Manatee Players stand ‘Side by Side’ for Stephen Sondheim’s musical ‘Company’

Though he has been happily married for 20 years and has two teenagers, Cory Woomert has long wanted to play the bachelor Bobby in the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company,” which he’ll be doing at the Manatee Performing Arts Center beginning March 2.

“This is definitely one of those bucket list roles,” Woomert said, primarily because of the music and lyrics. “It’s one of my favorite Sondheim shows, and ‘Being Alive,’ which is kind of the 11 o’clock number, is one of my favorite musical theater songs ever. I’m just really excited to sink my teeth into it.”

In the song, Bobby begins to realize that being "alone is alone, not alive.”

The musical is set on Bobby’s 35th birthday and features a variety of vignettes with his married or coupled friends encouraging him to join them and settle down. Through scenes and musical numbers they reveal the joys, struggles, fears and work involved in a marriage.

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A recent Broadway revival garnered attention by switching Bobby’s gender from male to female in part because of the perceived ticking of her biological clock.

Director Rick Kerby, the producing artistic director of the Manatee Players theater troupe, said he is keeping the show in its original 1970s setting because “being single at 35 doesn’t have the same impact today that it did back then, the same social pressure.”

“Company” is also a “bucket list” show for Kerby, who has staged numerous other Sondheim musicals at the theater, including “Assassins,” “Sunday in the Park with George” and “Sweeney Todd.”

“The fact that it’s a Sondheim score is at the forefront for me,” Kerby said. “With the recent passing of this genius (Sondheim died in November 2021 at 91), I feel it’s time to really celebrate him. It’s a show I’ve never done and it’s one of the first Sondheim shows I was ever aware of. I had the LP that I played over and over as a kid.”

Woomert stars with a large number of actors who, like him, have been seen in many musicals at the theater, including Ellen Kleinschmidt, David Russell, Jennifer Baker, Mike Nolan, Brittney Klepper, Michelle Anaya, Sarah Yonko and Shannon Wright.

He said he has had to do a little digging to connect with Bobby.

“I got married very young, so I had to look at myself in my 20s and think back to then,” he said. “I always wanted to be married, wanted kids, wanted a family. I had to dig deep on the idea of switching that mind set to the opposite and visualizing what the appeal of staying single might be for someone in his 30s.”

In addition to “Being Alive,” the score includes such Sondheim favorites as “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side by Side,” “Marry Me a Little,” “Another Hundred People” and “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.”

Emily Croome is the musical director.

‘Company’

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth. Directed and choreographed by Rick Kerby. Runs March 2-12, Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave., West, Bradenton. 941-748-5875; manateeperformingartscenter.com

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sondheim’s ‘Company’ explores joys of marriage at Manatee Players