Press Release: 11th Hour Theatre Company Stages Sondheim’s Company in Next Step Concert Series
11th Hour Theatre Company’s 13th season continues with it’s second concert in the Next Step Concert Series. Following a wildly successful run of Hair in October, the company is bringing an intimate, concert version of Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and George Furth’s (book) classic musical Company. Company runs December 1-3. Theatre Horizon’s Resident Director Matthew Decker directs and Daniel Perelstein is the Music Director. The concert will be at The Drake Theater, 302 Hicks Street. Tickets cost $15-$30 and are available online at www.11thhourtheatrecompany.org or by phone 267-987-9865.
The Next Step Concert Series is innovative, inspiring, and intimate. New and seldom seen musicals are stripped down to their very essence…good storytelling and incredible music. Company takes audiences into the life of Bobby on the eve of his 35th Birthday. A self-proclaimed bachelor for life, Bobby is facing a crisis. His bachelor days have quickly started to lose their excitement and the idea of always being alone has crept in. One of Sondheim’s most sophisticated and honest musicals, Company examines both the beauty and challenges that come from making a lifelong commitment to the person you love.
Company is a concept musical composed of short vignettes, presented in no particular order, linked by a celebration for Bobby’s 35th birthday. It was among the first musicals to deal with adult themes and relationships. As Sondheim puts it, “Broadway theater has been for many years supported by upper-middle-class people with upper-middle-class problems. These people really want to escape that world when they go to the theatre, and then here we are with Company talking about how we’re going to bring it right back in their faces”
11th Hour Producing Artistic Director Michael Philip O’Brien is cast as Robert/Bobby. Rachel Brennan is playing Susan/Jenny. 11th Hour Associate Artistic Director Steve Pacek plays Paul/Peter. Jenna Pinchbeck is playing Amy/Sarah and Michael Dean Morgan is David/Harry. David Bardeen is playing Larry. Suli Holum is Joanne. Maria Konstantinidis is Marta. Megan Ruggles is Kathy and Elena Camp is April. Mark Valenzuela is the Sound Designer for this concert.
“This has been a show that Matt Decker and I have been talking about doing for a long time. It is one of Sondheim’s most beautiful scores and a truly unique musical depiction of love and relationships. We are so excited to be working with such a talented group of artists to bring it to Philadelphia and 11th Hour audiences,” – said 11th Hour Producing Artistic Director Michael Philip O’Brien.
About the Show
Company
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Director: Matthew Decker
Music Director: Daniel Perelstein
Schedule
Friday, December 1- 8pm
Saturday, December 2 – 8pm
Sunday, December 3 – 3pm
About 11th Hour Theatre Company
11th Hour Theatre Company is the only company in Philadelphia dedicated to producing all musicals, all the time. Intimate by design, 11th Hour creates a lasting experience with the audience by producing character-driven musical theatre.
11th Hour produces a broad spectrum of musicals that fill a niche in the diverse Philadelphia theatre landscape: musicals that spark the creativity of artists and the imaginations of audiences. Over the past eleven seasons, they have produced seventeen full-scale musicals, nine of which were Philadelphia premieres. In addition to the World Premiere of their first commission, Field Hockey Hot, the company has contributed to the development of several new musicals beginning with Angst, a ten-minute musical that premiered in the Spark Festival of 2005. 11th Hour produced the American premiere of Austentatious that went on to success at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and a 29-hour reading of Fantasy Football, the Musical? before its production at New York University. Both Austentatious and Fantasy Football have since been published and are now professionally licensed. In the fall of 2014, 11th Hour partnered with University of the Arts to workshop Persephone Unplugged, a new twist on the classic Greek myth. With support from the Independence Foundation, 11th Hour recently commissioned their second musical from a local writing team, a Civil War-themed project currently titled Something Like a War.
11th Hour has received a total of fifty-five Barrymore Award nominations. Their work has been recognized with 13 awards, including five recently for last season’s Lizzie (including Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical), two consecutive awards for “Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical” (The Bomb-itty of Errors, The World Goes ‘Round), and several individual awards for their artists. Founding member Steve Pacek was also the proud recipient of the 2012 F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. In 2013, 11th Hour became the first-ever recipient of the June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theater.
