I saw the original documentary (25 - 30) years ago long after having already discovered the original cast album in the 1980s and growing up with it. What brought me to this copy or version was seeing the 2011 performance with Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby on RU-vid.
People have often said this musical is a semi-biographical of Sondheim. However, when you learn about George Furth, who wrote the book and intentionally avoided any significant long-term relationship, you realize that it a far greater reflection of his experiences and life than Sondheim’s.
Dean Jones singing 'Being Alive' destroys me every time. Lots of other people sing it very well - and it's so poignant in 'Marriage Story' too. But he's the best. No contest.
I was working as an usher at the San Francisco Film Festival while I was in grad film school and I knew about the Pennebakers so I snuck in to watch the Company doc and instantly fell in love with Sondheim. I'd known him as a lyricist and loved West Side Story but the doc that this doc is based on blew my mind and changed my life. Damn, is the original doc available anywhere?
With this great "b roll" of the ladies who lunch, a great rancor performance, and the more polished obc recording, I say we had our cake and ate it too .
You can tell Sondheim really likes Donna McKechnie, who was one smart cookie. While everyone else looks like Death warmed over, she's in full make-up and lashes, and is the freshest-looking one there.
For anyone who is a Company fan, the commentary here by Stritch and Prince is tremendously interesting. Penbebaker's comments on the documentary are fun, but a few times his comments verge on the irrelevant. Stritch's discission of her struggles are especially absorbing. Prince, as usual, can be a bit self-congratulatory., but he still has useful info on Company and the recording.
Dean Jones really wasn't cut out for performing so many times per week. In film he projected nothing more than a certain pleasant blankness. He'd become a star in Disney films, and the Disney studio was its own little world that promoted and protected its talent. It was possible for Jones to become a fairly big name just making family films for them (some made a lot of money). His voice was good enough, but his performance in Company here is a bit bland. That isn't inappropriate for Bobby, who is disengaged, but it isn't very interesting. Raul Esparza's Bobby is better, as he brought to Bobby not just withdrawal, but bitterness and even anger, plus just singing more beautifully. I wish I could have seen/heard Larry Kert in the part, as he was supposedly excellent. They made a special exception for him that made him eligible for a Tony nomination, even though he didn't originate the part.
Jones asked to leave the show upon opening because he was going through a divorce at the time and he didn’t think he could cope with both the difficulty of eight performances a week and the strain of the divorce. Hal Prince agreed to release Jones if he agreed to record his part for the cast album, which he did the Sunday after the show’s opening, as noted here. He was replaced by Broadway star Larry Kert, who no doubt felt a bit cheated carry the lead but be excluded from the cast album. The rest is history.
You got that right! Her voice is astonishing in the staged revival @ Lincoln Center. She stopped the show nearly 12 years after the original production. Her voice got better!
Being Alive, Another Hundred People, and Ladies Who Lunch, are the standout songs from this album. But only Elaine Stritch is remembered. Dean Jones was in maybe 10 actual performances, and no one knows what the characters name is who sings "another hundred people" let alone who it was. I don't know if this show is what created the piece for Donna Mckechnie in a chorus line.
The commentary is from 30 years later. The original is now licensed by Criterion in 2022 and unavailable on RU-vid . An entirely new documentary of the 2022 production airs on PBS in the spring.
