.gif)
Company (musical)
Encyclopedia
Company is a musical
with a book by George Furth
and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six.
Originally entitled Threes, its plot revolves around Bobby (a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, let alone marriage), the five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, Company is a concept musical composed of short vignette
s, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday.
Company was among the first musicals to deal with adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, " Company does deal with upper middle-class people with upper middle-class problems. Broadway theater has been for many years supported by those people. They really want to escape, and here we're saying we'll bring it right back in their faces ... what they came to a musical to avoid, they suddenly find facing them on the stage."
wrote 11 one-act plays planned for Kim Stanley
as each of the 11 leads. Anthony Perkins
was interested in directing, and asked Sondheim to read the material. After Sondheim read the plays, he asked Harold Prince for his opinion; Prince thought the plays would make the basis for a musical. The theme would be New York marriages with a central character to examine those marriages.
The musical opened on Broadway
on April 26, 1970 at the Alvin Theatre
, where it ran for 705 performances and seven previews. Directed by Harold Prince, the opening cast included Dean Jones
(who had replaced Anthony Perkins
early in the rehearsal period when Perkins departed to direct a play), Donna McKechnie
, Susan Browning
, Pamela Myers
, Barbara Barrie
, Charles Kimbrough
, Merle Louise
, Beth Howland
, and Elaine Stritch
. Musical staging was by Michael Bennett
, assisted by Bob Avian
. The set design by Boris Aronson
consisted of two working elevators and various vertical platforms that emphasized the musical’s theme of isolation.
Shortly after opening night, Jones withdrew from the show, allegedly due to illness, but actually due to stress he was suffering from ongoing divorce proceedings. He was replaced by his understudy Larry Kert
, who had created the role of Tony in West Side Story. Kert earned rave reviews for his performance when the critics were invited to return. In an unusual move, the Tony Award
s committee deemed Kert eligible for a nomination, an honor usually reserved for the actor who originates a role.
was created by award-winning documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
shortly after the show opened on Broadway as a pilot for a series of TV documentaries which were to highlight the different ways a cast album recording session could be conducted and the results therefrom. However, a week after the original screening, producers for the original series were hired in Hollywood to go head up production for a major movie studio, the series was scrapped and only this pilot film remains.
In the film, the cast album recording session starts in the early evening, with most of the ensemble numbers completed before midnight, leaving just the principal actors and small-group ensembles. Most of the small-group and solo numbers are completed by the wee hours, and shortly afterward everything settles down, leaving just Stritch and the orchestra.
Over the next several hours, she struggles repeatedly to record the song The Ladies Who Lunch, first trying it out in a key lower than that used in the production, then finding it hard to maintain the idiosyncractic tempi required to sing while appearing intoxicated. Eventually, as dawn creeps over Columbia Records
CBS 30th Street Studio
in the background, they stop to get some rest after the marathon 18 hour recording session. The next day, Stritch "is shown nailing the song", which is visible on the video.
in Los Angeles
, California
with George Chakiris
as Bobby, and closed on May 20, 1972 at the National Theatre
in Washington, D.C.
.
production opened on January 18, 1972 at Her Majesty's Theatre
, where it ran for 344 performances. The original cast included Larry Kert, Elaine Stritch, Joy Franz
, and Donna McKechnie
; Dilys Watling
and Julia McKenzie
were replacements later in the run.
revival, directed by Scott Ellis
and choreographed by Rob Marshall
, opened on October 5, 1995 at the Criterion Center Stage Right, where it ran for 60 performances. The cast included Boyd Gaines
, Kate Burton
, Robert Westenberg
, Diana Canova, Debra Monk
, LaChanze
, Charlotte d'Amboise
, Jane Krakowski
, Danny Burstein
and Veanne Cox
.
at the Donmar Warehouse
. Previews began on December 1, with opening on December 13 and closing on March 2, 1996. The production transferred to the Albery Theatre
, with previews starting on March 7, opening on March 13 and closing on June 29. The cast included Adrian Lester
as the first black Bobby in a major production of the show. A videotaped recording of the Donmar Warehouse production was broadcast by BBC Two
on March 1, 1997. On Sunday 7 November 2010, a one-off concert of Company starring most of the 1995 London revival cast, including Adrian Lester
as Bobby, was held at The Queen's Theatre
on Shaftsbury Avenue, to commemorate the 80th birthday of the composer, Stephen Sondheim.
as Robert, Emily Skinner
, Alice Ripley, and Lynn Redgrave
.
, Robert S. Marx Theatre in March through April 2006. This production, directed and choreographed by John Doyle
opened Broadway on November 29, 2006 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
with a cast that included Raúl Esparza
as Bobby and Barbara Walsh
as Joanne. As in Doyle's 2005 Broadway production of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the actors themselves provided the orchestral accompaniment. For example, in the closing number, "Being Alive," Raul Esparza, as Bobby, accompanies himself on piano; Angel Desai, as Marta, plays saxophone and violin, as well as singing solo on "Another Hundred People"; the entire company sings and plays accompaniment during the second-act opener. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The musical closed on July 1, 2007 after 34 previews and 246 performances. It was taped. and broadcast on the Great Performances program of PBS
in 2007. That video was released on DVD.
mounted a production directed by Gale Edwards
in Sydney in June 2007, starring David Campbell
as Bobby, with a cast including Simon Burke
, Anne Looby
, James Millar
, Pippa Grandison
, Katrina Retallick
, Tamsin Carroll and Christie Whelan
. The show was well-received, and Sondheim travelled to Australia for the first time in thirty years to attend the opening night. However, the production caused major controversy when Whelan was out sick for one performance and (with no understudy) Kookaburra chief executive Peter Cousens
insisted the show be performed anyway, but without the character of April. This involved cutting several numbers and scenes with no explanation, and that night's performance ended twenty minutes early. Following complaints from the audience, there was considerable negative press attention to the decision, and Sondheim threatened to revoke the production rights for the show.
directed a staged concert production, with Neil Patrick Harris
as Bobby, Stephen Colbert
as Harry, Craig Bierko
as Peter, Jon Cryer
as David, Katie Finneran
as Amy, Christina Hendricks
as April, Aaron Lazar
as Paul, Jill Paice
as Susan, Martha Plimpton
as Sarah, Anika Noni Rose
as Marta, Jennifer Laura Thompson
as Jenny, Jim Walton
as Larry, Chryssie Whitehead
as Kathy, and Patti LuPone
as Joanne. Paul Gemignani
conducted a 35-piece orchestra, which uses the original orchestrations from the first Broadway production. This concert follows a long tradition of Stephen Sondheim concert productions at the New York Philharmonic
, including Sweeney Todd
and Passion
. A filmed presentation of the concert debuted in select movie theatres on June 15, 2011. The cast of the production gathered again for a live performance at the 2011 Tony Awards, hosted by Harris, on June 12, 2011.
and he's single. His friends, most of them married and all of them couples, have gathered at his apartment to give him a surprise party (a party Robert knows about thanks to a careless message left by one of his friends, the neurotic Amy) and to wish him the best. None of them know each other, they just all know Robert, or, as he's alternately known, Bob, Bobby, Robby, Robbo and a variety of other pet names bestowed on him by the ten married people to which he has attached himself. Robert tries to blow out the candles, but they stay lit. It's alright, someone cries, he still gets his wish. What was his wish? Nothing. Not even to be married. Joanne and Larry, Peter and Susan, Harry and Sarah, David and Jenny, and Paul and Amy, his married friends, these good and crazy people, are all he needs ("Company").
