Sondheim: Company - Original Broadway Cast Recording [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack, Import]

"Company" -- along with "Follies", "A Little Night Music", and "Sweeney Todd", represents the pinnacle of Sondheim's achievement and a bastion of the greatest music Broadway has ever sponsored -- both from a musical and literary perspective. "Company" itself is by turns warm, acerbic, amusing, frantic, and is a magnificent expression of the convoluted emotional lives of modern urbanites. (Indeed, it has one of the most perceptive songs ever written about New York City--"Another Hundred People".) The ambiguity of the human spirit is a major theme running through Sondheim's ouvre of lyrics. (Which are, in my opinion, arguably the greatest body of lyrics composed for the stage, Gerschwin, Berlin, Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein & Hart AND the rest notwithstanding.) Such brilliant songs as "Sorry-Grateful", "Someone Is Waiting", and "Being Alive" attest to that. The words reach down into the gut, and even when cynical they ring true (as in the wonderful "The Ladies Who Lunch"). Although there have been alternative casts and revivals and numerous concert performances of the score, in whole or part, this original cast recording still towers above them all: Dean Jones' magnificent performance, fraught with all the pain and bemusement and alienation (the role nearly caused him to have a nervous breakdown, it affected him so much); that national treasure, Elaine Strich, in "The Little Things You Do Together" and the incomparable "The Ladies Who Lunch"; Beth Howland's tour-de-force panic attack while "Getting Married Today"; the wonderful cast (including Charles Kimbrough of "Murphy Brown" fame and Barbara Barrie, and alumnus of "Barney Miller"). Even the ostensibly "Big" crowd-pleaser numbers, like "Side by Side by Side", for all their conscious nods to popular tastes, have an edge-- how Bobby, at the end, finds himself alone when his married friends pair off with their spouses-- beside the wonderfully witty and insightful lyrics; in "Barcelona" -- one of the most realistic "post-coitus" numbers even written -- where Bobby, after insincere and fulsome praise of his recent bedmate, at a climax calls her "June" -- and she quietly corrects him-- "April" -- there's nothing quite like it, or many of the numbers, elsewhere in Musical Theater. ALL IN ALL -- this album is a classic, probably not for people with bubblegum tastes whose preferences run to the simpy or bathetic-- but for people of intelligence and introspection. It cannot be recommended too highly.

COMPANY is one of the greatest musicals to emerge from the 70's, which proved to be a rather thin decade for Broadway and the musicals.

COMPANY is a "concept musical" in the best sense of the word, where the songs act more as vignettes than form a scene-to-scene story. The cast, headed by Dean Jones and Elaine Stritch, has never been truly bettered.

Dean Jones, in his brief time as Bobby, displayed for the first time his rich and beautiful singer voice. After years playing the goofy leads of Disney comedies like "The Love Bug", "Monkeys Go Home" and "That Darn Cat", Jones was established as a Broadway star to be reckoned with. His renditions of "Someone is Waiting" as well as the life-affirming "Being Alive" are fantastic.

The supporting cast is headed by Elaine Stritch as Joanne, the sardonic older woman who sings the masterpiece "The Ladies who Lunch" (still yet to be equalled). Beth Howland, as kooky Amy, sings the difficult patter-sing "Getting Married Today" with gusto. Pamela Myers, in her Tony-nominated role as Marta, sings a mean rendition of "Another Hundred People". The rest of the cast; Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, Merle Louise, Charles Cunningham, Teri Ralston, George Coe, Steve Elmore, Charles Braswell, Donna McKechnie, Susan Browning, Cathy Corkill, Carol Gelfand, Marilyn Saunders and Dona D. Vaughn; all sing with gusto.

Stephen Sondheim certainly created what is considered one of his most polished and questioning scores; including "Barcelona", "Have I Got a Girl For You", "Sorry-Grateful", "Poor Baby" and the dance arrangement for "Tick-Tock", which provided a showcase for the galvanising dance talents of Donna McKechnie (who would go on to create the role of Cassie in the original cast of A CHORUS LINE).

"Company" was the first Sondheim-Prince collaboration, setting the pace for "Follies", "Pacific Overtures" and "Sweeney Todd", which were forthcoming. This is a brilliant score with melidious songs, urbane and witty lyrics and fascinating rhythms. Sondheim is at the top of his game, as is the cast. Dean Jones as Bobby is wonderful in all his numbers, mainly "Being Alive", Donna McKechnie, Pamela Myers and Susan Browning are great in the tounge twister of a song called "You Can Drive A Person Crazy", Myers also scores in the classic, "Another Hundred People." But the real star of the show is Elaine Stritch. She is in her ultimate role. "The Little Things You Do Together" is great, but her "Ladies Who Lunch" is incomperable.

This is a highly recomended recording of my second-favorite score by Sondheim ("Follies" being my favorite). Oh yeah, and did I mention the orchestrations? The brillaint harpsicord\electric piano called a roxicord, the strings, the percussion, the brass. This is brilliant!