CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL "IN GAY COMPANY" MAKES WEST END DEBUT * Fairy Powered Productns

Contents:

• STEPHEN SONDHEIM LOVED HOW GAY BROADWAY’S ‘COMPANY’ REVIVAL IS, SAYS STAR MATT DOYLE
• DO BOBBY NEED TO BE OPENLY GAY STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S REVISED ‘COMPANY’?
• IN GAY COMPANY, MIL
• MIL REVUE IN GAY COMPANY TO MAKE S WT END BUT
• CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL “IN GAY COMPANY” MAKES WEST END DEBUT
• IN GAY COMPANY, MIL
• THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
• IN GAY COMPANY
• THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME
• CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL “IN GAY COMPANY” MAKES WEST END DEBUT

STEPHEN SONDHEIM LOVED HOW GAY BROADWAY’S ‘COMPANY’ REVIVAL IS, SAYS STAR MATT DOYLE

In Gay Company, a sophistited, stylish mil revue that won rave reviews a triumphant n Off-Broadway New York Cy where played 1974-75 and was revived aga there 1980. Wh lyrics and mic by Fred Silver, the pany of four men and one woman prent their experienc of gay life 1960s and 1970s. They sg and dance a variety of wty baret songs and ventive mil numbers, referencg many mil styl as diverse as Broadway, Jazz, Grand Opera, Sondheim and even a gay Gregorian chant!

The songs expose the secret s and private relatnships that beme tablished between gay men meetg together, be they firemen, monks, ballet dancers, or simply as strangers meetg a late-night bar.

Amongst the four men of both young and old generatns is one sgle lonely lady, who keeps thkg she has found her perfect match – a man so sensive, so charmg and bright… but the end he turns out to be… well there is only one word for … GAY!

DO BOBBY NEED TO BE OPENLY GAY STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S REVISED ‘COMPANY’?

Gay men Stland and Northern Ireland had to wa until the early 1980s.

But the genr of one other character has also been swapped, makg a formerly straight uple now gay. You have to live up to , ” Matt Doyle, who plays one of the gay men, told TODAY via Zoom. The biggt thg I learned is that as long as I ntue to play my tth and play as a man and as a gay man, the further away I get om that.

He was emotnal, not only when rememberg men like Furth who helped create “Company” back 1970, but also around the gay them of the piece that were created for this revival.

IN GAY COMPANY, MIL

Sondheim was gay and out for most of his life, but his inty as a gay man was often an afterthought for his work and his place the public eye.

”Sondheim wrote for the tim he was , so much of his work never explicly featured gay characters. For all the awards he was nomated and won over his lifetime — a Pulzer Prize, eight Tony awards, an Osr and eight Grammys — this revival marks his first ever nomatn for a GLAAD award, given to works the media for their fair, accurate and clive reprentatns of the LGBTQ what is this revival — helmed by Obie-wng Brish director Marianne Elltt — sayg by makg one of the uple — the uple gettg married — gay? We served this right, but what’s happened is there is a new anxiety wh gay men to f to this heteronormative world and society now that we have this right.

What’s somethg that’s so amazg about the gay muny is that we are are so dividualistic what we do.

MIL REVUE IN GAY COMPANY TO MAKE S WT END BUT

”Doyle believ that Pl and Jamie are very reprentative of gay upl livg New York Cy today, tryg to navigate the nservative nf of marriage paired wh the liberatg ials often assumed of a gay liftyle. Doyle even trips up tryg to answer whether or not the uple the show is monogamo or not, ftgly reprentative of the actual nfn gay upl like Pl and Jamie are livg off stage. “One of the pots that he ma was that he uldn’t believe that some younger people the dience didn’t regnize what a huge al was to have this gay uple this show.

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL “IN GAY COMPANY” MAKES WEST END DEBUT

“One of the pots that he ma was that he uldn’t believe that some younger people the dience didn’t regnize what a huge al was to have this gay uple this show, ” Doyle said. “A lot of younger dience members actually thought was always a gay uple.

That we are movg forward such a way that people uld actually believe that a show 50 years ago would have a gay uple reprented that way on stage that fortably? Yterday afternoon was revealed that Stephen Sondheim (along wh director John Tiffany) has reworked his classic mil edy, Company, wh a major plot twist: Bobby, the central, sgle character, who spends the urse of the show alg wh his own abily to m, is gay.

