GREAT PERFORMANCES: Keeping Company with Sondheim

By Jennifer Robinson / Web Producer

Published May 24, 2022 at 4:02 PM PDT

Patti LuPone and Katrina-Lenk in Broadway’s “Company."

Premieres Friday, May 27, 2022 at 9 p.m. and Sunday, May 29 at 2 p.m. on KPBS 2 / On demand with the PBS Video App

Filmed over two years, GREAT PERFORMANCES "Keeping Company with Sondheim" takes an exclusive inside look at Tony-winning director Marianne Elliott’s creative process of bringing a reimagined gender-swapped production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical “Company” to Broadway during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Take an inside look at the reimagined gender-swapped production as it returns to Broadway during the COVID-19 pandemic. Features new interviews with Tony and Grammy-winning cast members Katrina Lenk, Patti LuPone, Sondheim and more.

Featuring rehearsal and performance footage, plus new interviews with Elliott, Sondheim, Katrina Lenk, Patti LuPone and members of the original 1970 cast, the broadcast tells the story of the show’s Broadway debut in a city on the verge of bankruptcy to its reimagination 50 years later as both Broadway and New York City emerge from one of the greatest crises in contemporary history.

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Composer Stephen Sondheim, actress Cynthia Nixon and theatre critic Hilton Als discuss the character of Bobby, and how Sondheim's own relationship to his heterosexual, married friends may have influenced the character.

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Matt Doyle, Patti LuPone and Etai Benson discuss what went into gender-bending "I'm Not Getting Married Today," and how the added anxiety surrounding gay marriage added to the overall anxiety of the scene. Includes clips of the cast of Company performing the iconic song by Sondheim.

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GREAT PERFORMANCES is on Facebook+ follow @GPerfPBS on Twitter. #PBSForTheArts.

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Listen to Katrina Lenk (Bobbie), Cynthia Nixon and the Company cast discuss switching the gender of the character of Bobbie, and how it opened the door to switch other roles in the cast as well.

Credits:

A co-production of Sabel Productions, Lone Star Productions and The WNET Group, Directed by Andrew Douglas and produced by David Sabel. Associate producer is Brook Crowley, with Martin Rosenbaum and Adam Low as executive producers. For GREAT PERFORMANCES, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.

Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone in Broadway’s “Company.”

GREAT PERFORMANCES: Keeping Company with Sondheim

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