Stephen Sondheim’s wildly successful Company has been revived on Broadway three times and twice on the West End. It has garnered more awards and glowing reviews since its premiere in 1970 than anyone could care to count; a high bar to live up to. The production running at the ADC this week does justice to the show, bringing a playful and witty version of the show to Cambridge.

“Highlights include Maddie Smith’s show-stopping performance of Getting Married Today which was incredibly impressive”

The musical’s central character is Robert (Isaac Jackson); a reasonably successful man in New York in his mid-thirties whose friends are all married couples who face various difficulties in their relationships. Robert himself is a charming man but a bit of a lost soul, whose motivations are sometimes obscure even to himself and much of the show is spent exploring his hesitancy towards marriage. Jackson captures this well, his performance leaning into Robert’s suave and easy nature. In private moments this exterior breaks to reveal a more indecisive figure, one wracked with doubt about the merits of marriage. Giving a relaxed, low-key performance for much of the show, Jackson’s intensity increases sharply towards the final number 'Being Alive'. A powerful classic solo musical theatre number, 'Being Alive' is the dramatic climax of the show and one which Jackson pulls off wonderfully.

Praise is due to the rest of the cast, many of whom carried out their solo pieces well. As a group they were a highly energetic presence on stage, filling it with laughter, movement and some impressive dancing. When the stage was filled with the cast like this in the big numbers this production really came into its own, with the lighting and choreography to match the paced music; the exuberance of the cast was infectious to the audience. Highlights include Maddie Smith’s show-stopping performance of 'Getting Married Today' which was incredibly impressive and had the audience in stitches for the whole song; a remarkable display of timing and control which appeared effortless.

“The musical’s cynical savaging of married life and ‘perfect’ relationships through its five flawed couples is enormously enjoyable”

Elliot Aitken’s directorial vision was clear throughout, evidenced as much in the little flourishes and quirks as the major decisions. These little quirks elevated George Furth’s text, filling out the characters in a clever, witty way. Little characterisations and flourishes in movement and verbal quirks in performances such as those by Lauren Lopez as April, Tom Hayes as Larry and Smith as Amy went a long way to drawing out the frailties and comic potential of each character and each marriage. The musical’s cynical savaging of married life and ‘perfect’ relationships through its five flawed couples is enormously enjoyable, and irreverent takes on life in a couple are plentiful (‘It’s the children you destroy together/That keep marriage intact’ is a nice, upbeat paraphrase of ‘man passes on misery to man’). All this well-poised, stylised savagery was done particularly well for the character of Joanne (Ashley Cooper) whose sarcastic edge and biting rendition of ‘Ladies Who Lunch’ was excellent.

There were a few first-night wrinkles still to be ironed out; once or twice the actors’s lines bumped into each other and the sound engineering meant that at times the actors were struggling to be heard over the band, but these are the kind of things which are easily adjusted and fixed for the rest of the run.

Company is all the things you expect; the reflection on life with someone or life without someone, a biting critique of the deep intractable flaws of long-term romantic relationships whilst also re-affirming the human need to love in some form. It also was an unexpected ode to friendship which I found surprisingly touching. Aitken’s production of Company is littered with impressive performances, full of clever, playful moments engaged in making the audience laugh and is surely a production Sondheim himself would have been pleased by.