Company to close on 1 Jul 2007

The Tony Award winning revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Company, directed by John Doyle, will play it's final performance at the Barrymore Theatre on 1 Jul 2007, the show had been booking to 29 Jul 2007.

The musical opened at the Barrymore Theatre on 29 Nov 2006, following previews from 30 Oct. When the show closes it will have played 34 previews and 247 regular performances.

The show opened to mixed notices from the critics: �Fire flickers, dangerous and beckoning, beneath the frost of John Doyle�s elegant, unexpectedly stirring revival" (New York Times); ""How do you take a ground-breaking Stephen Sondheim musical about commitment in the big city, with such a memorable score and murderous wit, and turn it into a suburban vanilla revue? Director John Doyle has managed that dubious feat." (New York Daily News); "While Doyle's new Company has a number of elements to recommend it, the whole is less than the sum of its considerable parts." (USA Today); "John Doyle, who radically reinvented Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" last season, has triumphed again"; (NewsDay); There is not much that is special about this production.(NewYorkTheatreGuide.Com).

Despite winning the 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, as well as winning in the same category for the Drama Desk, Outer Critic's Cicle and Drama League Awards, the musical has been slow at the box office, with most weeks the show struggling to get more then 40% house capacity.

This new production of Company continues John Doyle's method of working with actor-musicians as seen in last season's Broadway production of Sweeney Todd, which earned Mr Doyle the 2006 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and which won the 2006 Tony for Best Musical Revival.

Company is about five married couples as seen through the eyes of their mutual friend Robert, a bachelor weighing the pros and cons of wedded life. A comic and touching tale exploring not only fear and longing but also the simple joys of being alive.

Company's cast stars Ra�l Esparza as Bobby and Barbara Walsh as Joanne), and also features Keith Buterbaugh (Harry), Matt Castle (Peter), Robert Cunningham (Paul), Angel Desai (Marta), Kelly Jeanne Grant (Kathy), Kristin Huffman (Sarah), Amy Justman (Susan), Heather Laws (Amy), Leenya Rideout (Jenny), Fred Rose (David), Bruce Sabath (Larry) and Elizabeth Stanley (April).

As well as direction by John Doyle, Company features musical direction and orchestrations by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, set design by David Gallo, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, and lighting design by Thomas C. Hase.

The musical had a Pre-Broadway tryout at Cincinnati, which ran from 14 Mar - 14 Apr 2006.

The original production of Company, directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Michael Bennett, opened on Broadway at the Alvin (currently the Neil Simon) Theatre on 26 Apr 1970. The musical garnered five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show was last produced on Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company for a limited engagement in 1995.