The current production of Company by Roustabout Theatre – another brand-new venture in the Austin scene – is directed, music directed, and choreographed by Adam Roberts, and produced by and starring Seth David Mitchell as Bobby. I’m not really a Sondheim fan, to my husband’s chagrin, but I suppose Company would be my favorite if I had to pick one. It’s hard to resist hearing both “Marry Me A Little” and “Being Alive” in two hours – love is too much, it’s not enough, it’s soaring and sad and hopeful in concert. Mitchell’s voice is perfect for Bobby.

You’ve got to hand it to him: Roberts is pretty massively talented, and finds massively talented people to work with. He pulls incredible performances from the entire cast. All of them appear to be completely happy on stage, and they handle Sondheim with aplomb – dancing up and down the octaves, tumbling out lyrics with so easy an air that even Simon Sawyer might approve. Harmonies are full and gratifying. Syllables are crisp and clear. Plus, there’s a live band – you can’t imagine my relief – and I sat near enough to hear conductor Tyler Mabry counting them in. What a joy!

I reflexively held my breath when Amy (Mariel Ardila) began “Getting Married Today”. I couldn’t help but smile anytime Joann (Laura Huffman Powell) stepped on stage. I was particularly enamored with Quincy Kuykendall as Larry; he has a voice that commands. It was really only Mitchell as our main birthday boy whose character I had a hard time grasping. He seems a bit dazed the whole time – a man to whom things just sort of happen. His singing is impressive, indeed, but one gets the feeling that Bobby is a lonely bachelor because he simply has never bothered to care enough about anything. Is that just Bobby? Is he always a bit of a blank slate to project one’s own loneliness onto? Most other characters felt much more relatable; they may not be perfect, to put it lightly, but they control their own lives, in whatever direction they might be headed.

A new addition to Roberts’ long resume that I wasn’t familiar with was his choreography credits. Some of it made sense, as in the number “Side By Side”, perhaps the only song suited for a dance number in the show. Or in “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” – what would a girlgroup be without some moves? But though the choreography is fairly simple in technique, it seems to be beyond the skills of many of the actors; it moved fairly quickly, and feet were often mismatched or beats missed. With music so complex and singers so talented, less is absolutely more. Gimmicks like the pop-out canes were really only distractions (poor JP Lopez, as Paul, dropped his as it popped open in his hand).

The decision to set the show in a subway station (Columbus Circle, if it matters) works rather well – Roberts and scenic designer Thedea Haining have carefully created a set that can become a living room or a bedroom or, well, another subway car – the show doesn’t move much! It becomes a bit crowded once the whole cast is on-stage, but I think that’s an intended effect; it’s what happens often on trains, in my experience. Who can be lonely when they’re constantly surrounded by other people? But when the crowd disperses, all to their own exits, the couples find each other in that crowd, like magic, and there’s Bobby, alone in the city. You know how people say that in Sex and the City, the City is the fifth main character? It felt the same for Company.

I have some nitpicks – and I don’t particularly think I would be wrong for nitpicking a $40 show. Difficulties of the deep thrust stage (often facing away from the “side” audiences), details of costume design (either everyone wears character shoes or no one does – pick one!), an over-reliance on the “balcony” in the back of the black box. But for quality of performance and production value, Company was an incredibly successful premier performance. Even if the cars in the St. Andrew’s School parking lot did call me poor as I walked by.

The thing that remains to be seen, then, is what kind of impact Roustabout will have on Austin, as a theater scene and as a city. Their press release notes that Roustabout is “set to make an immediate impact”. But in their interview with BroadwayWorld Austin, Roberts and Mitchell state plainly that their goal with Roustabout is to create shows in Austin that then tour. “[L]ike New York and beyond,” Mitchell explains. They’re not the first Austin theatre to hatch the idea of touring: Rude Mechs, of course, have produced works in many cities. But it’s an interesting goal to start a theatre with. It’s hard not to read into it the implication that Austin is just a starting place; Austin isn’t big enough or good enough. Sure – it’s not NYC. But it is where I live, and where Mitchell and Roberts live, and where you, dear readers, live – what would be wrong with just starting a regional theater here? With producing quality theater for Austinites, and attracting the out-of-state attention without abandoning the city? Mitchell and Roberts certainly know the right people: in a year where a number of established Austin companies didn’t receive city grants, tightened their belts and pressured their donors, Roustabout has unnamed “great partners and investors” who funded their “proof of concept”. The resources that they apparently have are powerful, and it would seem an awful shame if they used them to run away from Austin, rather than continue to make quality theater for and in Austin – as they’ve already done so well with Company.

Company plays at the Dell Performing Arts Center at St. Andrew’s School through April 6. For more information and tickets, visit Roustabout online.