 COMPANY
a musical comedy in two acts. Book by George Furth.
Music and lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim.
Produced at the Alvin Theatre, New York, 26 April 1970 (705 perfs)
with Dean Jones (Robert), Barbara Barrie (Sarah), Elaine Stritch
(Joanne) and Donna McKechnie (Kathy). Produced at Her Majesty's
Theatre, London, 18 April 1972 with Larry Kert, Marti Stevens, Elaine
Stritch and Donna McKechnie.
Story
Act I
Amidst the gleaming chrome and plexiglass towers of modern middle-class
Manhattan dwells Robert - all alone in his sleek bachelor apartment. Except
for his friends, who are gathered together one evening at the dawn of
the Seventies to wish him a happy birthday. Sarah and Harry, Susan and
Peter, Jenny and David, Amy and Paul, Joanne and Larry, all living in
connubial bliss -save for Robert. As he blows out the candles, his friends
make a wish for him: he ought to be happily married - just like them.
But in the incessant click-buzz of the telephone he has found his own
happiness - good times with chums and pals, no strings, just 'Company'.
Robert goes over to Sarah and Harry's apartment. Harry has quit booze,
Sarah is fighting the inch war - and they're both taking it out on
each other. As Sarah demonstrates her newly-acquired karate skills
by pinning Harry to the floor, their friends observe that it's 'The
Little Things You Do Together' that keep a marriage alive. Robert isn't
entirely convinced and asks Harry if he's sorry he got married? Or
is he grateful? Well, yes and no: Harry's 'Sorry- Grateful'. Across
town, at Susan and Peter's, Robert finds an enviable idyllic marriage.
Peter is proud and affectionate, Susan sweet and adoring: it's because
they've decided to get divorced. Robert moves on to Jenny and David's,
where they're experimenting with marijuana and talking about . . .
marriage. Robert says he just wants to meet the right girl, but right
now is dating three not-so right girls. 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy',
boop-boop-de-doop this frustrated trio, April, Kathy and Marta. Everyone,
it seems, knows what's best for Robert: Have I Got a Girl For You!'
promise his friends, as they pair him off with chicks from the office
and nieces from Ohio. But Robert knows what he wants: somewhere 'Someone
Is Waiting', his ideal girl, "an Amy sort
of Sarah, a Jennyish Joanne" - a mix 'n' match compilation of the five
wives he knows best.
Robert sits in the park, as a drifting tide of single women washes all
around him: April, Kathy, Marta and 'Another Hudnred People' swarming
up from the subway. Even Paul and Amy are tying the knot, after years
of merely living together. But at the wedding breakfast Amy announces
that she can't do it. Paul runs off in the rain and Robert asks the distraught
ex-bride-to be if she'll have him instead. Resolute as ever, Amy declares
that she has no intention of 'Getting Married Today'. But she does ...
to Paul. Act II
Meanwhile, back at the surprise party, Robert and his
good friends congratulate themselves on their good fortune in going
through life 'Side By Side By Side'. But, as they fall into a good-natured
hats-and-canes vaudeville routine, Robert realises that everyone has
a dancing partner except him. 'What Would We Do Without You?' chorus
his friends. "Just
what you usually do", he replies. But they do worry so. As Robert beds
April, his lady friends brood on her unsuitability. Poor Bobby, 'Poor
Baby', they sigh. All they want is for him to find a nice girl. But April?
She's tall enough to be your mother", pronounces Joanne. April and Robert,
though, hear only the inexorable 'Tick-Tock' of their own perfect, practised
countdown to take-off. "What a lovely, smooth body!" "He really likes
me!" If only I could remember her name ... At 4.30 in the morning, the
alarm goes. She has to fly to 'Barcelona'. Look, this isn't just a one
night stand, he reassures June - er, April. Does she have to leave? Couldn't
she stay? "Okay", says April. "Oh, God", says Robert.
Susan and Peter are back from Mexico, where they so enjoyed getting their
divorce they're now living together. At a discotheque, while Larry wiggles
on the floor, Joanne gets drunk and attracts the attention of a group
of bitchy onlookers. She proposes a toast to them: here's to 'The Ladies
Who Lunch' and their empty lives. She also propositions Robert, but what
would be the point. He's seen all these marriages, and what do you get
for it? But then he understands what his friends already know: part of
'Being Alive' is committing yourself to somebody. That's what it's really
about, isn't it? The five crazy couples leave, Robert stands alone and
begins again (Finale). With friends like these ...
Characters
- ROBERT
- A middle-class male who's thirty-five years old, which is no age
to be unmarried.
- SARAH - A married woman who's trying to lose weight and talks about
food a lot. She has taken up karate, which is no substitute.
- HARRY - Sarah's husband, a struggling! teetotaller since his
arrest for Driving While Intoxicated.
- SUSAN - A southern belle and a wonderful wife.
- PETER - Susan's ideal Ivy League husband.
- JENNY - Very middle-class, very conservative.
- DAVID - Very middle-class, very modish.
- AMY - A bride-to-be who's been living in sin and in analysis
for years.
- PAUL - Amy's long-standing partner.
- JOANNE - A generous but sharp-tongued broad whose drunken scorn
for others is matched only by her self-contempt.
- LARRY - Joanne's husband.
- APRIL - A girlfriend of Robert's, an air hostess from Shaker
Heights who came to live in Radio City because she thought it was
a city near New York, not actually in it.
- KATHY - A girlfriend of Robert's, a New Yorker who's skipping
town to go and find rural contentment in Vermont.
- MARTA - A girlfriend of Robert's, a kook who hangs out on 14th
Street and has a zillion theories.
- THE VOCAL MINORITY - In lieu of a chorus, a small group of useful
singers.
Orchestration
REED I - Piccolo, Flute, Alto Flute, Alto Sax, Clarinet, Eb Clarinet
REED II - Piccolo, Flute, Alto Flute, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Bass
Clarinet
REED III - Flute, Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
REED IV - Oboe, Cor Anglais, Baritone Sax, Clarinet
REED V - Baritone Sax, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
2 HORNS
3 TRUMPETS (2nd db. FLUGELHORN)
2 TROMBONES
2 GUITARS (ELECTRIC/ACOUSTIC, BANJO,
2nd db. BASS GUITAR)
2 PERCUSSION
KEYBOARD
4 FEMALE BACKING VOCALISTS
3 VIOLINS
2 CELLI
BASS
Discography
COLUMBIA OS 3550 Original Cast CBS 70108 Larry Kert (replacing
Dean Jones) plus Original Cast
FIRST NIGHT - CASTCD 57 - 1996 London Cast recording |
