New York theater critics have given generally positive reviews to the long-awaited Broadway transfer of the 2018 Olivier-winning West End revival of Company. The creative team includes George Furth (book), Stephen Sondheim (music, lyrics), Marianne Elliott (direction), Liam Steel (choreography), Joel Fram (music supervision), Bunny Christie (sets, costumes), Neil Austin (lights), Ian Dickinson (sound), Chris Fisher (illusions), Campbell Young Assocs. (hair & makeup), David Cullen (orchestrations), and Sam Davis (dance arrangements). The cast includes Katrina Lenk (Bobbie), Patti LuPone (Joanne), Matt Doyle (Jamie), Christopher Fitzgerald (David), Christopher Sieber (Harry), Jennifer Simard (Sarah), Terence Archie (Larry), Etai Benson (Paul), Bobby Conte (P.J.), Nikki Renée Daniels (Jenny), Claybourne Elder (Andy), Greg Hildreth (Peter), Manu Narayan (Theo), and Rashidra Scott (Susan), with Kathryn Allison, Britney Coleman, Jacob Dickey, Javier Ignacio, Anisha Nagarajan, and Heath Saunders (New Yorkers).
AMNY (Matt Windman): In Marianne Elliott’s bold and contemporized production, the male Bobby has become the female Bobbie. … With a handful of exceptions, turning Bobby into Bobbie mostly works. In fact, making the character a woman whose biological clock is ticking (literally ticking in this production) adds urgency to the question of whether and when the character will settle down and marry. … Lenk gives a passive, barely passable performance. … However, it is easy to overlook Lenk in light of the outstanding supporting cast. … I could easily sit through Company again, though I would prefer to see it with a different Bobbie — or Bobby for that matter.
Deadline (Greg Evans): If there’s a better, more vital way to honor the late, incomparable Stephen Sondheim than Marianne Elliott’s superb production of Company, Broadway hasn’t invented it. This gorgeous revival … is, from across-the-board excellent performances and thoughtful revisions to the visual delight of a lovely and ingeniously clever set design, a gift both to and from the genius we lost last month. … If Company is a reminder of Sondheim’s brilliance — not that we needed reminding — “Ladies Who Lunch” demonstrates yet again that LuPone is a theater concoction through and through, a treasure like Sondheim was a treasure.
Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney): While staying faithful to the original material, Elliott and Sondheim tweaked lyrics, visual references and Furth’s book scenes, transforming the show into a portrait of a contemporary single woman. … The production is so vibrant, so alive and stimulating, reconceived with such cleverness and humor, that even a conspicuously miscast lead doesn’t cancel out its pleasures. … Company has ripened over the decades to reflect a world in which questioning the balance in all types of relationships has become a more open part of the conversation. … This first major stage revival of a Sondheim work since his death may not be perfect, but damn it’s good.
New York Times (Jesse Green): In a gender-flipped version abetted by Sondheim himself, what was once the story of a man who is terrified of intimacy becomes something much less interesting. … Company offered a groundbreaking way of looking at its subject … a new method of storytelling in which thematic consistency trumped conventional plot — and nearly obliterated it. Though fascinating in theory, and worth considering as a way of reorienting the original’s outdated sexual politics, Elliott’s idea that the material could be regendered for a new era completely disrupts that consistency. … Truth be told, I was never less than riveted. … So I guess I’m sorry-grateful. Sorry for not liking this version of Company better — and grateful to Sondheim for providing the chance to find out.
Time Out (Adam Feldman): I think Elliott’s Company is the most satisfying Broadway revival of a Sondheim show in history. The modern setting and gender switches help; with a woman as Bobbie, and the sexes of several couples swapped around, the text plays out in exciting new ways. … Lenk holds strong at the center, bringing her formidable charisma and individuality to the role of Bobbie; you understand why everyone in town seems to want her to themselves. While she’s not quite up to the vocal demands of the show’s emotional-breakthrough finale, “Being Alive,” she acts the hell out of it. … As the world mourns [Sondheim’s] loss, Company offers a regretful-happy reminder of how alive his work remains. 5 out of 5 stars.
Variety (Naveen Kumar): Director Marianne Elliott’s sensational new revival strikes like a lightning bolt, surging with fresh electricity and burnishing its creators’ legacy with an irresistible sheen. It’s silly and sophisticated, intimate and in-tune with the currents of modern life, brilliantly conceived and funny as hell. … Company has always reached to the heart of what it means to be a person in the world. But rarely has our human desire for connection … felt as urgent and essential as it does right now. “Life is company,” so the song goes. And Company is sublime.