What follows is a series of disconnected scenes, each featuring one of the couples and Robert.
The first scene features Robert with Harry and Sarah. Robert has brought over some brownies and some bourbon for a nightcap, but Sarah is dieting and Harry is on the wagon, or at least that's what they say. Between needling and taunting each other mercilessly about their respective vices, Harry sneaks glasses of brandy and Sarah hides bites of the brownie. Sarah has been studying karate, and Robert implores her to demonstrate a throw or two. She does so, on Harry. He tries to counter, and they are soon thrashing about in violence that may or may not be playful. The caustic Joanne, the oldest, most cynical and most-oft married of Robert's friends, watches and observes that it is "The Little Things You Do Together" that make a marriage work. After Sarah has gone to bed, Robert asks Harry if he ever regretted getting married. He answers, and the other married men concur, that you are always "Sorry-Grateful", and that marriage changes both everything and nothing about the way you live.
Robert is with Peter and Susan next, on their apartment terrace, from which they can sort of almost see the East River. They seem like a perfect couple, apart from her frequent fainting spells. He's Ivy League, she's a southern belle
, and they love each other very much. Robert innocently flirts with Susan, telling Peter that if they ever break up, he wants to be the first to know. Well, they reply, he's the first to know. They're getting divorced.
At the home of Jenny and David, Robert has brought some marijuana along with him. Jenny is rather uptight and David is very chic, and all three puff away feeling very hip and proud of themselves. David declares himself potted and the self-admitted square Jenny talks non-stop before realizing she is completely stoned. The couple, even in their enlightened state of consciousness, finds the strength to grill Robert on why he hasn't gotten married yet. It's not like he's opposed to it. He's looking. In fact, he's found three lovely young women he is currently fooling around with. The women, Kathy, Marta and April appear and proceed, Andrews Sisters
-style, to berate Robert for his reluctance to commit ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy"). As the evening at Jenny and David’s comes to a close, David tells Robert privately that Jenny really doesn't enjoy the pot, but she does it to please him.
Everyone it seems is trying to pair Robert off with someone, and each of the deeply-envious men has found someone perfect for a night of pleasure or two. When you can have that, they chorus, why would you want to get married ("Have I Got a Girl For You")? But Robert is happy to put off anything like that for a while. He's waiting for someone, someone who is a composite of all his married female friends, someone who has Amy's sweetness and Sarah's warmth and Susan's blue eyes. She's out there, somewhere ("Someone is Waiting").
Robert meets his three girlfriends in a small park in the East-Fifties (probably Greenacre Park as Kathy references the waterfall on the wall) on three separate occasions as Marta sings of the city: crowded, dirty, uncaring and wonderful ("Another Hundred People").
Robert meets with April first. She's an airline flight attendant, and not a very bright one. She knows she's boring and dumb, and she's okay with it. She's found a great set-up with an uninterested male friend, and seems happy.
Robert and Kathy meet in a secluded, quiet clearing in the park. She loves it here because it's out of place in the hectic City, just like she is. Robert admits that at the beginning of their past relationship, he would have married her. She admits the same thing, and they laugh at the realization that they both wanted to marry each other before she drops a bombshell: she's going back to Cape Cod to get married. She doesn't belong here; just like the clearing they're in. And then she's gone.
Marta, on the other hand, loves the city. It's the center of the universe. The out-there Marta babbles on about topics as diverse as true sophistication, the difference between uptown and downtown New York, and how you can always tell a New Yorker by his or her ass. Robert is, frankly, left stunned.
Amy and Paul have lived together for years, but are only now getting married. Amy is in an unprecedented state of panic, and as a celestial soprano (played in the original production by the actress playing Jenny, but more often in recent productions by the actress playing Susan) comments and Paul harmonizes rapturously, Amy patters an impressive list of reasons why she is not "Getting Married Today." Robert, the best man, and Paul watch as she self-destructs over warm orange juice and burnt toast and the rain and the fact that Paul is Jewish while she's Catholic and finally just refuses to go through with it. Paul dejectedly runs out into the rain without a coat. Robert tries to comfort Amy, but winds up proposing to her: "Marry me and they'll all leave us alone!" His words jolt Amy back into reality, and with the parting words "you need to marry somebody, not someBODY," she runs out after Paul.
Back at the birthday party, Robert is given his cake and tries to blow out the candles again. He wishes for something this time, someone to "Marry Me a Little," praying for an easy, no-strings marriage.
). No one answers it.
Robert brings April to his apartment for a nightcap after a date. She marvels ad nauseam
at how homey his place is, and he casually positions her over the bed as they share stories about a crushed butterfly and a spoiled date, going through the usual movements associated with casual sex. Meanwhile, the married women worry about Robert. He's lonely, they say, he needs a woman. A real woman, someone like them, not the girl he's with now, who couldn't be more wrong for him. ("Poor Baby"). When the inevitable sex happens, Kathy appears and performs a dance that conveys the difference between having sex and making love ("Tick-Tock"). The next morning, April wakes up to report for duty. She's got to be on Flight 18 to "Barcelona" in a few hours. Robert makes the customary false pleas for her to stay, and for some inexplicable reasons, the pleading works and she does. Robert is less than pleased.
Robert takes another girlfriend, Marta this time, to visit Peter and Susan's terrace. They've gotten their divorce. Peter flew to Mexico to get it, and it was so nice there he phoned Susan and she joined him there for a vacation. They're still living together. They have too many responsibilities to actually split up, and their relationship has actually been strengthened by their divorce. Susan takes Marta inside to make lunch, and Peter asks Robert if he's ever had a homosexual experience. They both admit they have. Robert asks Peter if he's gay, which he denies, but Peter questions if mankind wouldn't prefer to just "ball it" if it weren't for social norms and wonders if he and Robert could ever have something. Robert, clearly uncomfortable, laughs the conversation off as a joke as the women return.
Joanne and Larry take Robert out to a nightclub, and as Larry dances, Joanne and Robert get thoroughly drunk. She regales him with tales of her ex-husbands and insults Larry before yelling at some women at the next table to stop looking at her. She blames Robert for always being an outsider, and then berates Larry again. She raises her glass in a mocking toast to "The Ladies Who Lunch", a song judging rich middle aged women, who waste their lives away doing meaningless activities. However, at the end of the song, Joanne realizes she is the worst Lady Who Lunches of them all. She is the type who wastes her life away judging the other ladies, meanwhile doing nothing to improve her own life.
Larry takes Joanne's drunken rant without complaint and explains to Robert that despite the fact she's so abusive, or maybe because of it, he loves her dearly. When Larry leaves to pay the check, Joanne propositions Robert. She says, "I'll take care of you", but he replies, "Who will I take care of?" Larry returns, and Joanne tells him, "I just did someone a big favor." Larry and Joanne go home, leaving Robert lost in thought.
He finally confronts the five couples. Why get married, he cries. What do you get from it but someone to smother you and make you feel things you don't want to feel? But his arguments pale and he finally, finally wishes for someone to share his life with, someone to help and hurt and hinder and love, someone to face the challenge of "Being Alive" with.
Back at the opening party, his friends waited two hours, but Robert hasn't shown up. Finally, they all get the message and go home, wishing their absent friend a happy birthday. Robert appears alone, smiles, and blows out his candles.
The couples (all married except Amy and Paul)
The Girlfriends
The Vocal Minority:
Act II
* In the 1990s, "Marry Me a Little" was restored permanently to close Act I and added to the 1995 and 2006 revivals, it is also included in the official composer's edition of the vocal selections, published in 1996 (ISBN 0-7935-6763-7).
