150 Word Review: 'Original Cast Album: Company' (1970)
The little things you do
Documentarian D.A. Pennebaker thought he was hired to film a pilot for a series about the “making of” Broadway cast albums. This was the only one made, and although it clocks in at under an hour, this doc feels like a full-length journey. Original Cast Album: Company is a behind-the-scenes look at the tense, all-night recording session for Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s rousing, experimental musical about commitment, friendship, and marriage.
Pennebaker captures the Sturm und Drang of neurotic, nicotine-fueled collaboration. It’s electric. Sondheim himself is tightly wound; he knows exactly what he wants. The cast is inspired, including Dean Jones, whose version of ‘Being Alive,’ a beautiful, bittersweet ballad about intimacy, is raw and gusty. And then there’s Elaine Stitch singing the acerbic, crowd-pleasing ‘The Ladies Who Lunch.’ She struggles to get it right, take after take, as the producers in the booth grow frustrated. Can she do it?
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