June revisited

The last couple of months, as suggested by the paucity of posts on Mulberry Street, have been busy. Please note that I plan again, in the next week or so, to flesh in a few more memories from May and June, with the posts dated when the events they describe occurred, not when I write about them.

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I will take a moment first, however, to praise Stephen Sondheim and the revival of his musical, Company, which recently closed on Broadway. I got to see it for a second time the night before flying to Texas for a week of vacation. Carrie--also a Sondheim fan--and I got rush tickets and ducked into a Starbucks on Eighth Avenue to avoid the late afternoon shower as we awaited showtime.

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The show was even better than I remembered. Need I comment on Sondheim's creativity, originality, and wit? Not that it's an "easy" musical: The scenes are nonlinear, the show has almost no action, and the work is at times confusing. The set is sparse. Everyone wears black (never seen that in New York City before!). And yet, I love this musical about a single 35-year-old and his married friends.

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Raul Esparza played the mammoth lead role when I saw the musical in May...his nuanced expressions, inflections, and gestures were the highlight of the show. Although initially disappointed to hear that understudy Bradley Dean would perform that Thursday night in June, Carrie and I were both pleasantly surprised by his deep, rich voice. He brought a vocal ease and a slightly different personality to Bobby which made the show that much more interesting.

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(Sorry, there apparently is a glitch in the software, and the only way I can separate paragraphs is to place a character between them.)