** The dance number "Tick-Tock" (arranged by David Shire
) was abridged for the first Broadway revival, and afterwards deleted entirely from the score. It had become a liability in productions without dancers of the caliber of Donna McKechnie (or Charlotte d'Amboise in 1995). However, it has since been restored in some productions (such as the 2004 Reprise! production in Los Angeles and the 2011 New York Philharmonic staging).
*** The song "Multitude of Amys" was the original finale but was cut due to major structural changes in the script. "Marry Me a Little" was started as a replacement but subsequently moved to the end of the first act. "Happily Ever After" was used as the finale for the first few performances, before being replaced by "Being Alive".
to reprise their roles, Columbia Records
took Kert into the studio to record new vocal tracks. This "new" recording featuring the new vocals laid over the original Broadway backing tracks was released as the Original London Cast recording. In 1998, when Sony Music
who had acquired the Columbia catalogues, released a newly-digitalized CD
version of the original Broadway cast recording, Kert's rendition of "Being Alive," the show's final number, was included as a bonus track.
There are also cast recordings of the 1995 Broadway and London productions and the 2006 Broadway production.
Video recordings are available of the 1995 London and 2006 Broadway revivals.
s for Music and Lyrics were split into two categories. Sondheim won both awards.
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book by George Furth
George Furth
George Furth was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.-Biography:Furth was born George Schweinfurth in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Evelyn and George Schweinfurth...
and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six.
Originally entitled Threes, its plot revolves around Bobby (a single man unable to commit fully to a steady relationship, let alone marriage), the five married couples who are his best friends, and his three girlfriends. Unlike most book musicals, which follow a clearly delineated plot, Company is a concept musical composed of short vignette
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
s, presented in no particular chronological order, linked by a celebration for Bobby's 35th birthday.
Company was among the first musicals to deal with adult problems through its music. As Sondheim put it, " Company does deal with upper middle-class people with upper middle-class problems. Broadway theater has been for many years supported by those people. They really want to escape, and here we're saying we'll bring it right back in their faces ... what they came to a musical to avoid, they suddenly find facing them on the stage."
Background
George FurthGeorge Furth
George Furth was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.-Biography:Furth was born George Schweinfurth in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Evelyn and George Schweinfurth...
wrote 11 one-act plays planned for Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley
Kim Stanley was an American actress, primarily in television and theatre, but with occasional film performances....
as each of the 11 leads. Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
was interested in directing, and asked Sondheim to read the material. After Sondheim read the plays, he asked Harold Prince for his opinion; Prince thought the plays would make the basis for a musical. The theme would be New York marriages with a central character to examine those marriages.
Original Broadway production
Company opened in Boston in out-of-town tryouts, receiving mixed reviews, from the Boston Evening Globe "Brilliant", to Variety Magazine "The songs are for the most part undistinguished."The musical opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on April 26, 1970 at the Alvin Theatre
Neil Simon Theatre
The Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, is a Broadway venue built in 1927 and located at 250 West 52nd Street in midtown-Manhattan....
, where it ran for 705 performances and seven previews. Directed by Harold Prince, the opening cast included Dean Jones
Dean Jones (actor)
Dean Carroll Jones is an American actor. Jones is best known for his light-hearted leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977, most notably The Love Bug.-Early years:...
(who had replaced Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
early in the rehearsal period when Perkins departed to direct a play), Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, "Cassie" from the musical A Chorus Line, for which she...
, Susan Browning
Susan Browning
Susan Browning was an American actress.Born in Baldwin, New York, she was nominated for two Tony Awards: for Best Actress in Company in 1971 and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Goodtime Charley in 1975...
, Pamela Myers
Pamela Myers
Pamela Myers is an American actress who made her Broadway debut as Marta in Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. For this role, in which she introduced the show-stopping number, "Another Hundred People," she was nominated at the 1971 Tony awards for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical...
, Barbara Barrie
Barbara Barrie
Barbara Barrie is an American actress and author of children's books.-Personal life:Barrie was born as Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago, Illinois, of Jewish heritage, the daughter of Frances Rose and Louis Berman. She was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. She graduated from University of Texas,...
, Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough
Charles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...
, Merle Louise
Merle Louise
Merle Louise is an American actress, best known for appearing in four Stephen Sondheim musicals, most famously as "The Beggar Woman" in Sweeney Todd.-Broadway and Sondheim:...
, Beth Howland
Beth Howland
Elizabeth "Beth" Howland , is an American actress who has worked extensively on stage and television. Howland is best known for playing Vera on the sitcom Alice, inspired by the popular Martin Scorsese film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore...
, and Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch
Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
. Musical staging was by Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven....
, assisted by Bob Avian
Bob Avian
Bob Avian is an American choreographer and a theatre producer and director.Born in New York City, Avian's spent his early career dividing his time between dancing in such Broadway shows as West Side Story, Funny Girl, and Henry, Sweet Henry and working as a production assistant on projects like I...
. The set design by Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson
Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:...
consisted of two working elevators and various vertical platforms that emphasized the musical’s theme of isolation.
Shortly after opening night, Jones withdrew from the show, allegedly due to illness, but actually due to stress he was suffering from ongoing divorce proceedings. He was replaced by his understudy Larry Kert
Larry Kert
Larry Kert was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for creating the role of Tony in the original Broadway version of West Side Story.-Early life:...
, who had created the role of Tony in West Side Story. Kert earned rave reviews for his performance when the critics were invited to return. In an unusual move, the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s committee deemed Kert eligible for a nomination, an honor usually reserved for the actor who originates a role.
Company: Original Cast Album
A documentary of the recording of the original cast recordingCast recording
A cast recording is a recording of a musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast...
was created by award-winning documentary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan Pennebaker is an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of Direct Cinema/Cinéma vérité. Performing arts and politics are his primary subjects.-Biography:...
shortly after the show opened on Broadway as a pilot for a series of TV documentaries which were to highlight the different ways a cast album recording session could be conducted and the results therefrom. However, a week after the original screening, producers for the original series were hired in Hollywood to go head up production for a major movie studio, the series was scrapped and only this pilot film remains.
In the film, the cast album recording session starts in the early evening, with most of the ensemble numbers completed before midnight, leaving just the principal actors and small-group ensembles. Most of the small-group and solo numbers are completed by the wee hours, and shortly afterward everything settles down, leaving just Stritch and the orchestra.
Over the next several hours, she struggles repeatedly to record the song The Ladies Who Lunch, first trying it out in a key lower than that used in the production, then finding it hard to maintain the idiosyncractic tempi required to sing while appearing intoxicated. Eventually, as dawn creeps over Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
CBS 30th Street Studio
CBS 30th Street Studio
CBS 30th Street Studio, also known as Columbia 30th Street Studio, and nicknamed "The Church", was an American recording studio operated by Columbia Records from 1949 to 1981 located at 207 East 30th Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan, New York City...
in the background, they stop to get some rest after the marathon 18 hour recording session. The next day, Stritch "is shown nailing the song", which is visible on the video.
First national tour
The first national tour opened on May 20, 1971 at the Ahmanson TheatreAhmanson Theatre
The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that comprise the Los Angeles Music Center.Through the generosity of philanthropist Robert H. Ahmanson, construction began on March 9, 1962. The theatre opened on April 12, 1967 with a production of More Stately Mansions starring Ingrid Bergman,...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
with George Chakiris
George Chakiris
George Chakiris is an American-Greek dancer, singer and actor.-Early life:Chakiris was born in Norwood, Ohio, to Steven and Zoe Chakiris, immigrants from Greece. Chakiris studied at the American School of Dance....
as Bobby, and closed on May 20, 1972 at the National Theatre
National Theatre (Washington, D.C.)
