A show for adults

Forty-odd years after it appeared on Broadway and in the West End we caught up with Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. Two reasons: (1) in those Cro-Magnon times I wasn't terribly interested in musicals, (2) when I realised quite recently I could no longer ignore Sondheim I discovered most DVDs of his shows were Region 1 (USA) and wouldn't play on my Panasonic.

The latter techno problem I solved (see Keeping My Hand In). In so doing  I discovered a further reason for liking the guy. The DVDs are proof that Sondheim's stuff, unlike Evita, Les Mis' and Cats, are minority appeal. And you know what a snob I am.

The first few minutes were slightly strained. VR and I had to get used to American performers speaking and singing very clearly as if out of elocution class. A bit stiff. For two reasons: stage musicals demand this, Sondheim, more than most. He writes the lyrics and they're worth listening to.

But that oddity was quickly forgotten. Company centres on a gathering of married friends liking and worrying about 35-year-old Robert who claims to be "ready for marriage" yet remains stubbornly single. It has serious things to say about marriage yet says them wittily and often hilariously. It's a show for grown-ups.

To the point where VR turned to me afterwards and said - quite seriously - "You know we've been very lucky." She meant over the last 54 years and I agreed. Company encouraged us to reinforce that conclusion.

There are however, the songs. Clever words and neat integration, but none you’d go away humming. This didn’t worry me. They fitted the show at the time, and they entertained.

OK, you knew all this. Just so’s you also know: we are flexible.

Freed from all normal forces

Tone Deaf deals only with music, no more evanescences from the kitchen, the old motorcycling days or riffling through Proust (Hey, look at me! For a couple of weeks a year I could pass as an intellectual.) But dance is surely inseparable from music and this is dancing from another – entirely frictionless – world.

The musical nobody ever talks about: It’s Always Fair Weather starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse. I know, I’ve mentioned it before but it stays with me. Three ex-soldiers, glad to have survived WW2, booze it up in New York before going their separate ways. Each has a grandiose plan: one to become a writer, another an artist, the third to run an haute cuisine restaurant. They agree to a reunion in ten years’ time to report progress.

All fail in quite shameful ways and the rest of the musical is concerned with the compromises most of us face up to in our lives. A downbeat theme which is why IAFW rarely figures on Top Ten lists except mine. I was reminded of it recently when I saw Dan Dailey dancing and realised how different his style is from Gene Kelly’s – so loose, so casual, so conversational.

But the clip I’ve chosen does feature Kelly. Given the nature of YouTube the chances are this sequence is quite well known, even though the context may be comparatively obscure. What makes this clip different are the sub-titles (Clear the strip ad to see them.). In the meantime, click on:

Why can't we all move like this?