In good “Company”

Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” has a way of making its audience squirm. This is particularly true for anyone catching the musical on Broadway, where its honest take on married, middle-class New Yorkers often hits a bit too close to home. Still, buy yourself a ticket (and then make an appointment with your therapist): over three decades after its debut, this show feels as fresh as ever.

At its centre is a surprise birthday party for Robert, played by the wonderfully boyish Raul Esparza. A 35-year-old bachelor in a sea of married couples, he is the odd-man out, often observing the awkward imperfections of his friends’ marriages, and defending himself against efforts to get him hitched. A wary, beloved bystander, he is both alone and never alone. His friends fondly hound him–“Bo-bby”, they cry, they demand–to commit to one of his many girlfriends, yet they envy his independence. (Homosexual fans of the play have long-claimed Robert as a possibly-not heterosexual proxy for their own social place, but he is not in fact a gay character.)

Morgan Library / Museums+Galleries / New York

AFTER three years of renovation, New York’s most treasured library has reopened to the public. Other museums may have their large, blockbuster canvases, but the Morgan, filled with prints, drawings, books and manuscripts, has a unique sense of the precious. The museum was born in the early 20th century as the personal library of Pierpont Morgan, who—in addition to ruling over America’s steel industry, banks and railroads—was an avid collector.

Spring Awakening / Theatre / New York

THIS new show grapples with the angst and sexual urgency of being a teenager. New territory this is not, yet “Spring Awakening” feels fresh. Based on Frank Wedekind’s scandalous 19th-century play, its characters come of age in Germany, buzzing with nascent sexual needs and riddled with questions about whether to obey authority or defy it.

Grey Gardens / Theatre / New York

ANYONE decrying the mediocrity of Broadway musicals must see “Grey Gardens”. The story comes from a cinéma vérité, 1975 documentary of the same name about two reclusive relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis living in a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons. The film tenderly showcases the eccentricities of this regally squalid pair—the elderly Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier Beale and her middle-aged daughter, Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale. Fans of the documentary may doubt a leap to the stage. But somehow this adaptation retains much of the original’s charm, largely due to a remarkable performance from Christine Ebersole. As the mother in the first act and the daughter in the second, she gives voice to the mysterious aches of these two women.

The Year of Magical Thinking / Theatre / New York

JOAN Didion’s memoir, “The Year of Magical Thinking”, is a poignant and personal missive. Written after the death of her husband of nearly 40 years, John Gregory Dunne, the book is a testament to her grief, her amazing loss. Despite the private nature of her subject—and its inherent solipsism—Ms Didion’s nuanced prose drew readers into her suffering.

Martín Ramírez / Fine Art / New York

Martín Ramírez (1895-1963) is considered one of the great American “outsider” artists of the 20th century. As a Mexican immigrant, he was arrested and taken into custody in northern California in 1925. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, he spent the next 35 years in various mental institutions, unable to communicate in English.

But he began drawing, scribbling on scraps of paper that he struggled to hide from hospital staff who would often throw his work away. He came to the attention of Dr Tarmo Pasto, a psychology professor, who ended up studying him (and providing art materials) as part of his research on art therapy and rehabilitation.