Company Synopsis

Company – synopsis

[In the early 1990s, George Furth and Sondheim revised the libretto, cutting and altering dialogue they felt had become dated and rewriting the end to Act One. This synopsis is based on the revised libretto.]

Act I

It's Robert's 35thbirthday. He’s single and he lives in New York City. Ten of his friends, all couples, throw a surprise party for him in his apartment.Each couple calls him by a different name: Bobby, Robby, Robert, Rob-o. He tries to blow out the candles, but they stay lit. Someone says, he still gets his wish; what was it? Nothing. Not even to be married? No: Joanne and Larry, Peter and Susan, Harry and Sarah, David and Jenny, and Paul and Amy, “his married friends, these good and crazy people”, are all he needs ("Company").

A series of scenes, each featuring one of the couples and Robert, follows. It can’t be assumed that they follow on in chronological order. They might all be flashbacks from the birthday party, which is itself presented in varying versions.

Robert is with Harry and Sarah. Robert has brought over some brownies and some bourbon for a nightcap, but Sarah says she’s dieting and Harry says he’s on the wagon. Between needling and taunting each other about their vices, Harry sneaks glasses of brandy and Sarah secretly takes bites of brownie. Robert asksSarah to demonstrate the karate she has been learning. She does so, on Harry. Soon they are wrestling. Joanne, the oldest, most cynical and mostoft married of Robert's friends – not realistically present - observes that it is "The Little Things You Do Together" that “make perfect relationships”. After Sarah has gone to bed, Robert asks Harry if he ever regrets getting married. He answers, and the other married men – also not realistically present – concur that you are always "Sorry-Grateful", “regretful-happy”.

Robert is with Peter and Susan, on their apartment terrace, from which they can almost see the East River. Apart from her frequent fainting spells, they seem like a perfect couple,. Robert innocently flirts with Susan and tells Peter that if they ever break up, he wants to be the first to know. Well, they reply, he's the first to know: they're getting divorced.

Robert brings some marijuana to Jenny and David’s. Jenny is rather uptight and David is very chic: all three puff away feeling very hip and pleased with themselves. Jenny talks non-stop before realizing she is completely stoned. They grill Robert on why he hasn't gotten married yet. It's not like he's opposed to it. He's looking. In fact, he's found three young women. Kathy, Marta and April appear – not realistically – and, in the style of the Andrews Sisters, berate Robert for his reluctance to commit ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy"). David tells Robert privately that Jenny really doesn't enjoy the pot, but she tries it to please him.

Everyone is trying to pair Robert off and each of the deeply-envious men has found someone perfect ("Have I Got a Girl For You"). But Robert is happy to wait for someone who is a composite of all his married female friends, someone who has Amy's sweetness and Sarah's warmth and Susan's blue eyes("Someone is Waiting").

Robert meets each of his girlfriends in a small park in the East-Fifties on separate occasions. Marta sings of the city("Another Hundred People").

Robert meets April first. She's an airline flight attendant. She knows she's boring and dumb, and she's okay with it.

Robert and Kathy meet in a secluded, quiet clearing. She loves it because it's out of place in the hectic city, just like she is. Robert admits that at the beginning of their relationship, he would have married her. She admits the same thing. They laugh at the realization that they both had wanted to marry each other before she drops a bombshell: she's going back to Cape Cod to get married. She doesn't belong here.

Marta loves the city. It's the center of the universe. The out-there Marta babbles on about true sophistication, the difference between uptown and downtown New York, and how you can always tell a New Yorker by his or her ass. Robert is left stunned.

Amy and Paul have lived together for years, and are only now getting married. Amy is in astate of panic, and as a celestial soprano comments and Paul harmonizes rapturously, Amy patters an impressive list of reasons why she isnot "Getting Married Today”. Robert, the best man, and Paul watch as she self-destructs in a patter song and refuses to go through with it. Paul dejectedly runs out into the rain without a coat. Robert tries to comfort Amy and winds up proposing to her: "Marry me and they'll all leave us alone!" His words jolt Amy back into reality, and she runs out after Paul.

[In 1970, Amy went off to marry Paul and had Robert back at his 35th birthday party. In the current version, Robert is left alone to sing "Marry Me a Little".

Act II

At the party, Robert blows out his candles again. This time, he gets them about half out, and the others help him. They share their views on Robert with each other, comments that range from complimentary to unflattering, as Robert reflects on living (as he does) as the single friend of couples ("Side By Side By Side"). His song is intercut with an up-tempo paean to Robert's role as the perfect friend ("What Would We Do Without You?"). In a dance break in the middle of the number each man in turn does a dance step – in the 2006 revival, plays an instrumental solo – answered by his wife. Then Robert does a step – in the 2006 revival, plays two bad notes on a kazoo. No one responds.

Robert brings April to his apartment for a nightcap after a date. She marvels at how homey his place is, and he casually positions her over the bed as they share stories about a crushed butterfly and a spoiled date, getting into position for sex. Elsewhere on stage, the married women worry about Robert: he's lonely, he needs a woman, a real woman, someone like them, not the girl he's with now, who couldn't be more wrong for him. ("Poor Baby"). When the inevitable sex happens, Kathy appears and performs a dance that conveys the difference between having sex and making love ("Tick-Tock"). The next morning, April wakes to report for airline duty. She's got to be on Flight 18 to "Barcelona" in a few hours. Robert makes the customary false pleas for her to stay, and when his plea works and she gets back into bed, he is less than pleased.

Robert takes Marta this time, to visit Peter and Susan's terrace. They've gotten their divorce. Peter flew to Mexico to get it, and it was so nice there he phoned Susan and she joined him there for a vacation. They're still living together. They have too many responsibilities to actually split up, and their relationship has been strengthened by their divorce. Susan takes Marta inside to make lunch, and Peter asks Robert if he's ever had a homosexual experience. Both admit they have. Robert asks Peter if he's gay, which he denies, but Peter questions if mankind wouldn't prefer to just "ball it" if it weren't for social norms and wonders if he and Robert could ever have something together. Robert, clearly uncomfortable, laughs the conversation off as a joke as the women return.

Joanne and Larry take Robert to a nightclub, and as Larry dances, Joanne and Robert get drunk. She regales him with tales of her ex-husbands and insults Larry before yelling at some women at the next table to stop looking at her. She blames Robert for always being an outsider, and then berates Larry again. She raises her glass in a toast to "The Ladies Who Lunch". Larry takes Joanne's drunken rant without complaint and explains to Robert that despite the fact she's so abusive, or maybe because of it, he loves her dearly. When Larry leaves to pay the check, Joanne propositions Robert. She says, "I'll take care of you", but he replies, "Who will I take care of?" Larry returns, and Joanne tells him, "I just did someone a big favour." Larry and Joanne go home, leaving Robert lost in thought.

Robert confronts the five couples. Why get married, he cries. What do you get from it but someone to smother you and make you feel things you don't want to feel? But his arguments pale and he finally, finally wishes for someone to share his life with, someone to help and hurt and hinder and love, someone to face the challenge of "Being Alive" with.

Back at opening party, his friends have waited two hours, but Robert hasn't shown up. Finally, they all get the message and go home, wishing their absent friend a happy birthday. Robert appears alone, smiles, and blows out his candles.

adapted from Wikipedia