The National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C., and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
Original London production
The first West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
production opened on January 18, 1972 at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, where it ran for 344 performances. The original cast included Larry Kert, Elaine Stritch, Joy Franz
Joy Franz
Joy Franz is an American actress who is best known for her work within the theatre. She notably portrayed the role of Susan in the original 1972 West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Company and the role of Cinderella's Stepmother in the original 1987 Broadway production of Sondheim's Into the...
, and Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, "Cassie" from the musical A Chorus Line, for which she...
; Dilys Watling
Dilys Watling
Dilys Watling is an English actress, possibly best known for appearing on British television ....
and Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie
Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
were replacements later in the run.
1995 Broadway revival
After 43 previews, the 1995 Roundabout TheatreRoundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
revival, directed by Scott Ellis
Scott Ellis
Scott Ellis is an American stage director and television director.-Biography:Ellis has directed numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, including the New York City Opera Company revivals at the New York State Theatre: A Little Night Music and 110 in the Shade up to his current show, the...
and choreographed by Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall is an American theater director, film director and choreographer. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe nominee and four-time Emmy winner whose most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago.-Life and career:Marshall was...
, opened on October 5, 1995 at the Criterion Center Stage Right, where it ran for 60 performances. The cast included Boyd Gaines
Boyd Gaines
Boyd Payne Gaines is an American stage, film, and television actor.Gaines was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Ida and James Gaines. He has appeared in a number of films and television shows, including Fame, L.A...
, Kate Burton
Kate Burton (actress)
-Personal life:Burton was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the daughter of producer Sybil Burton and actor Richard Burton . She was thus the stepdaughter of actress Elizabeth Taylor and of Sybil's second husband Jordan Christopher. In 1979, Burton earned a bachelor's degree in Russian studies and...
, Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg
Robert Westenberg is an American musical theatre actor and acting teacher. He married actress and singer Kim Crosby on June 19, 1991, and the couple now have three children.-Early Life:...
, Diana Canova, Debra Monk
Debra Monk
Debra Monk is an American actress, singer, and writer.Monk was born in Middletown, Ohio. She was voted "best personality" by the graduating class at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. She graduated from Frostburg State University in 1963...
, LaChanze
LaChanze
LaChanze is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role in The Color Purple....
, Charlotte d'Amboise
Charlotte d'Amboise
Charlotte d'Amboise is an American actress and dancer. She has played starring roles in musical theatre, and has been nominated for two Tony Awards and won the Los Angeles Ovation Awards for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Chicago...
, Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...
, Danny Burstein
Danny Burstein
Danny Burstein is a versatile American actor who is known for his work in theater, film and television. He won the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and was nominated for the 2008 Drama Desk Award and 2008 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical...
and Veanne Cox
Veanne Cox
Veanne Cox is an American stage and screen actress and former ballet dancer.Cox was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She studied ballet at the Washington School of Ballet, acting at the Studio Theatre's Conservatory in Washington, D.C., and voice at Catholic University.Her Broadway debut was in the...
.
1995 London revival
The 1995 London revival was directed by Sam MendesSam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
. Previews began on December 1, with opening on December 13 and closing on March 2, 1996. The production transferred to the Albery Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre
The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...
, with previews starting on March 7, opening on March 13 and closing on June 29. The cast included Adrian Lester
Adrian Lester
-Personal life:Lester was born in Birmingham, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham...
as the first black Bobby in a major production of the show. A videotaped recording of the Donmar Warehouse production was broadcast by BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on March 1, 1997. On Sunday 7 November 2010, a one-off concert of Company starring most of the 1995 London revival cast, including Adrian Lester
Adrian Lester
-Personal life:Lester was born in Birmingham, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham...
as Bobby, was held at The Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
on Shaftsbury Avenue, to commemorate the 80th birthday of the composer, Stephen Sondheim.
Kennedy Center production
A Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) production, presented as part of a summer-long presentation of Sondheim musicals, opened on May 17, 2002 for a 17-performance run. Directed by Sean Mathias, the cast included John BarrowmanJohn Barrowman
John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
as Robert, Emily Skinner
Emily Skinner
Emily Skinner is an American musical theatre actress and singer. She has performed in such Broadway shows as Side Show, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight and, currently, in Billy Elliot...
, Alice Ripley, and Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
.
2006 Broadway revival
A new revival had try-outs at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the ParkCincinnati Playhouse in the Park
The was founded in 1959 by college student Gerald Covell and was one of the first regional theatres in the United States. Located in Eden Park, the first play that premiered at the Playhouse on October 10, 1960, was Meyer Levin's Compulsion...
, Robert S. Marx Theatre in March through April 2006. This production, directed and choreographed by John Doyle
John Doyle (director)
John Doyle is a Tony Award winning Scottish stage director for musicals and plays, as well as operas. He has served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he has staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning 30...
opened Broadway on November 29, 2006 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 243 West 47th Street in midtown-Manhattan, named for actress Ethel Barrymore....
with a cast that included Raúl Esparza
Raúl Esparza
Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American stage actor, singer, and voice artist noted for his award winning performances in Broadway shows...
as Bobby and Barbara Walsh
Barbara Walsh
Barbara Walsh is an American musical theatre actress who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions. Walsh is known for her Drama Desk Award winning and Tony nominated role as Trina in the Broadway production of Falsettos....
as Joanne. As in Doyle's 2005 Broadway production of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the actors themselves provided the orchestral accompaniment. For example, in the closing number, "Being Alive," Raul Esparza, as Bobby, accompanies himself on piano; Angel Desai, as Marta, plays saxophone and violin, as well as singing solo on "Another Hundred People"; the entire company sings and plays accompaniment during the second-act opener. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The musical closed on July 1, 2007 after 34 previews and 246 performances. It was taped. and broadcast on the Great Performances program of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in 2007. That video was released on DVD.
2007 Australian production
Kookaburra Musical TheatreKookaburra Musical Theatre
Peter Cousens' Kookaburra: The National Musical Theatre Company was an Australian theatre company dedicated to musical theatre. Launched in 2006, with its first production Pippin in 2007, it collapsed in late 2009....
mounted a production directed by Gale Edwards
Gale Edwards
Gale Edwards is an Australian theatre director, who has worked extensively throughout Australia and internationally. She has also directed for television and film. She began her career at Adelaide youth theatre company Energy Connection...
in Sydney in June 2007, starring David Campbell
David Campbell (Australian musician)
David Joseph Campbell is an Australian singer and stage performer. He has performed and recorded many different genres of music from rock to classics. He is the son of singer Jimmy Barnes.-Theatre career:...
as Bobby, with a cast including Simon Burke
Simon Burke
Simon Burke is an Australian actor. Burke began his acting career as a 13 year-old in the Australian film, The Devil's Playground for which he was awarded Best Actor at the 1976 Australian Film Institute Awards....
, Anne Looby
Anne Looby
Anne Looby is an Australian actress best known for her role as Anna Lacey in the television series A Country Practice and her recurring appearances in All Saints as Julia Archer....
, James Millar
James Millar (Australian actor)
James Millar is an award-winning Australian actor, singer and writer. He is the author of the musical drama The Hatpin which premiered in Sydney on 27 February 2008 and the critically acclaimed Song Cycle "LOVEBiTES".-WAAPA:James Millar studied writing at the University of Technology, Sydney and...
, Pippa Grandison
Pippa Grandison
Pippa Jody Grandison is an Australian musical theatre performer. She currently lives in Sydney, with husband Steve Le Marquand and daughter Charlie.-Career:...
