Sondheim 101
OLLI Fall Semester 2018 • Alan Teasley, Instructor
Class 3 • Company Today’s Opening NumberJust listen . . .
Today’s Focus: Broadway Breakthrough Company (1970)—
The “Concept Musical” is Born
The Remarkable Collaboration of Sondheim with Harold Prince
1970: Company
1971: Follies
1973: A Little Night Music
1976: Pacific Overtures
1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
1981: Merrily We Roll Along
Sondheim on Company
(Song 5: “Being Alive”)
Six by Sondheim (Directed by James Lapine,
HBO, 2014)
(10 minutes)
Original Cast Album: Company A Documentary by D. A. Pennebaker
The Company original cast album was recorded on May 3, 1970, a few days after the show's opening on Broadway.
18 hour session, captured by a documentary film crew in a cinéma vérité style
Recording produced by Thomas Z. Shepard
Interviews with Sondheim, Prince & Furth
Intended as the first a series of films documenting the recording of original cast albums, this remains the only one of its kind.
Company: Characters & Plot
Robert & His Married Friends:
Joanne & Larry
Sarah & Harry
Susan & Peter
Jenny & David
Amy & Paul
Robert’s Girlfriends:
Marta, Kathy, & April
Company (1970): Creative Team
Producer/Director: Harold Prince
Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: George Furth
Choreographer: Michael Bennett
Scenic Design: Boris Aronson
Cast: Dean Jones, Elaine Stritch, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Donna McKechnie, Beth Howland
Ran for 705 performances
Company: Musical Numbers, Act I
“Company”
“The Little Things You Do Together” *
“Sorry-Grateful”
“You Could Drive a Person Crazy”
“Have I Got a Girl For You”
*Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Elaine Stritch
Company: Musical Numbers, Act I (continued)
“Someone is Waiting”
“Another Hundred People”*
“Getting Married Today”
[“Marry Me a Little”]
*Pamela Myers & Larry Kert
Company: Musical Numbers, Act II
“Side by Side by Side”
“Poor Baby”
“Tick Tock” (instrumental: danced by Donna McKechnie)
“Barcelona”
“The Ladies Who Lunch”
“Being Alive”
Company: Musical Numbers, Act II
“Side by Side by Side”
“Poor Baby”
“Tick Tock” (instrumental: danced by Donna McKechnie)
“Barcelona”
“The Ladies Who Lunch”*
“Being Alive”*Elaine Stritch
Company (1970)
The Dilemma of the Closing Number
First: “Multitudes of Amy”
Then: “Happily Ever After”
And Finally . . . Raúl Esparza, 2006
Company (NY Philharmonic Concert, 2011)
“Being Alive” Neil Patrick Harris
& Company
(6:07)
Company Won 6 Tony Awards (1970) (out of 14 nominations)
Best Musical
Score: Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: George Furth
Scenic Design: Boris Aronson
Direction (Musical): Harold Prince
Also Nominated: Actor (Kert), Actress (Stritch, Browning), Featured Actor (Kimbrough), Featured Actress (Barrie, Myers), Lighting Design (Ornbo), Choreography (Bennett)
Company as a “Concept Musical”
“Concept, the word coined to describe the form of the Sondheim musical, suggests that all elements of the musical, thematic and presentational, are integrated to suggest a central theatrical image or idea. . . . A central conceit controls and shapes an entire production. The thematic thrust of the work dictates not only the content of the piece, but also the presentational form.”
—Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim (1992)
Company as a “Concept Musical”
Sondheim repudiates the designation:
“‘Concept’ is this decade’s vogue word just as ‘integrated’ was the vogue theatrical word of the ‘40s, referring to an approach in which a story is told and characters are advanced through song. . . .
—quoted in Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy (1992)
Company as a “Concept Musical”
Sondheim, continued:
“The watershed . . . was Oklahoma! Everything that followed can be seen as a development of it—either a rejection or a carrying on. Me, I’m carrying it on, making variations.”
—quoted in Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy (1992)