so on a single emotional note... until, as one might expect, the Big Emotional Outburst at the End, in which he *finally* sits at the damn piano and starts to play. I suppose this is the Moment Doyle had planned for all evening, but it comes off flat and anti-climactic, with Bobby coming close to a 40s femme fatale crying jag as he "breaks through the emotional wall separating him from the rest of the company" (Get it now?). It's thoroughly unbelievable.That this won Best Revival simply suggests that it was a lousy year for revivals. That this got any kind of critical acclaim suggests that it was a lousy year for critics in desperate need of *something* they could enjoy, no matter how awful it might be. That this is available on DVD is an insult and a sop to the many Sondheim fans who can never see Harold Prince's original production. This, by comparison, is an embarrassment.

johnstonjames I was surprised to find out the book for this play was so old. it really seems like something written in this decade it's so hip and funny.Sondheim said he wrote this for the upper middle class to enjoy. i think it's more for single people than anyone else. you don't have to have money or prestige in life to appreciate this. it's all very real and human.Raul Esparza is incredible here. boy can this guy sing! i wonder what his vocal training is because this guy could probably do opera. not to mention he has an adorable, winning personality. he brings a cute,vulnerable waif-like quality to his performance as Bobby. i don't know how cute the other Bobby's in other productions were but this guy is the peach of sweetness and cuteness. i don't mean that in a gay sort of way either. he's no he-man or hunk, but that's perfect. as a man i am sick and tired of all the macho B---S--t that is out there as role models for men. i don't really relate to macho anymore than feminist relate to traditional female role models. men should liberate themselves. i'm not exactly cute and sweet myself, but i wish i was, it's so likable. Raul Esparza is a great role model for men. RELAX. there's nothing wrong with a guy being adorable,cuddly and vulnerable like Esparza. i've had many women say they like men to be that way and cut the mean spirited macho crap.i would love to be just like Raul Esparza. a cute, cuddly little smurf.

lord_tortise001 I first watched this movie several months ago, and I didn't particularly understand the ending (which I won't elaborate on). I watched it a second time, loved it throughly! Steven Sondheim has truly made one of the most beautiful musical masterpieces, really all of his works to so. This music is enthralling, the cast is top notch, the musicians (also the cast) is superb. The direction incorporates the instruments so well, they mesh them into the setting so well that you hardly notice, and you think that all shows should be like this (though they should not, this one just seems to become so much better with it). The sets and props, minimal though they are, are great!A wonderful way to spend two hours.

Tom DeFelice Second rate cast. Third rate production. Fourth rate concept.I have the highest praise for "Company" as a musical. Smart dialog. Witty songs. The idea of creating a musical based not on a story (it doesn't have one), but on the concept of interpersonal relationships was ground breaking. This is one of Stephen Sondheim's best! In this production the cast plays all the musical instruments. I guess that saved on paying for an orchestra. What we end up with is a group of performers who must be actor/singer/musician. That is asking a lot. And not one person in the cast is good at all three. We end up with the actors delivering lines while holding on to their musical instruments. To be true to the musical they would also have to dance. The director has saved them from that be removing all the dancing. "Tic-Toc" is gone and "Side-by-side-by-side" looses its punch.The star/director also includes a solo for himself at the end of act one that did not make it to Broadway and for good reason. It's a nice song, but it diminishes the impact of Robert's singing "Being Alive" at the end of act two."Company" deserves better treatment than this production. Just watch the DVD of the making of the Original Broadway Cast album and you will see the potential. It is great that "Company" is finally out on DVD. It is sad that this is the production they give us.