Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
Last week I got to see a touring production of the revival of Company, in which Bobby is now Bobbie, Amy and Paul are now Jamie and Paul, etc. I was curious as to how changing the protagonist to a woman would affect the show’s overall message – would stressing the importance of vulnerability and connection in this context come off as anti-feminist, implying that a woman is incomplete without a husband? It didn’t feel so in the moment – it helped that Britney Coleman really emphasized Bobbie’s status as the lighthearted joker, giving all of her friends respite from their daily troubles but also distancing herself from her own feelings and the real business of “being alive”. The call to accept and embrace them comes because she’s an adult, not because she’s a woman. Less dramatically, technological details bring the setting into the 21st century – “all those photos up on the walls” are taken with smart phones, and a reference to answering services has been swapped for one to text messaging.
Have you ever seen an iteration of a musical with noticeable changes, big or small, from its original presentation? Were they for the better or the worse, and how did they affect the rest of the show? Have you ever wanted to make such changes? For example, I love the songs and some of the book of She Loves Me, but I’d like to a) give Amalia some other reason to be concerned about Dear Friend instead of his (as described by Georg) weight and baldness, and b) clip the bit of Georg lying in his letters right out. He can be plenty comically nervous without it. It’s brought up in Act 1 and never mentioned again, serving only to lessen the audience’s sympathy for him and their belief in his and Amalia’s viability as a couple.