Actress Beth Laird, a Delaware County native, keeping good ‘Company’

Wayne native Beth Stafford Laird really does enjoy the traveling aspect of her job. Well most of it.

“Can’t collect too many new items with you or else it’ll throw off whether your bag is 50 pounds at the airport or not,” said Laird, who is on the road with the Broadway musical “Company.”

The story of a New York bachelorette and friends will be coming to the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia Nov. 28 to Dec. 10. Visit http://www.kimmelculturalcampus.org for more information and tickets.

Stafford Laird has been on the road for 10 years. “Company” is her fifth traveling Broadway show, so she’s becoming an expert at living out of a suitcase.

“Some of these cities I’m revisiting, but it’s been years since I’ve been here,” Laird said. “So, it’s always nice to sort of pull into a city and be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. And, oh, oh, that’s different. I love checking out different coffee shops in every place. I like trying some of the local spots.”

The “Company” tour has a little extra special added to it for the Conestoga High School graduate.

“Some of my family and friends will be in town, so it will be great to see them around the holidays,” said Laird.

The last time Stafford Laird performed in Philly was as part of the show “Anastasia” five years ago at the Academy of Music.

“I am so excited to come home,” Laird said. “We have dates through mid-October 2024, but right after the Philly show we have a couple of weeks off. That’s the perfect time for a break. We meet back up in New York after the New Year.”

This version of “Company,” the musical comedy masterpiece about the search for love and cocktails in New York, is a little different than the one that debuted on Broadway in 1970.

The original Stephen Sondheim musical followed a bachelor named Bobby around New York and dealt with contemporary dating, marriage and divorce. The original won six Tony Awards.

The new touring “Company” is turned on its head in Marianne Elliott’s revelatory revival staging in 2021, in which musical theater’s most iconic bachelor is now a bachelorette.

At Bobbie’s 35th birthday party, all her friends are wondering why isn’t she married? Why can’t she find the right man? And, why can’t she settle down and have a family?

This comedy, given a game-changing makeover for a modern-day Manhattan, features some of Sondheim’s best loved songs, including “Company,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “Side by Side,” and the iconic “Being Alive.”

Sondheim and Elliott collaborated to update “Company,” bringing Bobbie’s array of friends and lovers into the 21st century: Paul is waiting patiently for his fiancée Jamie to get over his frantic wedding day jitters; Sarah and Harry try jujitsu to keep their marriage alive; Joanne is on her third husband with younger man, Larry; Peter and Susan seem to have the perfect marriage, until perfection proves impossible; Jenny and her square husband, David, can’t understand Bobbie’s perpetually single status and are not shy about telling her.

All the while Bobbie juggles three men: sexy flight attendant Andy, small-town boy Theo trying to find his way in the big city, and P.J., the native New Yorker who is more in love with his hometown than Bobbie.

Laird plays Bobbie’s double in the show.

“There are a couple moments in the show when Bobbie, our main actress sort of steps outside of herself and is almost watching elements of her life play out in front of her,” Laird said. “There are short, fleeting moments in the show where I appear as her body double. I also am her understudy. So I’m prepared to play the role of Bobbie if, for whatever reason, our amazing lead Brittany Coleman, ever needs to not be in the show.”

For now, Laird, who has added some vocal teaching when she is back home in Brooklyn, will keep the suitcase packed and make sure no extra souvenirs get in there.

“Growing up in the suburbs, the city was always so accessible, but I love getting to spend more concentrated time down in Center City,” said Laird.