Best of Sondheim's Company - OBC, 1970

[GospelAccording2ME]

LOL It kills me that she finishes the take...and lights a cancer stick! Wow...

[autopolydidact]

Own up... who yelled "telephone" at 0:49.

I love the head-banging.

[Ilenowsmusic]

Each time I listen to Sondheim, I love the one I'm listening to the best. This week it's Company.This is good because it coincides with the New York Philharmonic's production with Patti Lupone & Neil Patrick Harris. I know someone will sometime Post some part of this. Oh,I thank my lucky star for beautiful music!

[BrochtrupBean]

"Donna knows."

[elzbieta52]

An awful lot of emo coming through Jones' Being Alive.

[gabsylv]

nicely edited assemblage

[smiley66goodvibes67]

Who is the guy on the right at 6:03?

[flclhack]

My god, this show is timeless...

[DoyleDogma109]

I love that the guy has his cigarette in his hand

[colossus999]

This is really nice. I've only heard the revival up until now. I'd like to get this album.

[RichieEastside]

Woman at 0:42 looks possessed!! :-0 lol

[cenapecs77]

The guy with the red moustache was in "The Stepford Wives"

[Oldiesbuff925]

Im just realizing that Beth Howland was part of the original cast....had no idea.....shw was more widely known as vera on ALICE...OMG...awesome

[DavidlyMe]

I have really got to get this documentary. Company is probably my favourite show, though I think I love the original 1970 cast and the 1996 revival equally.

[screaminPirate]

i love this! :)

[Capricaquarius89]

I wish I could have seen the original cast-- Elaine Strich is an experience!

[bombasticmon]

I love this! And always come back to it! Awesome singers. And as a horn player I particularly enjoy 3:37 with that echoing phrase. Wonderful music.

[peerkbh]

Amazing. How great that someone taped this. I wonder if they realized back then that this was musical history in the making?

[kmilacl101]

Stephen looks so cute at 9:33

[AtLastOnTheGround]

1:17 -- Elaine, you sassy woman, who are you winking at?

[UncleCharlieOakley]

I was lucky enough to see the original show and I can tell you that Elaine was repeating some of her original "blocking." She winked at the same spot at every performance.

[AtLastOnTheGround]

I thought it was just a random facial tic! Did you get to see Dean Jones before he left?

[UncleCharlieOakley]

Yes, you there "AtLastOnTheGround," the show, the entire cast was in full force. I heard that busy phone signal, took-in Boris Aronson's astonishing set, heard THOSE actors singing THOSE lyrics and I was gob-smacked. What an experience. After seeing "Company" those times, living in Boston as a student, I got to see "Follies," "A Little Night Music," "Pacific Overtures," etc. in tryouts. It was a magical, privileged time to be young, alive, receptive and I fell in love with the theater.

[AtLastOnTheGround]

That was, in my opinion, the best era of theater. Follies, ALNM, Pacific Overtures, Company -- Such AMAZING shows. I really wish it was still like that today : /

[UncleCharlieOakley]

It was a very impressive era but, then again, I wasn't around in the 50s, 40s, etc and never got to see at their pinnacle Merman, Martin, Drake, Verdon in shows created by brilliant Broadway pros. But Sondheim, Prince, Aronson, Klotz, those casts -- it's hard to imagine anything better. I can remember these shows and performers so distinctly, it makes so much that I see today seem shrill, forced and theme park-y.

[AtLastOnTheGround]

I completely agree -- Shrek, The Lion King, Wicked -- It's like someone put an amusement park onstage, composed some hummable tunes, wrote in a bunch of corny, inside jokes that hopefully the audience will laugh at, and then called it a show. COMPANY is really a masterpiece, whereas many shows on B'way now are barely art.

[KorAnos1]

@AtLastOnTheGround What's wrong with tourists going to Broadway? The shows, in my opinion, didn't get better or worse, and it's not like new talent won't arise, so what's with all the musical snobbery I'm seeing?

[TheCPComedykids]

@AtLastOnTheGround I agree that Broadway has turned into that. The main reason is that people don't just go see Broadway shows like they used to because the economy is so bad. They have to turn movies and books into musicals.

But, if you've actually seen Lion King on bway, it's one of the most amazing things in the world! Honestly!

[pbb228]

@AtLastOnTheGround that's when people took their craft seriously, the same can be said for today's music...sad.

[RichieEastside]

For a long time musical theatre aside from movie versions, was more or less just a New York thing, with a few exceptions for really popular or controversial works...but now the theatres are more tourist attractions than they are really for the New Yorkers themselves, so that's why the shows got more theme parky...going to Broadway now is like part of a vacation package (and priced like it too). Not saying that today's shows are better or worse, it's just the reason for the change in styles imo

[alecs1976]

unbelievable...that one guy smoked int the studio during recording...!!!

[nikonwill]

that one guy? you mean Stephen Sondheim?

[alecs1976]

no! I mean the one singer standing next to elaine stritch....

[wiseone2]

There used to be ashtrays in the studios..........everyone smoked in those days

[RickvanVeldhuizen]

'70's ay...

[passuoutnw]

LOL, that guy smoking is Stephen Sondheim...he can do damn well anything he pleases!!

[Bobdennell]

We saw Strich et al in the London production in the early 70s. Every line of lyric, every note of the immaculate orchestration, every nuance of the acting rang out Sondheim at his very best. We still play the music and savour every second.

[OneoftheImmortals]

The 411 in the info box was as entertaining as the video.

This brought back memories of Chris Elliott parodying Elaine Stritch on Letterman shortly after the extended version of Sondheim telling Stritch off was aired on PBS.

The first time I heard what was to become Stritch's signature song was on The Carol Burnett Show. Believe it or not, Burnett was equally brilliant when she sang, "The Ladies Who Lunch."

Thanks for posting.

;-{)

[theBestArts]

Yeah, I think Dean Jones and Larry Kert were both much better choices.

[bluebettle]

I wonder what Anthony Perkins would had sounded like on Company.

Listening to him in Evening Primrose, I wasn't really impressed.