By Joe Contreras, Latin Life Denver Media

Everyone is concerned about Bobbie, her happiness, her future, her life. It’s her 35th birthday and all her closest friends are having a surprise birthday party for her but they all have the same thing, the same questions on their minds. Why isn’t Bobbie married? Isn’t it time for her to settle down, have kids, have the white picket fence and all the rest?

It’s the company that Bobbie keeps that loves her and only wants the best for her. Surely, that must include marriage, or does it? Bobbie doesn’t seem to care but her friends sure believe that she is missing out, that life is passing her by. Without a serious relationship how could Bobbie possibly be happy?

So goes this five time Tony Award winning musical production as the company of characters explores the concept of marriage and relationships, their virtues and shortcomings. Is it all that it is cracked up to be or something that is becoming passe. A recent Pew Research study found that one in four 40-year-old American adults have never been married.

While this production is a revival of the 1970’s version of Company where the genders were flipped and Bobby was single man afraid of marriage and relationships, the concept and question is still the same. Is marriage and relationships worth the stress, the hassle and the loss of one’s personal freedom?

In this version of Company, Bobbie, played by Britney Coleman, is a happy go lucky, beautiful and vibrant young lady just turning 35. She appears to be happy with her life. Her friends are now all married or in committed relationships and are convinced that Bobbie is not really happy at all. Not without a serious relationship and marriage in her future.

So they try to fix her up with various men who they believe would be perfect for her going forward. They want to see her as happy as they are. But upon exploring the cost and sacrifice of what that happiness really consists, they soon question whether marriage is really all that. I’m sure most of the audience is also left pondering that same question long after they have left the theatre. The music, the songs, and the voices singing them are uplifting even if the message, at times is not.

I fell in love with Britney Coleman as Bobbie. Her voice, her personality, her on stage presence were, dare I say it, “adorable”. In real life Britney Coleman is also 35 and has never been married. Perfect for the part, I’d say.

The rest of the supporting cast is fantastic as well but it is Coleman who makes this show special. There is no real plot, no dramatic or endearing ending. Kind of like a Jerry Seinfeld episode, a show about nothing, yet about everything that happens in life.

In the end, I was left feeling that happiness is in the mind and soul of the beholder. For Bobbie that seemed to mean that with or without marriage she was determined to live life to the fullest no matter what anyone else says and with an attitude that exclaims, married or not, world, here I come.

Company with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim based on a book by George Furth and directed by Marianne Elliott plays the Buell Theatre at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through June 2, 2024

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