Shortly, Melbourne Festival will host a theatre company from New York as part of a cultural exchange between the two cities. On first glance, it may seem an unlikely pairing. New York is often referred to as the cultural capital of the universe, and Melbourne is the cultural capital of what one former prime minister labelled ‘the arse end of the world’. What could Melbourne possibly have to offer New York in such an exchange?

The answer may be glimpsed in Watch This’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s quintessential New York musical, Company. Alarming audiences when it opened in 1970 on account of the absence of plot and the deeply ambivalent protagonist, the show revolves around birthday boy Robert (Nick Simpson-Deeks), single and surrounded by ‘those good and crazy people my married friends’. Despite its geographic specificity, the piece seems to fit Melbourne rather snugly.