Original Cast Album - Company

Starring:Teri Ralston, Dean Jones, George Coe, Charles Braswell, Elaine Stritch, Merle Louise, Harold Prince, Beth Howland, George Furth, Harold Hastings, Susan Browning, Barbara Barrie, Pamela Myers, Charles Kimbrough, Thomas Z. Shepherd, John Cunningham, Donna McKechnie, Steve Elmore, Stephen Sondheim
Director: D.A. Pennebaker
Studio: New Video Group
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
While a proposed series of original cast recording sessions for documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back) never materialized, Original Cast Album: Company survives as the first and only entry, and it was fortuitous that its subject was the 1970 musical Company. Groundbreaking in its use of a series of vignettes rather than a conventional plot, it was also one of the earliest major works for composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the most important figure in musical theater over the last quarter-century. Unlike films, theater productions rarely have a permanent record, so a musical is preserved for posterity by the cast recording. This puts all the pressure on the recording session, as cast member Susan Browning explains during the recording of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy": a live performance can be imperfect, but "this is different. This is the definitive, it's the end-all and the be-all of this song, and... God, that could drive a person crazy!"

Amazon.com essential video

While a proposed series of original cast recording sessions for documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back) never materialized, Original Cast Album: Company survives as the first and only entry, and it was fortuitous that its subject was the 1970 musical Company. Groundbreaking in its use of a series of vignettes rather than a conventional plot, it was also one of the earliest major works for composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the most important figure in musical theater over the last quarter-century. Unlike films, theater productions rarely have a permanent record, so a musical is preserved for posterity by the cast recording. This puts all the pressure on the recording session, as cast member Susan Browning explains during the recording of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy": a live performance can be imperfect, but "this is different. This is the definitive, it's the end-all and the be-all of this song, and... God, that could drive a person crazy!"

Description

Called a "monumental achievement" by the Los Angeles Times, Company is the extraordinary documentary capturing the explosive recording session for Stephen Sondheim's landmark musical. On May 3, 1970, just a few days after its triumphant Broadway opening,

Customer Reviews:

Great Almost Forgotten Cast Album.......2007-02-16

I never saw Company on stage, but was introduced to snippets of it on a DVD about Broadway and realized I would probably like the whole album. So, I ordered it, and I did.
Then I rented the DVD that shows how the cast album was made. .and that was even better! So, I hope that someday Company will tour. . I think it may be doing a Revival on Broadway, but I'd have to check that out. . but whatever the case, it's an interesting and well done cast recording and if you are a Sonheim fan, a must for your collection.

Part Rip-off, Part Astounding!.......2007-01-04

What I expected from this album did not happen and for that I am sorry. You see, I am so old that back in the old, old sixties, I saw this show on the Broadway stage along with Dean Stockwell and broke out in goosebumps when Elaine Stritch sung her classic "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch!" What's on this DVD is NOT the show, but merely sketches of the rehearsals, much like the beginning of "Follies in Concert." In "Follies" they went on to do the whole programme and went away satisfied. In "Company" that did not happen and when the rehearsal was over they all went home and that was the end of it! I was so shocked that they (the producers of the DVD) would do that, that I didn't believe it and went back to the scene selections looking for a show--there was none. It's not a question of space on the DVD as I stated, they followed that format in "Follies." So, in sum, I adore Stephen Sondheim and I liked the real show "Company"--but the DVD leaves me there wishing for the whole show. This DVD album is a ripoff!
Kris Kleeberg
[...]

Brilliant rare documentary sneak-peek into cast-album making..........2007-01-03

This rare treat from documentary filmmaker Pennebaker is a must-have for any Sondheim lover like me. Elaine Stritch's "hung-over" initial rendition of the classic song The Ladies Who Lunch is unbelievable. The late Pamela Browning sings Another Hundred People beautifully and we get to see most of Beth Howland's (Vera on the TV sit-com Alice) seminal rendition of the Sondheim gem Getting Married Today. I only wished that Pennebaker had released extra footage of more songs, more takes, more banter. The show is currently back on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in a wonderful redux revival starring Raul Esparza and Barbara Walsh directed by John Doyle. In this revival (cast album out soon I am sure) one gets to enjoy the music and lyrics in ways never before enjoyed because of the lack of focus on the visual aspects of the show. This DVD is a worthy testament to a brilliant classic multi-Tony-winning piece of marvellous musical theatre history.

