Company: Does Bobby Need a Wife?

Last week PBS Great Performances aired the 2011 production of Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical, Company. This production took place for four nights only at Lincoln Center, featuring an all-star cast of performers from musical theater, movies, and TV. Each actor looks like they're having the time of their life on stage and they deliver one hell of a performance considering that they rehearsed everything remotely and only came together on the day of the first performance. It's an extraordinary feat for an extraordinary musical.

Company centers on Bobby (Neil Patrick Harris), a 35-year old bachelor who doesn't seem to have any single friends. The play begins as five couples descend on Bobby's apartment to throw him a surprise birthday party. They are all extremely fond of him but keep pestering him to find a wife in order to find true happiness. The rest of the play features vignettes of the five couples as they demonstrate that they might not be as happy as Bobby assumes, as well as featuring a look at Bobby's various girlfriends.

I won't delve into the particular problems plaguing each couple because you need to watch these stories unfold and enjoy both the comedy and pathos of these strange relationships. Neil Patrick Harris has a wonderfully expressive face and his reactions to his friends' bizarre antics are often as funny as the antics themselves. There are various memorable performances, including a tongue-twistingly rapid-fire rendition of the patter song, "Getting Married Today" by the always hilarious Katie Finneran and Patti LuPone's soaring delivery of "The Ladies Who Lunch." Two TV performers who will surprise you with their musical chops are Mad Men's Christina Hendricks, who plays April, a rather dumb flight attendant who likes to tell marvelously pointless stories, and Stephen Colbert, who fulfills his longtime theater ambitions with plenty of singing, dancing, and a very involved karate fight with Martha Plimpton.

The draw of this production of Company was undoubtedly the cast, but once you get over seeing so many stars collected on one stage, you are captivated by the story of Bobby and his friends, all of whom are experts at doling out relationship advice but not so great at following it. Company is one of Sondheim's most beloved musicals, and the range and breadth of its melodies will keep you engaged during the entire performance. You can watch this production on Amazon or buy the DVD, so celebrate Sondheim Week and treat yourself to a musical that never gets old.