Following last year’s success with Sunday in the Park With George, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s OneAcademy Productions have returned to the work of Stephen Sondheim in this year’s annual C venues showcase, presenting an impressive and delightful production of Company as their centerpiece.
Featuring students from the Conservatoire, Company comes much closer to a professional West End production than it does a Fringe show, taking Sondheim’s music and performing it with style and verve. The performances are tight - assisted, no doubt, by ex-Traverse Artistic Director Dominic Hill’s supervision as director.
Douglas Walker shines as Bobby - perfectly capturing his place in the social circles of 1970s New York City, both as a perpetually unmarried bachelor and as everybody’s best friend. ‘Being Alive’, was incredibly moving - leaving only a few dry eyes in the audience and proving why Sondheim and Hal Prince finally settled on it as the show’s closing number. Though the part is double-cast, I have full confidence that the strength of Hill’s direction behind Walker’s performance means that Adam Clark’s too would give a superb reflection of Sondheim’s work.
Hill’s production takes great detail over the dating of the musical, as well as the use of clever stagecraft that works fantastically - props appearing out of nowhere from the crowd of friends sat upstage of the main action, voyeuristically observing Bobby’s movements. Similarly, Lynne Bustard’s choreography manages not to cross the line into too much, decorating the bigger numbers perfectly.
Jocelyn Regina’s April is brilliantly comic, as is Kylie McMahon’s Amy - both roles that are also double-cast across the run. The latter gives a particularly hilarious performance in ‘Not Getting Married Today’, though occasionally lost in the speed of the song - an altogether forgivable offence. Amy Brewer’s Joanne is cuttingly sarcastic and her performance of ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’ created the perfect tone for the show’s ending.
OneAcademy’s Company is a magnificent portrayal of 70s middle class America, performing one of Sondheim’s best-loved musicals without an ounce of amateurism in sight.
