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| Company | 
 enlarge | Director: John Doyle
Actor: Raul Esparza
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Category: DVD
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $15.50
You Save: $9.49 (38%)
New (41) Used (11) from $15.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 1705
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Enhanced, Ntsc, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 132
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: ID4480EKDVD
UPC: 014381448023
EAN: 0014381448023
ASIN: B0014IC31G
Theatrical Release Date: February 20, 2008
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Five Star Seller!!! New, factory sealed US Region 1 DVD. Item is 100% guaranteed not to be a bootleg or import. Item is shipped directly from our warehouse. Easy exchange if item defective or damaged in shipped.
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Product Description
"Winner of the 2007 Tony Award!Sweeping all the major theater awards for Best Revival of a Musical, a beloved era-defining classic is stunningly reinvented in this powerful Broadway production, featuring an explosive starring performance by Raul Esparza. Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, Company is a funny, sophisticated exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends. With a wise and witty Stephen Sondheim score including ""Another Hundred People,"" ""Side by Side by Side,"" ""The Ladies Who Lunch"" and ""Being Alive,"" Company offers musical comedy at its finest."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 A beautiful production, get it for Raul Esparza May 21, 2008
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
Company is one of my favorite Sondheim shows so far (the others being Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George). It's a show that requires good acting and showcases outstanding acting. The ensemble numbers are beautiful. The Original Broadway Cast recording sounds very 1970s-ish, but the revival orchestration has updated the music to sound modern and classy. The musical has three of my favorite songs: "Being Alive," "The Ladies Who Lunch," and "Getting Married Today." The show is funny and witty, but it carries a strong message, too. Marriage, in fact any kind of commitment, is a compromise. It sucks that when we choose one path, we close many others, but that's what life is about. Life is about making choices. There's nothing wrong with Bobby being a bachelor. The problem is that it's all he knows. He's never tried anything else. He's never made a choice; he's always waiting to see what other people do. Joanne's stinging number "The Ladies Who Lunch" reminds Bobby (and the audience) that you can sit around wasting your life pretending you're actually living it. Delusion is insidious. There are so many ways to waste time, whether it's going to fittings, taking in high art like Mahler symphonies and Pinter plays, mocking other people, surfing the internet (wait, that's not in the musical...)
I loved Raul Esparza as Bobby. He played a very calm, sweet guy who gradually becomes more and more distraught about being as an outsider. His rendition of "Being Alive" is amazing, beyond words. The supporting cast is directed to be that -- "supporting" so if you're looking for an Elaine Strich-like "Ladies", get the OBC recording. I like this choice, because it makes Bobby the focal point, as it should be.
This revival is in the controversial John Doyle actor-doubling-as-musician style. The fact that the instruments were onstage gave the musical a cabaret feel. The cabaret feel was enhanced by the simple, black costumes and mostly bare set. Marriage and relationships are an intimate topic and the intimate setting works wonderfuly. The piano was used very effectively. I liked seeing Marta sing while sitting on top of the piano. I liked watching Bobby clumsily climb on top of the piano (emphasizing that he's still a boyish voyeur). I liked how the actor stopped playing the piano and closed the keyboard case just as Barbara Walsh was finishing "The Ladies Who Lunch." There were some instances where the actors-playing-instruments concept didn't work, but for the most part, I enjoyed it and the great camera direction by Lonny Price made the actor movement not too distracting.
Captures the show Beautifully March 15, 2008
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
I saw the show twice on Broadway and watched it on PBS. The PBS production is wonderfully directed and captures the feel of the show beautifully. The close ups on Raul Esparza show off his wonderful performance and shows that he SHOULD have won the Tony award. The show is feels fresh and new and is still relevant today. The cast is strong, especially Barbara Walsh and Keith Buterbaugh.
It is an excellent show and this DVD will be an excellent memory for those who saw the production on stage and for those who missed out.
 Abominable production of a brilliant show April 10, 2008
11 out of 45 found this review helpful
John Doyle's gimmicky production of this Sondheim/Furth masterpiece is nothing short of an abomination. His conceit of having the cast play their own instruments (there is no orchestra) is cheesy and distracting. Instead of honest acting and straightforward storytelling, Doyle gives us pseudo-symbolism, actors talking into the air instead of to each other and staging that is so obtuse that anyone not already intimately familiar with COMPANY will be utterly baffled. Doyle's COMPANY is not the brilliant musical play the authors wrote; it is more like an acting class exercise. The poor cast (most of them very talented) ought to have mutinied; they probably could have directed themselves far better than this charlatan. Save your money and buy the original 1970 Broadway cast CD instead. And let us hope that one day there will be a commercial video release of a REAL production of COMPANY.
 ALWAYS GOOD, BUT THIS PRODUCTION MISSES CORE April 11, 2008
11 out of 21 found this review helpful
COMPANY is a great show, and I've worn out several Original Cast recordings and somehow I have not burned out my well-used CD.
I saw this production, both on Broadway (on the night it was being filmed), and again when it appeared on PBS. It is worth seeing and hearing if you do not know the original, but for all its cleverness, it misses the core of the show, and also misses some of the most important parts of the original.
To save money, this production cuts out the orchestra, and the actors play the instruments. They aren't bad players, but not up to a Broadway standard. They do have a few good spots. But all the terrific original orchestrations are gone, gone gone, and they were particularly strong arrangements. The most dramatic example is the evisceration of the whole bedroom scene before the song "Barcelona." The big section removed was both a brilliant piece of orchestration, but an important set up to the song and, especially, insight into the character of Bobby.
Other songs that suffer are "Another 100 People Just Got Off of the Bus" and "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," songs that really kick into another level with a big, capable orchestra. In this show all you get is accompaniment. I'll never forget the great dance orchestrations the late, great Wally Harper did for the original show, and it makes me sad to see all this flash gone.
The other thing wrong with this show is how Bobby is played, or imagined. Raul Esparza does have a sort of flash himself, and the audience obviously likes him, and many may have come to see him, but he just doesn't get Bobby, or he just cannot do the ambiguous or warmer sides of Bobby's character.
Raul Esparza plays Bobby like a pure cynic, and Bobby is not a pure cynic. Yes, he may do things that are cynical, but in many ways he needs to be the least cynical of all the characters in this show. He weighs and grows and evolves and devolves before our eyes, but he just doesn't sit back and poke at all around him the way Bobby does here.
This show needs a fresher performance than the one Esparza gives.
Despite all these real problems, I was still happy to see the show, even to see the same production again on TV. Most of the cast is strong. The performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch" was so strong the audience could not even clap at the end, they were so into it, and she nailed it so.
But this show needs an orchestra, and needs a more thoughtful or imaginative performance by Bobby.
Wonderful! March 14, 2008
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I am writing this review before the DVD release date as I was able to see this program broadcast on PBS a couple of weeks ago. I really loved it! I grew up listening to the original Company cast recording so I was very familiar with the music but have never actually seen this show on stage. I was so sorry to miss this revival on Broadway and was thrilled to find out it was scheduled to be released on DVD.
The staging of this show is so clever; simplistic but extremely effective! The cast are not only acting their parts but playing their own instruments. Raul Esparza is a pleasure to watch as Bobby, the single man trying to figure out his own life by observing his crazy married friends. If you love Broadway, musicals and/or Sondheim you will probably love this production. I am planning on buying this as soon as it is released!
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