Company

by Original Broadway Cast

Product Description:

This 1998 reissue contains one bonus track not included on the original release.

Music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim.

Principal cast includes: Dean Jones (Robert); Donna McKechnie (Kathy); Barbara Barrie (Sarah); Charles Kimbrough (Harry); Elaine Stritch (Joanne); Pamela Myers (Marta); Susan Browning (April); Beth Howland (Amy).

Recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studios, New York, New York on May 2 & 3, 1970. Includes liner notes by Marc Kirkeby.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Having learned from the best in the business, Stephen Sondheim broke the mold of the Broadway musical. After several less successful attempts to crack the big time, Sondheim finally did it in 1970 with COMPANY. Although virtually plotless and loaded with irony, the show was a huge success. The initial run lasted for 690 performances, and the production won six Tony Awards, including best music and best lyrics for the composer. The marathon recording sessions for the cast album were equally remarkable, and the whole drama was captured in a documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker.

While the subject matter was new to the musical stage, the music was thoroughly in the tradition, with baroque orchestrations, intricate ensemble numbers, and moving solos. The score turned out such classic Sondheim pieces as "Sorry-Grateful," "The Little Things You Do Together," and "The Ladies Who Lunch," and the cast was made up of Broadway's best, including Dean Jones, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough, and Elaine Stritch. COMPANY was an essential record from the day it was released, and the remastered CD version sounds as if it had been recorded yesterday.