The first question is do you review this as a movie, a concert, a Broadway show, a movie of a Broadway show concert? No matter what category you place it under the review has to start off with WOW! What Entertainment!

There is also the question of whether the draw to the movie houses across the States, outside of New York, is  Stephen Sondheim or Neil Patrick Harris. There is no doubt the former is one of, if not, the foremost Broadway musical composer but his shows are not known to be
big money makers and in recent years it has taken big names to draw in
the crowds while very few of his individual songs have been in the top
10. Then there is the draw of Harris who in the past week was dynamite
as the emcee of the 2011 Tony awards, had has a hit TV show for years,
was a hit as the emcee of a previous Tony show, hosted the Emmy awards
in 2009, opened the Oscar show in 2010, has won 2 Emmys and has made his
mark on the web. He was previously on Broadway in the play "Proof", has
appeared in other shows, "Assassins" and "Sweeney Todd" by Sondheim,
played the role of the emcee in "Cabaret" and did "Rent" on tour not to
mention directinga version of that show in the Hollywood Bowl. How much
attention did the cast singing "Side By Side By Side" on Sunday bring to
this movie concert?

None
of these questions mattered in the full auditorium of people that I
watched it with last night. They laughed, applauded and some, like me,
hid a tear or two when Neil Patrick Harris sang "Being Alive". As a
rule, the women were stronger than the men, but their parts and songs
were stronger than the men's with the exception of Harris who the show
revolved around. He is the single man, who celebrating his 35th
birthday, is becoming envious of his 10 friends, 5 married couples,  who
seem to needle, taunt and pick on each other, in other words typical
long term couples.

All
the 22 actors, singers and dancers, plus the New York Philharmonic, 
come through with fine performances in addition there were a few
stand-outs that were worth the price of admission alone and they were,
in addition to Neil Patrick Harris, the glue that held the production
together, Anika Noni Rose who sings "Another Hundred People", Patti
LuPone doing "The Ladies Who Lunch" and Katie Finneran, who is
hysterical and had the movie audience cheering along with the  concert
audience in the film, killing with "Not Getting Married Today." The
interplay between Harris and Craig Bierko had my laughing out loud for
the first this year in a movie theatre.

Each
of us, 100 people, paid $18  to see "Stephen Sondheim's Company With
The New York Philharmonic" and I know the Muvico movie house made more
money from this auditorium than their other 17 combined. We each had a
front seat to see a show that we would never have seen otherwise and I
am hoping this goes over well enough so that we will see more 'movies'
like this--the Encore series? The songs of yesteryear Town Hall shows?
There are only a couple of perform- ances left of "Company" and I hope
that word of mouth is enough to sell them out.

By the way who do you think was the draw?