Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1970 Broadway classic Company proves a fabulous fit for a dozen-and-a-half theater-majoring performers and designers to strut their stuff in the most sumptuously professional a venue any university production could ever hope for, the UC Irvine-adjacent the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

Furth’s revolutionary book eschews a traditional plotline to give us a series of non-linear sequences that introduce us to the resolutely single Bobby (Jalon Matthews) and the five married couples who are the just-turning-35 birthday boy’s ten best friends.

Couple Number One are the self-proclaimedly on-the-wagon Harry (Tristan Turner) and his ever-dieting wife Sarah (Veronica Renner), whose wacky martial arts demonstration reveals considerably marital strain beneath the laughs.

Next up are ideal husband Peter (Isaiah Tadros), his southern belle wife Susan (Lilian Wouters), and the announcement of the couple’s soon-to-be happiest of divorces.

 Alpha male David (Harry Cho) and straight-laced Jenny (Katherine Hay) then do their best to get Bobby stoned and loosen him up enough to find out why he’s so darned resistant to walking down the aisle.

Neurotic Amy (Eleni Kutay), who may or may not be getting married today to her Jewish fiancé Paul (Sittichai Chaiyahat) this afternoon, lays bare her doubts and fears in “Getting Married Today.”

Completing Bobby’s circle of married friends are glamorous Joanne (Hope Andrejack) and hubby number three Larry (Hunter Ringsmith), who take Bobby out for a night on the town in an effort to find out what’s going on in that marriage-averse head of his.

Last but not least are Bobby’s latest trio of girlfriends: warm-hearted Kathy (Milan Magaña), on her way out of the big city and into married life in the country; spacey flight attendant April (Lauren Hilton), eager to make Bobby’s bed her own between flights; and quintessential New Yorker Marta (Jutine Rafael), who celebrates “a city of strangers, some come to stare, some to stay” in the Sondheim classic “Another Hundred People,” the threesome joining voices Andrews Sisters-style in the witty “You Could Drive A Person Crazy.”

All of these characters exert their influence over Bobby, the result of which he expresses in the wistful “Someone Is Waiting,” the conflicted “Marry Me A Little,” and the acidic but ultimately celebratory “Being Alive,” songs featuring some of Sondheim’s most evocative lyrics.

Company’s cast of fourteen may be about half the size of UCI Drama’s recent Legally Blonde and The Pajama Game, but smaller here means better for the lucky dozen plus two, each and every one of whom has been given a showcase role and at least one showcase scene in a musical whose extended dialog sequences make it seem at times as much a straight play as it is a musical.

Add to that Allison Eversoll Chasteen’s choreography in the guaranteed Act Two-opening show-stopper “Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You?” and Company’s student cast get to show off their triple-threat dance chops in top hats and canes to do Fred Astaire and Michael Bennett proud.

Rather than situate Company in a more literally rendered bachelor pad as some have done before, director/UCI professor Eli Simon and scenic design ace Brandon PT Davis opt for a NYC brownstones-backed limbo with musical director Lex Leigh and his 13-piece orchestra providing backup beneath the fire escapes and bricks, an ideal setting for a production that emphasizes Company’s surreal aspects throughout.

 Matthews’ engaging, adult-in-progress Bobby is the axis around which a colorful cast of friends and lovers revolve, beginning with Renner’s acerbic Sarah and Turner’s good-natured Harry and the most outrageously funny karate match-up in town.

Wouter’s honey-dripping Susan and Tadros’s deliciously quirky Peter proclaim marriage the next best thing to divorce while Hay’s straight-laced Jenny and Cho’s alpha male David get high in the most delightfully unexpected of ways.

Chaiyahat’s devotedly loving Paul is a just-right match for Kutay’s about-to-go-bonkers Amy, the latter stealing the show with a high-velocity, uber-manic “Getting Married Today,” a show-stopper matched only by Andrejack’s Joanne’s caustic tour-de-force “Ladies Who Lunch,” and though the ever patient Larry may be the smallest part in the show, it reveals Ringsmith’s legit acting chops and a husband’s unconditional love.

Magaña makes for a charming, affectionate Kathy, Hilton a bodaciously bubble-headed April, and Rafael a winningly adventurous Marta, each getting her big solo, Magaña a “Tick-Tock” dance solo that recalls A Chorus Line Cassie’s “The Music and the Mirror,” Hilton a wistful “Barcelona” duetted with Matthews, and Rafael a big-voiced “Another Hundred People.”

Completing Company’s pro-caliber, all-student design team are costume designer Cassie DeFile, who captures the ‘70s in all their intense-hued polyester, lighting designer Jacob P. Brinkman, who makes set and costumes look even more vibrant, and sound designer Garrett Gagnon, who provides a crystal-clear mix of vocals and instrumentals throughout.

Alexis DeJoy and Estevan Hernandez are swings. David Bradbury, DeJoy, Hayley Fitzpatrick, Hernandez, Alexi Ishida, and Zole Tannous are pit singers.

Krysten Goodrich is production stage manager and Stephanie Lim is dramaturg.

Few musicals offer as many performers as many opportunities to show what they can do on stage as Company, and with professional careers awaiting all eighteen of its performance and design majors, UCI Drama’s Company more than merits its slot in the Irvine Barclay Theatre season.

Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine.
http://drama.arts.uci.edu/on-stage

–Steven Stanley
November 17, 2019
Photos: Paul Kennedy

Tags: George Furth, Orange County Theater Review, Stephen Sondheim, UC Irvine