A great documentary by a great filmmaker.......2006-02-28

I can't stop watching this documentary about the recording of the cast ablum of a wonderful musical Broadway show. And I found watching the film with the commentary was as entertaining as watching the movie without the talking heads. The film quality of the transfer to DVD isn't perfect, but it's a minor flaw. To top it off, you listen to great songs by the great Stephen Sondheim. I fully recommend it, especially if you're a fan of the documentary about Bob Dylan, "Don't Look Back," which was made by D.A. Pennebaker as well. Pennebaker just records what's in front of him and let's everything play out without manipulation. It's pure and simple and top-notch filmmaking.

If You Like Broadway Musicals, You'll Probably Like This.......2004-12-23

If you like Broadway, if you like Stephen Sondheim (or even if you don't), if you like behind-the-scenes looks at show business, you'll probaby like this DVD. It's a documentary of how the original cast recording of Company was put together a few days after the show opened in New York.

All one Sunday and through 4 a.m. Monday the tracks were rehearsed, changed, critiqued, redone until with one exception the record was finished. The exception was Elaine Stritch's recording of the big song from the show, "The Ladies Who Lunch." It's a dramatic show stopper, and Stritch just couldn't nail it. All the other cast members had been dismissed, so it was just Stritch, the orchestra, and the recording and creative teams. The more takes they took, the more flaccid her performance became and more tired her voice sounded. This section alone on the DVD is high drama. (They finally recorded the orchestra track and had her come back two days later--when she did nail it, to everyone's relief.)

The program takes less than an hour and there's no voice over (unless you access a fairly interesting interview made 30 years later by Stritch, Harold Prince, the show's Broadway director, and Pennebaker). You move from song to song seeing how adjustments were made, how help was given, how nuances became highly important. Interspersed are snippets of discussion by Sondheim and Prince of how the show came about.

Everyone was acutely aware that they were making the permanent recording of the show's score. The stress, no matter how professional the actors were, had to have been incredible. There's Dean Jones with a fairly brittle voice who was probably chosen for the lead because of his movie name recognition. He clearly looks uncomfortable throughout. At one point the recording supervisor, Thomas Z. Shephard, says to him, "You're very good and I don't want to spoil something that's potentially marvelous..." Uh oh. Pamela Meyers was a young singer in her first Broadway show with a big song to perform, "Another Hundred People." She looks a bit like Brigitte Jones. Sondheim works with her to get a single note where it should be. She is so serious listening to him and he takes the time to be gentle with her. And there's Stritch, an actress who seems unable to turn it off. She draws the center of attention to her just enough to be noticeable. Most things tend to be dramatic with her, and her struggle with "Ladies" is as much self-involved as it is her aiming for excellence.

I'm not one of those who thinks a great deal of Company as a show. I've seen it on Broadway and two or three times in rep. It's a musical about marriage and relationships and the inability to commit...or rather, it's a story about relationships and marriage amongst rather superficial upper-East Side New Yorkers. Those are easy targets and the point of view gets, for me, a little tiresome. But the songs are great, and the show was exciting and different when it opened.

As I said, if you like Broadway musicals, Steven Sondheim, and behind-the-scenes looks, you'll probably get a kick out of this.

Average customer rating:

Docurama Film Festival II
Starring: Docurama Film Festival 2
Manufacturer: Docurama
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Documentary | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Docurama Film Festival I (Aging Out/ Broken Rainbow/ Doing Time - Life Inside The Big House/ The Fire Next Time/ Full Frame Documentary Shorts Collection: Vol. 4/ Legacy/ Omar & Pete/ The Police Tapes/ Sister Rose¿s Passion/ The Wobblies)
Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)
A Scanner Darkly
Jesus Camp
Blood Diamond [HD DVD]

ASIN: B000GG4XY2
Release Date: 2006-09-26

Product description

Includes: Con Man (2003), The Education of Shelby Knox (2005), The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch (2005), Parallel Lines (2004), Passin' It On (1993), Power Trip (2003), The Shvitz (1993), Waging a Living (2005), Farmingville (2004), Original Cast Album: Company (1970).

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