IN GAY COMPANY, MIL

” It’s an tertg revisn, as crics have long argued that Bobby was a closeted homosexual the first place. There’s not much the text that suggts Bobby is gay, although people have certaly wonred: why else uldn’t a handsome sgle man settle down? “We don’t al wh gay marriage as such, but this versn lets explore the issu of mment a h way.

”Perhaps that’s why Sondheim is on board wh this openly gay productn — which will see a readg at Roundabout Theater Company this week, featurg Daniel Evans, Bobby Steggert, Michael Urie, and Alan Cummg, who will liver Joanne’s famo 11 o’clock number. It’s promisg that this Company will be actually reworked to ment, possibly, on the gay experience; while marriage is an optn, ’s not the only optn, and generatns of men who were told was not a possibily have surely seen their social and romantic sensibili affected by what mastream society saw as the norm.

THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME

To be homosexual surely meant somethg different 1970 than do today, too, which cric Jam Jorn poted out when he reviewed the New York Philharmonic’s all-star stagg of the mil 2011 (Neil Patrick Harris starred as Bobby) for Capal New York. When discsg a major lyril change the song “You Can Drive a Person Crazy, ” sung by Bobby’s three jilted lovers — “I uld unrstand a person if a person was a fag” turned to “I uld unrstand a person if he happened to be gay” when Roundabout revived the show 1995 — Jorn suggts that Bobby, who very well might be homosexual, wouldn’t be seen as such bee of the many layers of stigma attached to beg queer:Back the 1960s, the nventnal wisdom was that some men had sex wh other men ocsnally, and other men maybe fantasized om time to time about same-sex actn, but none of the guys were what you would ll homosexual.

A homosexual, on the other hand, was seen as a pletely different breed, a “boy the band” hairdrser or an terr signer or an opera queen wh some sort of twisted secret sire to be a woman, or at least to be treated like a woman by some big, butch (preferably workg-class) straight du. That kd of homosexual was a “fag, ” a mp joke, and a woman chasg after such a creature was obvly ridiculo, bee, the words of an early Sondheim lyric, “his troers [are] vern….

IN GAY COMPANY

But the revisn “happened to be gay” isn’t really a joke bee ’s non-judgmental. The ia here is, y, some guys who don’t appear effemate do turn out to be gay sometim, not that there’s anythg wrong wh that.

A quarter century of enlightenment reveals that gay sexualy is somewhat more plex than we first place Company a more morn ntext, then, wh openly gay characters alg wh their mment issu, seems to take away om what mak the show so nuanced and plited: now we have a new reason for Bobby’s fear of mment, and prov that the heterosexual mols for uplg no longer shape his view of marriage. After all, Bobby’s possible queerns never turned gay dienc away om the show before.

IN GAY COMPANY [mil show]. A third uple learns the meang of votn while smokg pot; a fourth uple — now nfigured as two gay men — experienc hiccups on the way to the, as stng together by Sondheim’s diamante songs, “Company” offered a groundbreakg way of lookg at s subject, ls through a microspe than a kaleidospe.

THE 10 BT GAY MILS OF ALL TIME

One volv the gay uple, Jamie (formerly Amy) and Pl. In Gay Company, the stylish mil revue by Fred Silver, mak s Wt End but at the Jermyn Street Theatre later this month for a limed n.

It b wty baret songs and ventive mil numbers, referencg many mil styl as diverse as Broadway, Jazz, Grand Opera, Sondheim and even a gay Gregorian chant! The mil tells the story of four gay men and a straight woman and their experienc of life 1960s and 1970s. At a time when same sex relatnships had to be hidn for fear of recrimatn, In Gay Company expos the secret language and private relatnships that beme tablished between gay men meetg together, be they firemen, monks, ballet dancers, or simply as strangers meetg a late-night bar.

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL “IN GAY COMPANY” MAKES WEST END DEBUT

Amongst the four men is one sgle lonely lady, who keeps thkg she has found her perfect match — a man so sensive, so charmg and bright… but the end he turns out to be… well there is only one word for … Gay! CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED MUSICAL ‘IN GAY COMPANY’ MAKES WEST END DEBUT.

Mil Director Tom Wakeley said: “It is a te labour of love to brg In Gay Company to the Wt End stage.

There’s gog to be a lot of prsure on her om her iends to make a wish that she will actually “sort her life out” and settle down and get married and have a fay, had turned down a proposal for an all-male “Company” wh a gay Bobby, directed by John Tiffany.