, Katrina Retallick
Katrina Retallick
Katrina Retallick is an Australian actress possibly best known for appearing on the sketch comedy, television series, Comedy Inc. between 2003 to 2006.-Career:...
, Tamsin Carroll and Christie Whelan
Christie Whelan
Christie Whelan is an Australian actress who has worked extensively in musical theatre.Her career began in 2005 in Grease- The Arena Spectacular, playing the role of Patti Simcox...
. The show was well-received, and Sondheim travelled to Australia for the first time in thirty years to attend the opening night. However, the production caused major controversy when Whelan was out sick for one performance and (with no understudy) Kookaburra chief executive Peter Cousens
Peter Cousens
Peter Cousens is an Australian actor, born in Tamworth NSW.He attended The Armidale School in Armidale and then Gordonstoun School, Scotland. He then spent a year reading Arts at St Paul's College, Sydney University before studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art , graduating in...
insisted the show be performed anyway, but without the character of April. This involved cutting several numbers and scenes with no explanation, and that night's performance ended twenty minutes early. Following complaints from the audience, there was considerable negative press attention to the decision, and Sondheim threatened to revoke the production rights for the show.
2011 New York Philharmonic Concert
In April 2011, Lonny PriceLonny Price
Lonny Price is an American actor, writer, and director, primarily in theatre. He is known for making statements on current events in versions of his musicals. His acclaimed May 2008 New York Philharmonic production of Camelot was making a statement about the current war including having different...
directed a staged concert production, with Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
as Bobby, Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
as Harry, Craig Bierko
Craig Bierko
Craig Philip Bierko is an American actor and singer.-Early life:Bierko was born in Rye Brook, New York, the son of Pat and Rex Bierko, who ran a local community theatre. Bierko's mother was a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism...
as Peter, Jon Cryer
Jon Cryer
Jonathan Niven "Jon" Cryer is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer. He is the son of actress–singer Gretchen Cryer. He made his motion picture debut in the 1984 romantic comedy No Small Affair, but gained greater fame as "Duckie" in the 1986 John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink...
as David, Katie Finneran
Katie Finneran
Katie Finneran is an American actress of film, stage, and television noted for her Tony Award-winning performances in the Broadway play Noises Off in 2002, and the musical Promises, Promises in 2010.-Personal life:...
as Amy, Christina Hendricks
Christina Hendricks
Christina Rene Hendricks is an actress known for her role as Joan Holloway in the AMC cable television series Mad Men, and as Saffron in Fox's short-lived series Firefly. Hendricks was named "the sexiest woman in the world" in 2010 in a poll of female readers taken by Esquire magazine.-Personal...
as April, Aaron Lazar
Aaron Lazar
-Early life and education:Lazar was born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to a Jewish family. He graduated from Cherry Hill High School West in 1994. Lazar attended Duke University where he earned a BA in music in 1998, while completing the prerequisite classes for medical school and taking the MCAT...
as Paul, Jill Paice
Jill Paice
Jill Paice is an American Broadway and theatre actress. Paice attended Beavercreek High School in Beavercreek, Ohio, graduating in 1998. She then attended Baldwin-Wallace College, graduating with a bachelor of music in 2002...
as Susan, Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton
Martha Campbell Plimpton is an American actress and singer and former model. Plimpton is a screen, stage and television actress. She first appeared as Jonsy in the feature film River Rats before rising to prominence in the Richard Donner film The Goonies portraying the character Stef...
as Sarah, Anika Noni Rose
Anika Noni Rose
Anika Noni Rose is an American singer and actress known for her Tony Award winning performance in the Broadway production of Caroline, or Change and her starring roles in the films Dreamgirls and The Princess and the Frog....
as Marta, Jennifer Laura Thompson
Jennifer Laura Thompson
Jennifer Laura Thompson is an American stage actress and singer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre from the University of Michigan and graduated in 1991....
as Jenny, Jim Walton
Jim Walton (actor)
Jim Walton is an American actor, most notable for his leading performance in the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along as Franklin Shephard.-Career:...
as Larry, Chryssie Whitehead
Chryssie Whitehead
Chryssie Whitehead is an American actress, singer and dancer.Whitehead grew up in South Carolina. During her freshman year of high school, Whitehead was in a community theatre production of A Chorus Line in which she played a cut dancer and understudy to Judy.Her Broadway debut was starring in the...
as Kathy, and Patti LuPone
Patti LuPone
Patti Ann LuPone is an American singer and actress, known for her Tony Award-winning performances as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and as Madame Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les...
as Joanne. Paul Gemignani
Paul Gemignani
Paul Gemignani is an award-winning American musical director with a career on Broadway and West End theatre spanning over thirty years.-Life and career:...
conducted a 35-piece orchestra, which uses the original orchestrations from the first Broadway production. This concert follows a long tradition of Stephen Sondheim concert productions at the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, including Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...
and Passion
Passion (musical)
Passion is a musical adapted from Ettore Scola's film Passione d'Amore . The book is by James Lapine, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Central subjects include obsession, beauty, power, manipulation, passion, illness, and love...
. A filmed presentation of the concert debuted in select movie theatres on June 15, 2011. The cast of the production gathered again for a live performance at the 2011 Tony Awards, hosted by Harris, on June 12, 2011.
International productions
- A 1997 Repertory Philippines production starred Victor Laurel as Bobby.
- A BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian production opened on February 8, 2001 at the Villa-Lobos Theatre in Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, closed April 22, opened April 27 at the Alfa Theatre in São PauloSão PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, then returned to the Villa-Lobos Theatre in Rio. - A 2010 production opened in NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
at The National Venue of Norway(Den Nationale Scene) in BergenBergenBergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
. The cast included Jon Bleiklie Devik, Karoline Krüger/Ragnhild Gudbrandsen, Wenche Kvamme, Monica Hjelle, among others. - A 2011 IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i production opened on May 28, 2011 at the Beersheba TheatreBeershebaBeersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
.
Synopsis
Note: In the early 1990s, Furth and Sondheim revised the libretto, cutting and altering dialogue that had become dated and rewriting the end to act one. This synopsis is based on the revised libretto.Act I
It's Robert's birthday. He's 35, he lives in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and he's single. His friends, most of them married and all of them couples, have gathered at his apartment to give him a surprise party (a party Robert knows about thanks to a careless message left by one of his friends, the neurotic Amy) and to wish him the best. None of them know each other, they just all know Robert, or, as he's alternately known, Bob, Bobby, Robby, Robbo and a variety of other pet names bestowed on him by the ten married people to which he has attached himself. Robert tries to blow out the candles, but they stay lit. It's alright, someone cries, he still gets his wish. What was his wish? Nothing. Not even to be married. Joanne and Larry, Peter and Susan, Harry and Sarah, David and Jenny, and Paul and Amy, his married friends, these good and crazy people, are all he needs ("Company").
What follows is a series of disconnected scenes, each featuring one of the couples and Robert.
The first scene features Robert with Harry and Sarah. Robert has brought over some brownies and some bourbon for a nightcap, but Sarah is dieting and Harry is on the wagon, or at least that's what they say. Between needling and taunting each other mercilessly about their respective vices, Harry sneaks glasses of brandy and Sarah hides bites of the brownie. Sarah has been studying karate, and Robert implores her to demonstrate a throw or two. She does so, on Harry. He tries to counter, and they are soon thrashing about in violence that may or may not be playful. The caustic Joanne, the oldest, most cynical and most-oft married of Robert's friends, watches and observes that it is "The Little Things You Do Together" that make a marriage work. After Sarah has gone to bed, Robert asks Harry if he ever regretted getting married. He answers, and the other married men concur, that you are always "Sorry-Grateful", and that marriage changes both everything and nothing about the way you live.
