jenny and david, from “company”

i recently introduced my father to my favorite musical of all time via the 2011 staged concert proshot. one scene we went back and forth about for ages afterwards was the scene where bobby smokes weed with david and jenny.

my dad was very adamant about his interpretation that david’s an asshole, and that jenny pretends to be “dumb and square” to please him, and to make him feel like he’s wearing the pants in the relationship when she’s really the one in charge. she slides back into the “square” persona and tells bobby to put the pot away because he’ll wake the kids, but she would’ve totally smoked another joint if david had been into the idea.

my read on that scene has always been a lot softer, maybe because i’ve seen a looooot of productions of this show. i tend to view it as being that jenny didn’t actually enjoy smoking weed that much, and david is seeing through that. the idea being that david admires that jenny tried to play along (“she did it for me, she loved it for me”), but ultimately he’s sort of like, “i appreciate you going along with it, but i’d prefer you be yourself.”

while i’m fully aware that interpretations of basically any scene in this show vary from production to production. i’m just really interested in which way of playing it you guys prefer! :-)

is there a production you’ve seen that you feel interpreted this scene particularly well? do you prefer to see david and jenny as a couple who understands one another better than anyone, or as a domineering husband and a clever wife pulling the strings behind his back?

personally, i think in the 2011 version john cryer is definitely playing “oblivious blowhard”, but i think the 2007 version leans more towards a softer interpretation of their dynamic. i’m not totally sure about my thoughts on the recent genderbent revival, except that i like the added line about boy-jenny being raised baptist.