Facetime Theatre to create 'Company' in Collegeville

Phoenixville-based Facetime Theatre will perform the musical Company, the trailblazing dark comedy that won seven Tony awards, from Jan. 9-17 in the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center at Ursinus College.

Written by the award-winning composer of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim, Company is known as a game-changing musical because of its honest portrayal of modern, adult relationships as opposed to fantasized story telling.

Company features vivid characters and a brisk score with some of the composer’s best-known songs including “Another Hundred People,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” and “Being Alive.”

Sondheim is called the best Broadway composer of all time not only for his complex music and clever lyrics, but also for his innovation in creating the “concept musical,” a show centered on a set of characters and a theme rather than a traditional plot.

The main character in Company, Robert, experiences his 35th birthday as a time to contemplate his unmarried state, comparing himself to his best friends, “those good and crazy people [his] married friends,” and reaches an epiphany about what he needs to live his life to the fullest.

Directing Facetime’s production of Company is David Charles, a professional director and stage manager from Philadelphia who works in both Philly and New York.

Charles was drawn to the project by his love of Sondheim’s work and the psychology of the character of Robert.

“Robert so desperately seeks to please everyone, and to do so adapts to the needs of others,” says Charles. “It is intriguing to study what Robert gets out of each relationship in his life.”

“I think what makes this musical compelling is that we all see a little bit of Robert within ourselves,” says Charles. He expects the show to challenge the audience to be introspective about their own needs and desires.

Performances of Company are Jan. 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. and Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. in the Black Box Theater of the Kaleidoscope Performing Arts Center, Ursinus College, 601 East Main St., Collegeville, PA. Enter the campus at the West Entrance on 9th Ave. and drive straight into the parking lot for the Kaleidoscope building.

For tickets go to www.facetimetheatre.org. Tickets cost $18 online and $20 at the door.

Company music and lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim with book by George Furth. It was originally produced and directed on Broadway by Harold Prince with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. Company is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).