Robert is with Peter and Susan next, on their apartment terrace, from which they can sort of almost see the East River. They seem like a perfect couple, apart from her frequent fainting spells. He's Ivy League, she's a southern belle
Southern belle
A southern belle is an archetype for a young woman of the American Old South's upper class....
, and they love each other very much. Robert innocently flirts with Susan, telling Peter that if they ever break up, he wants to be the first to know. Well, they reply, he's the first to know. They're getting divorced.
At the home of Jenny and David, Robert has brought some marijuana along with him. Jenny is rather uptight and David is very chic, and all three puff away feeling very hip and proud of themselves. David declares himself potted and the self-admitted square Jenny talks non-stop before realizing she is completely stoned. The couple, even in their enlightened state of consciousness, finds the strength to grill Robert on why he hasn't gotten married yet. It's not like he's opposed to it. He's looking. In fact, he's found three lovely young women he is currently fooling around with. The women, Kathy, Marta and April appear and proceed, Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
-style, to berate Robert for his reluctance to commit ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy"). As the evening at Jenny and David’s comes to a close, David tells Robert privately that Jenny really doesn't enjoy the pot, but she does it to please him.
Everyone it seems is trying to pair Robert off with someone, and each of the deeply-envious men has found someone perfect for a night of pleasure or two. When you can have that, they chorus, why would you want to get married ("Have I Got a Girl For You")? But Robert is happy to put off anything like that for a while. He's waiting for someone, someone who is a composite of all his married female friends, someone who has Amy's sweetness and Sarah's warmth and Susan's blue eyes. She's out there, somewhere ("Someone is Waiting").
Robert meets his three girlfriends in a small park in the East-Fifties (probably Greenacre Park as Kathy references the waterfall on the wall) on three separate occasions as Marta sings of the city: crowded, dirty, uncaring and wonderful ("Another Hundred People").
Robert meets with April first. She's an airline flight attendant, and not a very bright one. She knows she's boring and dumb, and she's okay with it. She's found a great set-up with an uninterested male friend, and seems happy.
Robert and Kathy meet in a secluded, quiet clearing in the park. She loves it here because it's out of place in the hectic City, just like she is. Robert admits that at the beginning of their past relationship, he would have married her. She admits the same thing, and they laugh at the realization that they both wanted to marry each other before she drops a bombshell: she's going back to Cape Cod to get married. She doesn't belong here; just like the clearing they're in. And then she's gone.
Marta, on the other hand, loves the city. It's the center of the universe. The out-there Marta babbles on about topics as diverse as true sophistication, the difference between uptown and downtown New York, and how you can always tell a New Yorker by his or her ass. Robert is, frankly, left stunned.
Amy and Paul have lived together for years, but are only now getting married. Amy is in an unprecedented state of panic, and as a celestial soprano (played in the original production by the actress playing Jenny, but more often in recent productions by the actress playing Susan) comments and Paul harmonizes rapturously, Amy patters an impressive list of reasons why she is not "Getting Married Today." Robert, the best man, and Paul watch as she self-destructs over warm orange juice and burnt toast and the rain and the fact that Paul is Jewish while she's Catholic and finally just refuses to go through with it. Paul dejectedly runs out into the rain without a coat. Robert tries to comfort Amy, but winds up proposing to her: "Marry me and they'll all leave us alone!" His words jolt Amy back into reality, and with the parting words "you need to marry somebody, not someBODY," she runs out after Paul.
Back at the birthday party, Robert is given his cake and tries to blow out the candles again. He wishes for something this time, someone to "Marry Me a Little," praying for an easy, no-strings marriage.
Act II
At the party, Robert blows out his candles again. This time, he gets them about half out, and the rest have to help him. The couples share their views on Robert with each other, comments that range from complimentary to unflattering, as Robert reflects on living in threes ("Side By Side By Side"), a turn soon followed by the up-tempo paean to Robert's role as the perfect friend ("What Would We Do Without You?"). In a dance break in the middle of the number (or, in the case of the 2006 revival, in a musical solo section), each man in turn does a dance step (or, in the case of the 2006 revival, plays a solo on his instrument), answered by his wife. Then Robert does a step (or, in the case of the 2006 revival, plays two bad notes on a kazooKazoo
The kazoo is a wind instrument which adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. The kazoo is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, a device which modifies the sound of a person's voice by way of a vibrating membrane."Kazoo" was the name given by...
). No one answers it.
Robert brings April to his apartment for a nightcap after a date. She marvels ad nauseam
Ad nauseam
Ad nauseam is a Latin term used to describe an argument which has been continuing "to [the point of] nausea". For example, the sentence, "This topic has been discussed ad nauseam", signifies that the topic in question has been discussed extensively, and that those involved in the discussion have...
at how homey his place is, and he casually positions her over the bed as they share stories about a crushed butterfly and a spoiled date, going through the usual movements associated with casual sex. Meanwhile, the married women worry about Robert. He's lonely, they say, he needs a woman. A real woman, someone like them, not the girl he's with now, who couldn't be more wrong for him. ("Poor Baby"). When the inevitable sex happens, Kathy appears and performs a dance that conveys the difference between having sex and making love ("Tick-Tock"). The next morning, April wakes up to report for duty. She's got to be on Flight 18 to "Barcelona" in a few hours. Robert makes the customary false pleas for her to stay, and for some inexplicable reasons, the pleading works and she does. Robert is less than pleased.
Robert takes another girlfriend, Marta this time, to visit Peter and Susan's terrace. They've gotten their divorce. Peter flew to Mexico to get it, and it was so nice there he phoned Susan and she joined him there for a vacation. They're still living together. They have too many responsibilities to actually split up, and their relationship has actually been strengthened by their divorce. Susan takes Marta inside to make lunch, and Peter asks Robert if he's ever had a homosexual experience. They both admit they have. Robert asks Peter if he's gay, which he denies, but Peter questions if mankind wouldn't prefer to just "ball it" if it weren't for social norms and wonders if he and Robert could ever have something. Robert, clearly uncomfortable, laughs the conversation off as a joke as the women return.
Joanne and Larry take Robert out to a nightclub, and as Larry dances, Joanne and Robert get thoroughly drunk. She regales him with tales of her ex-husbands and insults Larry before yelling at some women at the next table to stop looking at her. She blames Robert for always being an outsider, and then berates Larry again. She raises her glass in a mocking toast to "The Ladies Who Lunch", a song judging rich middle aged women, who waste their lives away doing meaningless activities. However, at the end of the song, Joanne realizes she is the worst Lady Who Lunches of them all. She is the type who wastes her life away judging the other ladies, meanwhile doing nothing to improve her own life.
Larry takes Joanne's drunken rant without complaint and explains to Robert that despite the fact she's so abusive, or maybe because of it, he loves her dearly. When Larry leaves to pay the check, Joanne propositions Robert. She says, "I'll take care of you", but he replies, "Who will I take care of?" Larry returns, and Joanne tells him, "I just did someone a big favor." Larry and Joanne go home, leaving Robert lost in thought.
He finally confronts the five couples. Why get married, he cries. What do you get from it but someone to smother you and make you feel things you don't want to feel? But his arguments pale and he finally, finally wishes for someone to share his life with, someone to help and hurt and hinder and love, someone to face the challenge of "Being Alive" with.
