Sondheim101 Class 3 · 2020-03-11 · 1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1981:...

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Sondheim 101 OLLI Fall Semester 2018 • Alan Teasley, Instructor Class 3 • Company Today’s Opening Number Just listen . . . Today’s Focus: Broadway Breakthrough Company (1970)— The “Concept Musical” is Born The Remarkable Collaboration of Sondheim with Harold Prince 1970: Company 1971: Follies 1973: A Little Night Music 1976: Pacific Overtures 1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1981: Merrily We Roll Along Sondheim on Company (Song 5: “Being Alive”) Six by Sondheim (Directed by James Lapine, HBO, 2014) (10 minutes) Original Cast Album: Company A Documentary by D. A. Pennebaker The Company original cast album was recorded on May 3, 1970, a few days after the show's opening on Broadway. 18 hour session, captured by a documentary film crew in a cinéma vérité style Recording produced by Thomas Z. Shepard Interviews with Sondheim, Prince & Furth Intended as the first a series of films documenting the recording of original cast albums, this remains the only one of its kind.

Transcript of Sondheim101 Class 3 · 2020-03-11 · 1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1981:...

Page 1: Sondheim101 Class 3 · 2020-03-11 · 1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1981: Merrily We Roll Along Sondheim on Company (Song 5: “Being Alive”) Six by Sondheim

Sondheim 101

OLLI Fall Semester 2018 • Alan Teasley, Instructor

Class 3 • Company Today’s Opening NumberJust listen . . .

Today’s Focus: Broadway Breakthrough Company (1970)—

The “Concept Musical” is Born

The Remarkable Collaboration of Sondheim with Harold Prince

1970: Company

1971: Follies

1973: A Little Night Music

1976: Pacific Overtures

1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

1981: Merrily We Roll Along

Sondheim on Company

(Song 5: “Being Alive”)

Six by Sondheim (Directed by James Lapine,

HBO, 2014)

(10 minutes)

Original Cast Album: Company A Documentary by D. A. Pennebaker

The Company original cast album was recorded on May 3, 1970, a few days after the show's opening on Broadway.

18 hour session, captured by a documentary film crew in a cinéma vérité style

Recording produced by Thomas Z. Shepard

Interviews with Sondheim, Prince & Furth

Intended as the first a series of films documenting the recording of original cast albums, this remains the only one of its kind.

Page 2: Sondheim101 Class 3 · 2020-03-11 · 1979: Sweeny Todd—The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 1981: Merrily We Roll Along Sondheim on Company (Song 5: “Being Alive”) Six by Sondheim

Company: Characters & Plot

Robert & His Married Friends:

Joanne & Larry

Sarah & Harry

Susan & Peter

Jenny & David

Amy & Paul

Robert’s Girlfriends:

Marta, Kathy, & April

Company (1970): Creative Team

Producer/Director: Harold Prince

Music & Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: George Furth

Choreographer: Michael Bennett

Scenic Design: Boris Aronson

Cast: Dean Jones, Elaine Stritch, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Donna McKechnie, Beth Howland

Ran for 705 performances

Company: Musical Numbers, Act I

“Company”

“The Little Things You Do Together” *

“Sorry-Grateful”

“You Could Drive a Person Crazy”

“Have I Got a Girl For You”

*Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Elaine Stritch

Company: Musical Numbers, Act I (continued)

“Someone is Waiting”

“Another Hundred People”*

“Getting Married Today”

[“Marry Me a Little”]

*Pamela Myers & Larry Kert

Company: Musical Numbers, Act II

“Side by Side by Side”

“Poor Baby”

“Tick Tock” (instrumental: danced by Donna McKechnie)

“Barcelona”

“The Ladies Who Lunch”

“Being Alive”

Company: Musical Numbers, Act II

“Side by Side by Side”

“Poor Baby”

“Tick Tock” (instrumental: danced by Donna McKechnie)

“Barcelona”

“The Ladies Who Lunch”*

“Being Alive”*Elaine Stritch

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Company (1970)

The Dilemma of the Closing Number

First: “Multitudes of Amy”

Then: “Happily Ever After”

And Finally . . . Raúl Esparza, 2006

Company (NY Philharmonic Concert, 2011)

“Being Alive” Neil Patrick Harris

& Company

(6:07)

Company Won 6 Tony Awards (1970) (out of 14 nominations)

Best Musical

Score: Stephen Sondheim

Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Book: George Furth

Scenic Design: Boris Aronson

Direction (Musical): Harold Prince

Also Nominated: Actor (Kert), Actress (Stritch, Browning), Featured Actor (Kimbrough), Featured Actress (Barrie, Myers), Lighting Design (Ornbo), Choreography (Bennett)

Company as a “Concept Musical”

“Concept, the word coined to describe the form of the Sondheim musical, suggests that all elements of the musical, thematic and presentational, are integrated to suggest a central theatrical image or idea. . . . A central conceit controls and shapes an entire production. The thematic thrust of the work dictates not only the content of the piece, but also the presentational form.”

—Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy: The Theater of Stephen Sondheim (1992)

Company as a “Concept Musical”

Sondheim repudiates the designation:

“‘Concept’ is this decade’s vogue word just as ‘integrated’ was the vogue theatrical word of the ‘40s, referring to an approach in which a story is told and characters are advanced through song. . . .

—quoted in Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy (1992)

Company as a “Concept Musical”

Sondheim, continued:

“The watershed . . . was Oklahoma! Everything that followed can be seen as a development of it—either a rejection or a carrying on. Me, I’m carrying it on, making variations.”

—quoted in Joanne Gordon, Art Isn’t Easy (1992)