Arts & Entertainment
Time to settle down?
Sondheim classic explores marriage with ambivalence
Sherri L. Edelen, center, sings the classic ‘The Ladies Who Lunch,’ with costars Thomas Adrian Simpson, left, and Matthew Scott. Signature’s ‘Company’ production runs through the end of June. (Photo by Scott Suchman, courtesy Signature)
‘Company’
Through June 30
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Avenue
Arlington, VA
$30-$100
703-820-9771
signature-theatre.org
“Company’s” marriage-phobic Robert (better known as Bobby) is turning 35. As he slides into middle age, maybe it’s time for the perennial party boy to get serious? His married friends certainly think so. His girlfriends would appreciate a little commitment. But Bobby isn’t quite there yet.
A string of relationship-themed vignettes surrounded by out composer Stephen Sondheim’s outrageously dazzling score, “Company” premiered in 1970. Today, George Furth’s book can feel a tad dated, but in Signature Theatre’s solid production staged by Eric Schaeffer, the show’s irony and focus on loneliness and inability to commit remain as strong as ever.
Bobby (Matthew Scott) likes a laugh and a smart cocktail. He keeps things on the surface. His social circle is comprised of five couples. And while they adore their single friend, they really want Bobby to be hitched too, and tell him so repeatedly. As Bobby makes the rounds to his pals’ respective Manhattan flats on the eve of his birthday, he (and us) get a glimpse into the lives of couples at different stages of married life: the about-to-be married, the recently married, the longtime married and the often married. They insist he needs what they have, explained musically with “The Little Things You Do Together.” And still, Bobby’s not biting.
A trio of his latest girlfriends gripes about Bobby’s inability to commit in a terrific version of “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.” Bobby remains unfazed.
Neither the play nor the production ever really clarifies just why Bobby is so loath to commit. It’s been suggested that he’s gay. In a scene with the recently divorced, newly bisexual Peter (Bobby Smith), Bobby admits that he’s had more than one homosexual experience but makes it clear that he’s not gay, dismissing Peter’s advances as a joke.
Standouts in a talented cast include real life couple Erin Driscoll and James Gardiner who play husband and wife David and Jenny. She enjoys getting stoned. He likes to believe she’s squarer than she is. As boozy, acerbic Joanne (the part famously created by the legendary Elaine Stritch), Sherri L. Edelin gives a ferocious rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch.” And Eric Weaver is a hoot as the highly nervous bride-to-be Amy who sings Sondheim’s often sung patter song “Getting Married Today.”
The show’s best moments include Bobby’s dim stewardess date April (Madeline Botteri) singing “Barcelona,” that wistful ode to the one-night-stand; and another girlfriend Marta (Carolyn Cole), a young Bohemian besotted with New York’s diversity, expressing her love for the Big Apple with “Another Hundred People.”
As Bobby, Matthew Scott brings a gorgeous voice and good looks to the role. He also affectively makes the transition from a sort of charming social automation to an actual feeling person. As the show unfolds, he becomes increasingly agitated and aware that something is lacking in his world. Ultimately he comes to life with an emotionally jarring version of “Being Alive.”
New York City figures prominently in “Company.” Rather appropriately, Daniel Conway’s set is sleek — all steel and glass like a skyscraper, and Frank Labovitz’s costumes are mostly gray. Despite some mod dresses and a few projected images of late model cars, the production doesn’t feel particularly moored to a specific year. It’s just a 30-something man experiencing life, loneliness and sex in the city (with great music). And that’s timeless.
a&e features
Queer highlights of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards: Aunt Gladys, that ‘Heated Rivalry’ shoutout and more
Amy Madigan’s win in the supporting actress category puts her in serious contention to win the Oscar for ‘Weapons’
From Chelsea Handler shouting out Heated Rivalry in her opening monologue to Amy Madigan proving that horror performances can (and should) be taken seriously, the Critics Choice Awards provided plenty of iconic moments for queer movie fans to celebrate on the long road to Oscar night.
Handler kicked off the ceremony by recapping the biggest moments in pop culture last year, from Wicked: For Good to Sinners. She also made room to joke about the surprise hit TV sensation on everyone’s minds: “Shoutout to Heated Rivalry. Everyone loves it! Gay men love it, women love it, straight men who say they aren’t gay but work out at Equinox love it!”
The back-to-back wins for Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein and Amy Madigan in Weapons are notable, given the horror bias that awards voters typically have. Aunt Gladys instantly became a pop culture phenomenon within the LGBTQ+ community when Zach Cregger’s hit horror comedy released in August, but the thought that Madigan could be a serious awards contender for such a fun, out-there performance seemed improbable to most months ago. Now, considering the sheer amount of critics’ attention she’s received over the past month, there’s no denying she’s in the running for the Oscar.
“I really wasn’t expecting all of this because I thought people would like the movie, and I thought people would dig Gladys, but you love Gladys! I mean, it’s crazy,” Madigan said during her acceptance speech. “I get [sent] makeup tutorials and paintings. I even got one weird thing about how she’s a sex icon also, which I didn’t go too deep into that one.”