Back at the opening party, his friends waited two hours, but Robert hasn't shown up. Finally, they all get the message and go home, wishing their absent friend a happy birthday. Robert appears alone, smiles, and blows out his candles.
Characters and original cast
- Robert (Dean JonesDean JonesDean Jones is the name of:*Dean Jones , an Australian cricketer*Dean Jones , an American actor*Dean Jones , the singer of Extreme Noise TerrorSee also:*Jones...
) - The central character; his 35th birthday brings the group together
The couples (all married except Amy and Paul)
- Sarah (Barbara BarrieBarbara BarrieBarbara Barrie is an American actress and author of children's books.-Personal life:Barrie was born as Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago, Illinois, of Jewish heritage, the daughter of Frances Rose and Louis Berman. She was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. She graduated from University of Texas,...
) - Learning karate and has issues with food and dieting. - Harry (Charles KimbroughCharles KimbroughCharles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...
) - Friendly and affable, but with a drinking problem.
- Susan (Merle LouiseMerle LouiseMerle Louise is an American actress, best known for appearing in four Stephen Sondheim musicals, most famously as "The Beggar Woman" in Sweeney Todd.-Broadway and Sondheim:...
) - A gracious Southern belle who suffers from fainting spells - Peter (John CunninghamJohn Cunningham-Military:* John Cunningham , Group Captain, RAF Night fighter Ace* John Cunningham , East Yorkshire Regiment* John Cunningham , Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment...
) - Formerly Ivy League, possibly gay.
- Jenny (Teri Ralston) - Sweet, but a bit square
- David (George CoeGeorge CoeGeorge Coe is an American film, stage, and television actor. He is best known for having been a cast member on the first three episodes of Saturday Night Live, as well as for his work on various television shows.-Career:...
) - Chic and a bit controlling.
- Amy (Beth HowlandBeth HowlandElizabeth "Beth" Howland , is an American actress who has worked extensively on stage and television. Howland is best known for playing Vera on the sitcom Alice, inspired by the popular Martin Scorsese film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore...
) - Neurotic, gets cold feet on her wedding day - Paul (Steve Elmore) - Amy's fiancé, Jewish, who has learned how to put up with her manic spells.
- Joanne (Elaine StritchElaine StritchElaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs...
) - Cynical and very acerbic. Only drinks with Robert. - Larry (Charles Braswell) - Joanne's third husband. Sweet and understanding.
The Girlfriends
- April (Susan BrowningSusan BrowningSusan Browning was an American actress.Born in Baldwin, New York, she was nominated for two Tony Awards: for Best Actress in Company in 1971 and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Goodtime Charley in 1975...
) - A naive flight attendant. Self-described as "dumb" - Marta (Pamela MyersPamela MyersPamela Myers is an American actress who made her Broadway debut as Marta in Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. For this role, in which she introduced the show-stopping number, "Another Hundred People," she was nominated at the 1971 Tony awards for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical...
) - Hip and vulgar. Loves New York. - Kathy (Donna McKechnieDonna McKechnieDonna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, "Cassie" from the musical A Chorus Line, for which she...
) - A small town girl, Robert's long-time on-off girlfriend.
The Vocal Minority:
- pit singers – Cathy Corkill, Carol Gelfand, Marilyn Saunders and Dona D. Vaughn. In subsequent productions, the Vocal Minority have been eliminated. They were brought back for the 2011 New York Philharmonic production.
Song list
Act I- Overture
- CompanyCompany (song)"Company" is the title song from the Broadway musical, Company. It was written by Stephen Sondheim. The song is the introductory song of the show...
— Robert and Company - The Little Things You Do Together — Joanne and Couples
- Sorry-Grateful — Harry, David and Larry
- You Could Drive a Person Crazy — Kathy, April and Marta
- Have I Got A Girl for You — Larry, Peter, Paul, David and Harry
- Someone Is Waiting — Robert
- Another Hundred People — Marta
- Getting Married Today — Amy, Paul, Jenny and Company
- Marry Me a Little* — Robert
Act II
- Side by Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You? — Robert and Couples
- Poor Baby — Wives
- Tick-Tock** — Instrumental; Kathy
- Barcelona — Robert and April
- The Ladies Who Lunch — Joanne
- Being AliveBeing Alive"Being Alive" is a song from the musical Company by George Furth with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The song appears at the end of Act II and is sung by the main character, Robert, a 35 year old bachelor who at the show's end “. . . realizes being a lone wolf isn't all it's cracked up to be...
*** — Robert
* In the 1990s, "Marry Me a Little" was restored permanently to close Act I and added to the 1995 and 2006 revivals, it is also included in the official composer's edition of the vocal selections, published in 1996 (ISBN 0-7935-6763-7).
** The dance number "Tick-Tock" (arranged by David Shire
David Shire
David Lee Shire is an American songwriter and the composer of stage musicals, film and television scores. The soundtrack to the movie The Taking of Pelham 123 and parts of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack such as Night on Disco Mountain, an adaptation of Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald...
) was abridged for the first Broadway revival, and afterwards deleted entirely from the score. It had become a liability in productions without dancers of the caliber of Donna McKechnie (or Charlotte d'Amboise in 1995). However, it has since been restored in some productions (such as the 2004 Reprise! production in Los Angeles and the 2011 New York Philharmonic staging).
*** The song "Multitude of Amys" was the original finale but was cut due to major structural changes in the script. "Marry Me a Little" was started as a replacement but subsequently moved to the end of the first act. "Happily Ever After" was used as the finale for the first few performances, before being replaced by "Being Alive".
Recordings
The Broadway cast album did not include Kert, because it had already been recorded before he assumed the role of Bobby. However, after having Jones' original vocals mixed out of the original Broadway backing tracks, when the cast travelled to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to reprise their roles, Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
took Kert into the studio to record new vocal tracks. This "new" recording featuring the new vocals laid over the original Broadway backing tracks was released as the Original London Cast recording. In 1998, when Sony Music
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
who had acquired the Columbia catalogues, released a newly-digitalized CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
version of the original Broadway cast recording, Kert's rendition of "Being Alive," the show's final number, was included as a bonus track.
There are also cast recordings of the 1995 Broadway and London productions and the 2006 Broadway production.
Video recordings are available of the 1995 London and 2006 Broadway revivals.
Awards and nominations
For the only time, the Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s for Music and Lyrics were split into two categories. Sondheim won both awards.
