"Company" is quite simply in a league by itself. Artistry, excitement, intelligence and professionalism have been so long gone from Broadway that it's almost easy to forget when the musical theatre held the promise of greatness, and yet that was only as long ago as the last work of Leonard Bernstein ("West Side Story"), Jerome Robbins ("Fiddler On The Roof") and Stephen Sondheim ("Anyone Can Whistle"). Sondheim's new musical … is a tremendous piece of work, thrilling and chilling, glittering bright, really funny (and not so funny), exceedingly adult, gorgeous to look at and filled with brilliant music….

The theme of "Company" is bachelorhood in the New York of clever, successful, alcoholic, partying, sexually promiscuous, divorce-ridden people in their mid-30s—the New York of Fire Island and the Hamptons, of discotheques and beautiful clothes and money. The central character—Robert—is given a surprise 35th birthday party by...