April 26, 1970—On the short list of productions that changed Broadway, the first non-linear, concept musical, Company, premiered at the Alvin Theater. It was the first of five collaborations in the 1970s between composer Stephen Sondheim and director Harold Prince that tested audience tastes and stretched the boundaries of musical theater.
In Company, I would argue, Sondheim began to use his musical “voice” with self-confidence and mastery. It was easy to miss in his early work, which was overshadowed by senior songwriting partners Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers, or by crushing failure. (See my post on the cult favorite Anyone Can Whistle.)
But now, critics and audiences became fully aware of his technical and emotional range—especially seen through lyrics suffused with intelligence, wit and ambivalence about modern life and relationships. “I prefer neurotic people,” he told Newsweek in 1973. “I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.”
The marriages in this ensemble piece are, more often than not, emotionally brittle, taking their cue from the city’s nervous energy. You can see it in a song like “Another Hundred People,” and especially in “Not Getting Married Today,” a vocally taxing tune whose breakneck speed conveys its main character, a bride having a nervous breakdown just before the ceremony.
Let’s stop for a second. Even as I write about Sondheim’s “self-confidence,” I can’t help but think how much Company, like other great shows, came together almost as a happy accident.
Start with this: It wasn’t supposed to be a musical in the first place.
Actor George Furth (best remembered for his priceless small scenes as the diehard railway employee Woodcock in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) had written a series of one-act plays, meant to be performed with one actor taking on the lead role in each. When asked what he thought of the idea, Prince said it would work better as a musical.
Then, think of the Man Who Would Be Bobby, the 35-year-old bachelor protagonist who resists his married friends’ urging to commit himself to a relationship. Critics have long noted that Bobby is a rather enigmatic figure. That might be at least partly because his identity has shifted with and been reshaped by the three actors originally associated with the role:
* Furth and Sondheim began to invent scenes and emotional textures for Bobby with the thought that Anthony Perkins would play the part. But Perkins went on to direct a different project.
* Dean Jones was then cast as Bobby. Those who have bought the original-cast album know that he possessed a strong voice. Unfortunately, the musical’s uncertainty concerning marriage hit too close to home for Jones, who was going through a painful divorce at the time. Prince agreed to let him out of his contract if Jones could make it a couple of weeks past the premiere.
* Jones’ replacement, Larry Kert, the original Tony in West Side Story, was so good in his role—and the circumstances surrounding Jones’ departure so unusual—that the Tony nominating committee were persuaded to nominate him for the Tony.
In Company, I would argue, Sondheim began to use his musical “voice” with self-confidence and mastery. It was easy to miss in his early work, which was overshadowed by senior songwriting partners Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Richard Rodgers, or by crushing failure. (See my post on the cult favorite Anyone Can Whistle.)
But now, critics and audiences became fully aware of his technical and emotional range—especially seen through lyrics suffused with intelligence, wit and ambivalence about modern life and relationships. “I prefer neurotic people,” he told Newsweek in 1973. “I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.”
The marriages in this ensemble piece are, more often than not, emotionally brittle, taking their cue from the city’s nervous energy. You can see it in a song like “Another Hundred People,” and especially in “Not Getting Married Today,” a vocally taxing tune whose breakneck speed conveys its main character, a bride having a nervous breakdown just before the ceremony.
Let’s stop for a second. Even as I write about Sondheim’s “self-confidence,” I can’t help but think how much Company, like other great shows, came together almost as a happy accident.
Start with this: It wasn’t supposed to be a musical in the first place.
Actor George Furth (best remembered for his priceless small scenes as the diehard railway employee Woodcock in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) had written a series of one-act plays, meant to be performed with one actor taking on the lead role in each. When asked what he thought of the idea, Prince said it would work better as a musical.
Then, think of the Man Who Would Be Bobby, the 35-year-old bachelor protagonist who resists his married friends’ urging to commit himself to a relationship. Critics have long noted that Bobby is a rather enigmatic figure. That might be at least partly because his identity has shifted with and been reshaped by the three actors originally associated with the role:
* Furth and Sondheim began to invent scenes and emotional textures for Bobby with the thought that Anthony Perkins would play the part. But Perkins went on to direct a different project.
* Dean Jones was then cast as Bobby. Those who have bought the original-cast album know that he possessed a strong voice. Unfortunately, the musical’s uncertainty concerning marriage hit too close to home for Jones, who was going through a painful divorce at the time. Prince agreed to let him out of his contract if Jones could make it a couple of weeks past the premiere.
* Jones’ replacement, Larry Kert, the original Tony in West Side Story, was so good in his role—and the circumstances surrounding Jones’ departure so unusual—that the Tony nominating committee were persuaded to nominate him for the Tony.
1 comment:
I believe you have been spammed.
So I will simply be off-topic, writing not of the Ladies who Lunch or Barcelona (save to note that the part of the Master Class Sondheim taught that doesn't appear to have been uploaded to youtube includes the latter song), but rather the book that gave this blog it's name. In comic form.
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