Original Broadway production
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Drama Desk Award Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category... |
Outstanding Book of a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee which comprises New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors... |
George Furth George Furth George Furth was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.-Biography:Furth was born George Schweinfurth in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Evelyn and George Schweinfurth... |
|
| Outstanding Director of a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since... |
Harold Prince | |||
| Outstanding Lyrics Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors... |
Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award... |
|||
| Outstanding Music Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee comprising New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors... |
||||
| Outstanding Set Design Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee composed of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors... |
Boris Aronson Boris Aronson Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:... |
|||
| Theatre World Award Theatre World Award The Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:... |
Susan Browning Susan Browning Susan Browning was an American actress.Born in Baldwin, New York, she was nominated for two Tony Awards: for Best Actress in Company in 1971 and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Goodtime Charley in 1975... |
|||
| Tony Award Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway... |
Best Musical Tony Award for Best Musical This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack... |
|||
| Best Book of a Musical Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical The Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical is awarded to librettists of the spoken, non-sung dialogue, and storyline of a musical play. Eligibility is restricted to works with original narrative framework; plotless revues and revivals are ineligible... |
George Furth George Furth George Furth was an American librettist, playwright, and actor.-Biography:Furth was born George Schweinfurth in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Evelyn and George Schweinfurth... |
|||
| Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival... |
Larry Kert Larry Kert Larry Kert was an American actor, singer, and dancer. He is best known for creating the role of Tony in the original Broadway version of West Side Story.-Early life:... |
|||
| Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical | Elaine Stritch Elaine Stritch Elaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist. She has appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals, feature films, and many television programs... |
|||
| Susan Browning Susan Browning Susan Browning was an American actress.Born in Baldwin, New York, she was nominated for two Tony Awards: for Best Actress in Company in 1971 and for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in Goodtime Charley in 1975... |
||||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical. The award has been presented since 1947... |
Charles Kimbrough Charles Kimbrough Charles Kimbrough is an American character actor known for playing the straight-faced anchorman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown. In 1990, his performance in the role earned him a nomination for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series".-Biography:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota,... |
|||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical This is a list of the winners and nominations of the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. The award, introduced in 1950, was previously named as Best Performance by a Featured or Supporting Actress in a Musical until 1976.... |
Barbara Barrie Barbara Barrie Barbara Barrie is an American actress and author of children's books.-Personal life:Barrie was born as Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago, Illinois, of Jewish heritage, the daughter of Frances Rose and Louis Berman. She was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. She graduated from University of Texas,... |
|||
| Pamela Myers Pamela Myers Pamela Myers is an American actress who made her Broadway debut as Marta in Stephen Sondheim's musical Company. For this role, in which she introduced the show-stopping number, "Another Hundred People," she was nominated at the 1971 Tony awards for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical... |
||||
| Best Direction of a Musical Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions... |
Harold Prince | |||
| Best Choreography Tony Award for Best Choreography -1940s:* 1947: Agnes de Mille – Brigadoon / Michael Kidd – Finian's Rainbow* 1948: Jerome Robbins – High Button Shoes* 1949: Gower Champion – Lend An Ear-1950s:* 1950: Helen Tamiris – Touch and Go* 1951: Michael Kidd – Guys and Dolls... |
Michael Bennett Michael Bennett Michael Bennett was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.... |
|||
| Best Original Music Tony Award for Best Original Score The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical in that year. The score consists of music and lyrics... |
Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award... |
|||
| Best Original Lyrics Tony Award for Best Original Score The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical in that year. The score consists of music and lyrics... |
||||
| Best Scenic Design | Boris Aronson Boris Aronson Boris Aronson was an American scenic designer for Broadway and Yiddish theatre. He won the Tony Award for Scenic Design six times in his career.-Biography:... |
|||
| Best Lighting Design Tony Award for Best Lighting Design This is a list of the winners of the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a play or musical, first presented in 1970. In 2005 the category was divided with each genre represented separately.-1970s:* 1970: Jo Mielziner – Child's Play... |
Robert Ornbo | |||
1995 Broadway revival
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Drama Desk Award Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category... |
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical was first awarded in the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has subsequently been awarded every year. In the 1993-1994 Drama Desk Awards the award was given under the name of Outstanding Supporting Actress - Musical... |
Veanne Cox Veanne Cox Veanne Cox is an American stage and screen actress and former ballet dancer.Cox was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She studied ballet at the Washington School of Ballet, acting at the Studio Theatre's Conservatory in Washington, D.C., and voice at Catholic University.Her Broadway debut was in the... |
|
| Tony Award Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway... |
Best Revival of a Musical Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical The Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical has been awarded since 1994. Before that time, both plays and musicals were considered together for the Tony Award for Best Revival.... |
|||
| Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical This is a list of the winners and nominations of the Tony Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. The award, introduced in 1950, was previously named as Best Performance by a Featured or Supporting Actress in a Musical until 1976.... |
Veanne Cox Veanne Cox Veanne Cox is an American stage and screen actress and former ballet dancer.Cox was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She studied ballet at the Washington School of Ballet, acting at the Studio Theatre's Conservatory in Washington, D.C., and voice at Catholic University.Her Broadway debut was in the... |
|||
1995 London revival
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actor in a Musical | Adrian Lester Adrian Lester -Personal life:Lester was born in Birmingham, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants Monica, a medical secretary, and Reginald, a manager for a contract cleaning company. He sang as a boy treble in the choir of St. Chad's Cathedral, Birmingham... |
|
| Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical | Sheila Gish Sheila Gish Sheila Gish was a British stage and television actress.She was born Sheila Anne Gash in Lincoln, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made her stage debut with a repertory company.... |
|||
| Sophie Thompson Sophie Thompson Sophie Thompson is an award-winning English actress, best known for playing Stella Crawford in EastEnders.-Early life:... |
||||
| Best Director | Sam Mendes Sam Mendes Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond... |
2006 Broadway revival
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Drama Desk Award Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category... |
Outstanding Revival of a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical was first awarded at the 1994 Drama Desk Awards.-1990s:* 1994: She Loves Me** Carousel** Damn Yankees** My Fair Lady* 1996: The King and I** I Do! I Do!... |
||
| Outstanding Actor in a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since... |
Raúl Esparza Raúl Esparza Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American stage actor, singer, and voice artist noted for his award winning performances in Broadway shows... |
|||
| Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical was first awarded in the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has subsequently been awarded every year. In the 1993-1994 Drama Desk Awards the award was given under the name of Outstanding Supporting Actress - Musical... |
Barbara Walsh Barbara Walsh Barbara Walsh is an American musical theatre actress who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions. Walsh is known for her Drama Desk Award winning and Tony nominated role as Trina in the Broadway production of Falsettos.... |
|||
| Outstanding Director of a Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since... |
John Doyle John Doyle (director) John Doyle is a Tony Award winning Scottish stage director for musicals and plays, as well as operas. He has served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he has staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning 30... |
|||
| Outstanding Orchestrations Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors... |
Mary Mitchell Campbell | |||
| Tony Award Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway... |
Best Revival of a Musical Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical The Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical has been awarded since 1994. Before that time, both plays and musicals were considered together for the Tony Award for Best Revival.... |
|||
| Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival... |
Raúl Esparza Raúl Esparza Raúl Eduardo Esparza is an American stage actor, singer, and voice artist noted for his award winning performances in Broadway shows... |
|||
| Best Direction of a Musical Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions... |
John Doyle John Doyle (director) John Doyle is a Tony Award winning Scottish stage director for musicals and plays, as well as operas. He has served as artistic director at several regional theatres in the United Kingdom, where he has staged more than 200 professional productions during his career spanning 30... |
|||
Further reading
- Ilson, Carol. Harold Prince: A Director's Journey (2004), Limelight Editions, ISBN 0-87910-296-9.
- Prince, Harold. Contradictions: Notes on twenty-six years in the theatre (1974), Dodd, Mead, ISBN 0-396-07019-1.
- Rich, Frank. The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson (1987), Knopf. ISBN 0-394-52913-8.
- Mandelbaum, Ken. A Chorus Line and the Musicals of Michael Bennett (1990), St Martins Press, ISBN 0-312-04280-9.
External links
- Company at LiveBway.com - Filmed Broadway Shows Database, documentary about the recording of the original cast album, filmed stage revival starring Adrian Lester, filmed stage revival starring Raul Esparza, filmed stage revival starring Neil Patrick Harris
- Company at Music Theatre InternationalMusic Theatre InternationalMusic Theatre International, often abbreviated MTI, is a theatrical licensing agency based in New York City. The League of American Theatres and Producers calls MTI "A leader in the theatrical licensing industry."-Description:...
- Company recordings at CastAlbums.org
- Musical Cyberspace: Company