Movie Musical Review: Company (Sondheim)

This is the 2011 version of the musical Company which originally played Broadway in 1970.  The staging is different with the orchestra behind the actors on stage.  Neil Patrick Harris plays Robert, the 35 year old bachelor, whose friends are interested in his getting married.  The play is presented as a series of vignettes, with Robert interacting with his married friends as company.  He plays a smoke pot scene, I am on the wagon scene, we're getting a divorce scene.  Of note are Katie Finneran playing Amy, and sings the "Getting Married Today" song.  Robert, says marry me then, and that convinces her to go through with the wedding.  Patti Lupone plays Carol, the rich eccentric who proposes that they have an affair, and this gets Robert to think that maybe he should marry.  She sings Ladies Who Lunch, which is a look back over her life and marriage.  She gets this way when she drinks too much. 
Harris sings the concluding number, where he concludes that even with its flaws, marriage is the way to go, as then you are "alive."
Being Alive
ROBERT:
Somebody, hold me too close,
Somebody, hurt me too deep,
Somebody, sit in my chair
And ruin my sleep
And make me aware
Of being alive,
Being alive.

Somebody, need me too much,
Somebody, know me too well,
Somebody, pull me up short
And put me through hell
And give me support
For being alive,
Make me alive.

Make me confused,
Mock me with praise,
Let me be used,
Vary my days.
But alone is alone, not alive.

Somebody, crowd me with love,
Somebody, force me to care,
Somebody, make me come through,
I'll always be there,
As frightened as you,
To help us survive
Being alive,
Being alive,
Being alive!

Music Review: ***Sweeney Todd in Concert

Sweeney Todd 2001,  This is a concert version which I got through Netflix DVD.  It stars George Hearn and Pati Lupone.  I was thinking that a concert version would take some of the brutality away.  I had previously watched the Johnnie Depp version, but it was just too drastic and bloody.  Still, even the music, with the vague references to violence and red lighting to portray the murders, left me with that same irritated feeling.  It is not to say this version didn’t have wonderful music.  Johanna is a beautiful song, but better in the reprise duet as the barber gets to sing of his lost daughter.  Patti Lupone and Neil Patrick Harris sing the song “Not While I'm Around.”  It is a beautiful song.  I also like the judge, the villain in this show, who comes to get his hair cut.  In the movie this is played by Alan Rickman  who also portrays Snape.  The bum bata bum song he sings while the barber is whistling is beautiful, and from there, they sing “Pretty Women.”

This concert has a lot to recommend it, but the violence of the story turned me away from really enjoying it.