Company by Stephen Sondheim at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, dreicted by John Doyle, starring Raul Esparza. John Doyle's follow up to his brilliant staging of Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", is the seminal "Company" an early, if somewhat dated, masterpiece by Stephen Sondheim. Doyle repeats the feat of having the performers play instruments at the same time, however what was a scintillating "Coup de Theatre" in "Sweeney" becomes here, actually a distraction, and is often annoying. I really resented seeing a lovely lanky girl dragging a double bass around the stage. Ridiculous. The only time what has become an repetitive gimmick worked organically just as it did in "Sweeney" was in the "Side by Side" number. Otherwise, this prematurely tired feat now seemed more like a way to stiff a Broadway band out of their paychecks. As for the performances, only Raul Esparza justifies the trip through the bridges and tunnels. He is brilliant, simply brilliant, and by himself is nearly well worth the trouble to see "Company". Of the rest, only Heather Laws as Amy makes an impression but at least it is a big one and her well deserved ovation at the end rivalled that of Esparza. The rest of the cast seems a little motley. Let's face it, the need to find a cast who can play musical instruments as well as sing and act can't be easy and it may be that less than ideal choices were made on this basis. As for the staging, I didn't like it, and I loathed the sets which is unusual in what is automatically a taken for granted strength on Broadway. There was a column in the middle that made it difficult to see all the actors at the same time. Stupid. Esparza's talent gives this an above mediocre grade of C+ but it takes a B to pass our stringent Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test so we rank the revival of "Company" as a failure.