Company

For the second instalment in the big "Sondheim Celebration," the Kennedy Center has gone back to the engaging 1970 Company, which received 15 Tony nominations and came through with seven wins, catapulting Sondheim into the pantheon of musical theater. Whereas the Broadway original had a set (by Boris Aronson) that emphasized the vertical and featured two elevators, Derek McLane here has devised an enveloping metallic set that emphasizes the horizontal: it presents an aerial view of several New York skyscrapers, with shifting projections on a large upstage screen.

The work is based on a series of playlets by George Furth. The resulting musical has no linear plot but instead offers a batch of almost interchangeable vignettes involving Robert (John Barrowman), a 35-year-old bachelor, and his friends -- five couples and three single gals. To wed or not to wed, that is the question. The couples have their difficulties -- alcoholism, overeating, pot-smoking, panic attacks, impending divorce -- but the idea is that emotional commitment to someone beats being alone. There is a little text bowdlerization and the omission of a chunk of dialogue between Robert and Peter, along with the absence of Robert's song, "Marry Me a Little."

Barrowman makes a handsome Robert, though he does not have as much charisma as needed. He has a fine singing voice, but his rendition of the concluding "Being Alive" falls far short of the shattering impact provided by Adrian Lester in his 1996 Olivier Award-winning London performance. Two of the women offer the best work: Alice Ripley, using a kitchen toaster as a mirror, is delightful as the altar-shy Amy; and Marcy Harriell's Marta, popping up out of the subway, dazzles with her energetic "Another Hundred People." Lynn Redgrave's Joanne, alas, is a disappointment; she is not really a singer, and her "Ladies Who Lunch" serves only to make one hanker for Elaine Stritch on Broadway or Sheila Gish in London. Not to be overlooked are the 25 musicians in the pit, playing Jonathan Tunick's marvelous orchestrations under the baton of Tunick himself.