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| as a single man with married friends... | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 12:00 am EST 01/02/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 11:58 pm EST 01/01/22 | |
| In reply to: re: My Company rant in general - not targeted to you, kidmanboy - with staging spoilers - PlayWiz 05:38 pm EST 12/31/21 | |
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| Responding to the 2nd part of that post... I am a single man in my mid 30s with man married couples as friends, straight and gay, and I can assure you that it is not in the LEAST BIT hard to believe that the couples haven't "dropped" Bobby from their social life. My friends haven't and they seem to show no sign of that. If anything I think a lot of couples like having single friends too because it is interesting and different than just other married couples or married people with kids. My married friends are always interested in hearing stories from my dating and sex life, and the life I lead that allows me to travel and adventure etc. I don't know why you think it's so common and understandable and expected that married couples "drop" single friends... and I can't speak to 1970, or before or after it until the 2010s, but it certainly it's accurate today. I also think the text makes it very clear that these people like Bobby and care about Bobby, that they have friendships. You don't just drop a friendship because your life becomes that of a couple or a parent. You may have less time for them but also most of these couples are NYC couples who socialize and don't have kids. As for part 1 of this post, I think it works as well or better for Bobby to be gay, and I also think the original version works as well or better if Bobby were in the closet and Being Alive is him opening the door to coming out. But as for Company working present day, non-period piece, I have said to anyone who'll listen that not only do I think a gay Bobby works, but that gay Bobby with *gay coupled friends* is probably the *best* and perhaps only way the show actually and really works for current day. I think single gay men in their mid/late 30s today (7 years into gay marriage being legal, etc) are currently where single straight men of that age range were in 1970, in terms of what is assumed/expected by friends and community, what they expect or hope for for themselves, what their friends are doing, the likelihood of having so many coupled friends... the situations, the characters, the conflicts, the songs... they are seem EXTREMELY close to what my life as a single gay man in my mid/late 30s is like and much less relevant or interesting for a straight Bobby or a female Bobby. |
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| re: as a single man with married friends... | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 12:16 am EST 01/02/22 | |
| In reply to: as a single man with married friends... - Chazwaza 11:58 pm EST 01/01/22 | |
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| " You don't just drop a friendship because your life becomes that of a couple or a parent. " It happens, and it sucks. There's at least one other poster on this thread who concurs. But you're fortunate. I don't know why Sondheim and the others fought against productions making Bobby gay. It would, yes, work better with surrounding couples both gay and straight. To a lesbian couple, a gay guy isn't usually a threat. To some gay couples, a single gay guy might men possibly play around if they are open and he is up for it (and somehow acknowledges to at least them that he is gay, even if otherwise to other couples he is closeted). Or he just might be a great friend, and they'd be interested in hearing about his social and/or sex life. Among other kinds of permutations, it would just make a more plausible show. |
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| re: as a single man with married friends... | |
| Last Edit: Chazwaza 03:30 am EST 01/02/22 | |
| Posted by: Chazwaza 03:27 am EST 01/02/22 | |
| In reply to: re: as a single man with married friends... - PlayWiz 12:16 am EST 01/02/22 | |
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| I don't think Bobby should be not a threat sexually, just not trying to be one... despite the lyrics from the couples "who's always a flirt, but never a threat" (flirting is only flirting if there's a theoretical sexual compatibility anyway, so that should be there), which I don't think is meant to confirm that he *could* never, just that it is not what these friendships are. Also, Someone Is Waiting has to be able friends that are potential partners for Bobby whether a straight male with women, or gay male with men (or straight woman with men)... not to mention that in the original, at least one of the coupled friends, Amy, is someone Bobby had something with in the past, no? My pitch is it be gay male Bobby and all gay male couples... maybe a bi couple or poly... and we not worry about the "threat" of him being an attractive man around other gay men, welcome to gay life. Gay men with gay male friends (very very common, be they coupled or not) always have the potential of sexual attraction to each other *and* the potential to act on it. Friendships are not barred because that could happen. It should be a present factor though especially in friendship with Joanne (whatever the gay male version would be... Jonah?), where a sexual chemistry they've never acted on, even an unlikely one, is part of what makes the interested in being friends, part of the dynamic... hence the line "when are we gonna make it?" A very believable and common thing in gay male friendships. And propositioning a friend when drunk if you're gay often doesnt' even come with adultery strings, because so many gay couples are open or willing to accept sex as not the biblical dealbreaker straight marriages tend to (or pretend to) see it as. |
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