Over on the TV side, Rhea Seehorn won in the incredibly competitive best actress in a drama series category for her acclaimed performance as Carol in Pluribus, beating out the likes of Emmy winner Britt Lower for Severance, Carrie Coon for The White Lotus, and Bella Ramsey for The Last of Us. Pluribus, which was created by Breaking Bad’s showrunner Vince Gilligan, has been celebrated by audiences for its rich exploration of queer trauma and conversion therapy.
Jean Smart was Hack’s only win of the night, as Hannah Einbinder couldn’t repeat her Emmy victory in the supporting actress in a comedy series category against Janelle James, who nabbed a trophy for Abbott Elementary. Hacks lost the best comedy series award to The Studio, as it did at the Emmys in September. And in the limited series category, Erin Doherty repeated her Emmy success in supporting actress, joining in yet another Adolescence awards sweep.
As Oscar fans speculate on what these Critics Choice wins mean for future ceremonies, we have next week’s Golden Globes ceremony to look forward to on Jan. 11.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
It’s been a year filled with drama and music, re-imaginings and new works. There was a lot on offer in 2025, and much to enjoy. Here are 10 now-closed productions that come to mind.
On Valentine’s Day at Folger Theatre on Capitol Hill, out actor Holly Twyford served as narrator for “The Love Birds” a Folger Consort work that melds medieval music with a world-premiere composition by acclaimed composer Juri Seo and readings from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “A Parlement of Foules”
Standing behind a podium, Twyford beautifully read Chaucer’s words (translated from Middle English and backed by projected slides in the original language), alternating with music played on old and new instruments.
While Mosaic Theater’s “A Case for the Existence of God,” closed in mid-December, it’s proving a production not soon forgotten. Precisely staged by Danilo Gambini, and impressively acted by Lee Orsorio and Jaysen Wright, the soul-searching two hander by out playwright Samuel D. Hunter, tells the story of two men who form an unlikely friendship based on single-fatherhood, a specific sadness, and hope.
The action unfolds in a small office in southern Idaho, where the pair discuss the perplexing terms of a mortgage loan while delving deep into their lives and backgrounds. Nothing is left off the table.
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s spring production of “Uncle Vanya” gave audiences something both fresh yet enduring. Staged by STC’s artistic director Simon Godwin, the production put an impeccably pleasing twist on Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s classic. It ranks among the very best area productions of the year.
Featuring a topnotch cast led by Hugh Bonneville (TV’s “Downton Abbey”) in the title role, the play was set on an unfinished stage cluttered with costume racks and assorted props, all assembled by crew uniformed in black and actors in street clothes. Throughout the drama tinged with comedy, the actors continued to assist with ever increasingly period set changes accompanied by an underscore of melancholic cello strings. It was innovative and wonderful.
GALA Hispanic Theatre’s production of Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was an intimate and affecting piece of theater. Staged by José Luis Arellano, it starred out actors Rodrigo Pedreira and Martín Ruiz as two very different men whose paths cross as convicts in an Argentine prison.
Arena Stage scored with a re-imagined and updated take on the widely liked musical “Damn Yankees.” Directed by Sergio Trujillo, the Broadway bound production has been “gently re-tooled for its first major revival in the 21st century,” moving the action from the struggling Washington Senators baseball team to the turn-of-the-century Yankees lineup. Ana Villafañe’s charmingly seductive Lola and a chorus of fit ball players made for a good time.
Also at Arena, out playwright Reggie D. White’s new work “Fremont Ave.” was very well received. A semi-autobiographical glimpse into home and the many definitions of that idea specifically relating to three generations of Black men, the work boasts a third act with a deeply queer storyline to boot.
Before his smash hit “Hamilton” transformed Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote “In the Heights,” a seminal musical set against the vicissitudes of an upper Manhattan bodega. Infused with hip-hop, rap, and pop ballads, the romance/dramedy takes place over a lively few days in the vibrant, close-knit Latin neighborhood, Washington Heights.
Signature Theatre’s exciting take on “In the Heights” featured a talented cast including out actor Ángel Lozado as the bodega owner who figures prominently in the barrio and the action.
Studio Theatre’s recent production of lesbian playwright Paula Vogel’s newest work “The Mother Play,” a drama with humor, is about a well put together alcoholic mother and her two gay children living under difficult circumstances in the less glitzy parts of suburban Maryland. With nuanced performances and smart direction, the production was terrific.
Keegan Theatre surpassed expectations with its production of “Lizzie” a punk rock opera about Miss Borden, the fabled axe wielding title character. Performed by a super all-female cast, they belted a score that hits hard on subjects like money, queerness, and strained (to say the least) family relationships.
Round House Theatre impressed autumn audiences with “The Inheritance,” a two-part drama sensitively staged by out director Tom Story and acted by a mostly queer cast that included young actor Jordi Bertrán Ramírez in a breakout performance.
Penned by out playwright Matthew López, the epic work inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel “Howards End,” explores themes of love, legacy, and the AIDS crisis through the lives of three generations of gay men in New York City.
Prior to opening, Story commented that with the production’s predominately queer cast you get actors who “really understand the situation, the humor, and the struggle. It works well.” And he was right.
Tim Walz drops out of Minn. governor’s race
Blade travels to Colombia after U.S. forces seize Maduro in Venezuela
LGBTQ groups to join Spanberger inaugural parade
Queer highlights of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards: Aunt Gladys, that ‘Heated Rivalry’ shoutout and more
