Bobby Conte Thornton on His New Album and How Company Will Resonate When It Returns

Bobby Conte Thornton can't wait to be back with another hundred people. Thornton, who has the role of P.J. (previously known as Marta) in the Marianne Elliott-directed Company revival, knows that this time without theater will make the reunion so much sweeter. "I think every song and every interpretation in our show is going to change with time," he said to Paul Wontorek on Broadway.com's #LiveatFive: Home Edition. "Katrina Lenk singing 'Being Alive' is going to be a very different thing after this entire process. I get to sing 'Another Hundred People.' One of the most iconic Sondheim—let alone one of the most iconic New York City songs, ever written. It's going to be different singing these songs on stage again after going through this."

Thorton has been keeping busy during this time by releasing his debut album Along the Way and offering the first music video on #LiveatFive. Featuring 13 songs reimagined by Thornton and producer James Sampliner, Along the Way shows Thornton adding his own spin to some of the biggest tunes from The Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere" to "Love to Me" from The Light in the Piazza. "It's based off a solo cabaret that I do around the country," he said. "I first got asked to do in 2015 at the Venetian Room right after I graduated college. When I was in high school, there was a competition that the Venetian Room hosted each year called Bay Area Teen Idol. You'd sing one song and you're voted on by a panel of judges, and the winner of that gets to be the opening act of a Broadway cabaret singer. I won and got to open for Laura Benanti when I was a freshman in college. I got some very generous notes, and they said,'You can debut your own show when you finish school.' So, it's been a five-year journey with this cabaret and album."

Other than releasing an album, in the past five years Thornton graduated from the University of Michigan, made his Broadway debut starring in A Bronx Tale and landed his "Sondheim dream role" in Company. "I just feel so lucky," he said. "What's incredible about Marianne Elliott, our director, is how she invites the actor into the creative process. I was originally in for Clay Elder's part, Andy the naked flight attendant, and that clearly didn't work. I think she inherently chooses people who maybe don't have the idea right in the audition room of what the final take on the character will be, but she knows that she wants to be in a room with them creating something and knowing with time we're gonna find something extraordinary. I think we did just that." 

Watch Thornton reflect on A Bronx Tale and more in the full episode below!