Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park supplied this current Broadway version. It's a B.Y.O.I. transfer — Bring Your Own Instrument — y'know, one of those shows where Elizabeth Stanley plays April, Oboe, Tuba and Alto Sax, where Robert Cunningham plays Paul, Trumpet and Drums, where Leenya Rideout plays Jenny, Violin, Guitar and Double Bass…

Yes, John Doyle has struck again. The inventive Brit, who just waltzed off with Tony and Drama Desk Awards as 2006's Best Director of a Musical for his one-cast-band version of Sweeney Todd, is back, bullhorn in one hand and metronome in the other.

Stephen Sondheim, who loathes the commotion attending his Broadway openings, this time may have actually escaped the whole ordeal without any photographic proof of him ever having been there. The Phantom of the Musical Theatre slipped into his seat on the aisle in the last row after the show began, bolted for the exit at the first sign of intermission, ducked into a bistro for the duration, returned with the dregs and malingerers for Act Two, then dashed for his limo as Esparza stepped forth to take a bow. And if you think Stephen Sondheim is showing up for an opening-night party at The Copacabana — I mean, it is a Barry Manilow song, right? — then you got another think coming. I think not.

Three of Sondheim's book writers caught Company and were almost as press-shy as the invisible maestro himself. The man of the hour, George Furth, admitted he was very proud of the way Company still played — before he realized he was being interviewed. "I just don't do interviews — that's why I have so many friends," he said with a friendly finality. Pacific Overtures' John Weidman grinned and nodded and kept walking when asked if he was still Bounce-ing (his and Sondheim's endlessly reworked latest). And Sunday in the Park with George's James Lapine just eschewed the press. Even a Lapine-created star, Dirty Blonde Claudia Shear, gave me her usual scurrilous-journalist greeting (in jest, I guess, as she has only been of good report by me). But these things filter down from the top.

Cobweb-dusting was his primary order of business this time. "The most complicated thing about the show is making sure it's relevant for now. It so always has been seen as a 1970s musical, and I didn't want that to be. I wanted to be relevant and modern and contemporary, about people who are now. That was my priority, and I hope that worked."

Esparza, listed as percussion and Bobby in the program, takes his own sweet time before making his instrument selection. He doesn't make the director an honest man until the big 11 o'clock number, "Being Alive" — and then he only plays (on the piano he has been leaning on all evening) the lead-in, but he wants full credit for that. "I had to learn how to play the piano," the actor confessed heavily like one who has Practiced Practiced Practiced. "I had the kazoo in 'Side by Side by Side.' In Cincinnati I had the cymbals, but he took them away because he said they were cheap. John doesn't believe in cheap."

Vocally, he nightly thrives on "Being Alive," he said. "It's just one of those things you feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself when you sing that song. It feels like all those people who used to be part of Broadway coming together — I dunno, like stepping into a river or something." His second favorite moment is a song written for the original show but cut, "Marry Me a Little," and now restored for the first-act curtain. "That's a real gift because every time I sing it I remember hearing it in college."

A volatile performer with a penchant for tearing loose, Esparza plays bachelor Bobby close to the vest, and costumer Ann Hould-Ward keeps the character stylishly buttoned-down in Armani. "She liked the line of it," he said. "She tried on five different suits, all of them gorgeous, and she chose the Armani, and I have to say she was right.

"I wanted very much for the role to be still and to be simple, and I didn't want him to be particularly expressive — someone who is more contained and doesn't really enjoy being touched. It's amazing to go up on stage and just be a regular guy. I think that's the thing about what George and Steve did with this — they put people up on stage that you can recognize. And I think that's really what's sorta groundbreaking about the show — that suddenly there's this musical about us, somehow, in all of our ambivalence."

The children in Company are not seen or heard, but two debuted as opening-night party girls, essentially sleeping through it: Sullivan May Hunter, the three-month-old daughter of associate director Adam John Hunter, and Samantha Kono, the six-weeks-old daughter of Heather Laws, who plays the show's hysterical bride Amy ("Getting Married Today") when not otherwise occupied with the French horn, flute and trumpet.

"I rehearsed the last two weeks of my pregnancy," said Laws. "She was 11 days late so [that] gave me some extra rehearsal time, which was nice." And hubby was helpful (Ben Kono is a saxophonist with Jersey Boys). She didn't have to be told that Veanne Cox was Tony-nominated for her wedding nerves in a previous revival. "I was visiting New York, and I ushered to go and see it — isn't that silly? — and I do remember her. She was terrific."

Lightning could very well strike twice. She already nabbed a CEA award nomination when she broke in the role in Cincinnati, and it's clear she has the acting chops. She did Sally Bowles in Studio 54's Cabaret and covered for both Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland in The Boy From Oz ("My mother! My sister! My daughter!" she giggled).

Also filling some old Tony-nominated shoes —Barbara Barrie's and Charles Kimbrough's from the original Company — are Kristin Huffman and Keith Buterbaugh, who have quite a workout as the karate couple, Sarah and Harry.

It's Huffman's Broadway bow, and she's not alone. "There are eight of us making our Broadway debuts!" she beamed proudly. And she finds a lot of justification in this role for sticking to her guns a long time ago. "I'm glad when I was in college I didn't let them talk me out of being a double major. I was flute and voice, and they wanted me to pick one or the other, and I just couldn't because I loved the flute as well so I'm so excited that I never separated them. I also played volleyball so maybe that helped with the karate, too. We actually had a fight coordinator come in and work with us together, Drew Fracher. John is so loyal. He brought the same person in to work with us in New York." Continued...