A Sunday Afternoon Patti Party

I don't remember the first time I heard Stephen Sondheim's Company. I do remember that the first cast recording I listened to was not that of the original cast, but the 1990s revival starring Boyd Gaines. I did see the more recent revival with the John Doyle everybody plays instruments staging that starred Raul Esparza (both on stage and on PBS). But I was over the moon excited when I heard that the dreamy dream cast assembled by Lonny Price for the NY Philharmonic would be coming soon to a theater near me. A movie theater, to be more precise.

I was so excited, I went twice. The first time, I dragged my mom and we went to Rosemont. It was last Wednesday, it was raining and our mapquest sucked. The theater was not even half full, which was disappointing (apparently the theaters in Chicago had better showings) but the film itself was wonderful.

Today, I threw myself a Sunday Afternoon Patti Party and took myself to Evanston (didn't need any mapquest for that!). I am ashamed to tell you that I geeked out completely and even wore the shirt I got during the City Center run of Gypsy. You know. Red? With the eyes? (oh, I know. But if a girl can't wear a Patti shirt to a Patti related theatrical event, when can she wear it?) Look, you have your holidays and I have mine, okay? When I got to the theater, I started heading towards the Cine Arts side, and the usher was like "Theater Four is on the other side" and I started to ask him how he knew where I was going, but then I was like, yeah, duh.

The theater was PACKED. I happily settled in to an aisle seat with my smuggled in snacks from World Market (pretzels, weird gummy German fruit snacks that I thought were grapes, but I think are black currants - schwarze johannisbeere? Anybody? Hazelnut wafer cookies, a chunky Kit Kat and a Bounty Bar. No, I didn't eat all of it. I hadn't had any lunch and thought I might get hungry.) and a bottle of vitamin water that I'd bought from the theater for $4.50. (!)

This audience was more on top of things - they applauded (they even applauded when Paul G first came out, which was kind of funny, because you know, we weren't actually there and he could not actually hear us), they laughed, they were reasonably well behaved (no errant cell phones went off, maybe word of Patti's Wrath had already spread? Even though She could not actually see us?) For a group that hadn't rehearsed together until the final days of this project, I thought they all did quite well.

Highlights?

NPH, of course. For me, the perfect Bobby - fun loving, youthful bachelor, kind of stumbling through life in the big city, while his good and crazy friends all around him are getting married or are married. Or have been married three or four times. And also divorced. He watches these examples of married life, none of them really inspiring him to get married himself. What do you get out of it? He wonders. (Poor Baby.) But as the show goes on, he starts to see - and by the end, although he's sitting alone in his apartment, he's looking hopefully at the empty seat beside him, maybe his bachelor days are numbered.

The Patti - pitch perfect as Joanne. That's all. I would watch her do just about anything. No. You know what? Forget about the qualifier. I will watch her do anything. She blew them all out of the water with her "Ladies Who Lunch". Stunning.

It was a great way to spend an afternoon and I would go back again if I could. You all have one last chance to see it - there's one more showing sometime this week.