George Furth and Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY in Photographs

Harold Prince, who helped to create such Broadway classics as The Phantom of the Opera and Sweeney Todd, was a very visual director and considered designers like Boris Aronson and Patricia Zipprodt co-creators in the development of his musicals. Unfortunately, many of Prince’s musicals were staged before the creation of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, and were not otherwise documented on film or video. However, as part of our preparation for the Harold Prince exhibition that opened last September, the Library digitized a large number of photographic negatives of production shots from several of Prince’s musicals. As a result it is possible to virtually reconstruct the staging of these original productions by arranging the hundreds of digitized photographs in the order of the show.

Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing a series of blogs summarizing seven of Prince’s shows with links to the cast recording. I hope this will be of interest to both students wanting to study these musicals and fans who want to relive their experience in the theatre.

COMPANY

Note: All of these summaries are based on the original Broadway libretto and staging. In some cases, later revivals have modified the scenes and the text.

A group of couples stand around a table in a New York apartment getting ready for a surprise 35th birthday party for their single friend Robert. They place gifts upon a table until footsteps are heard and the couples hide. Robert enters and they jump out to surprise him. He expresses his thanks, and the couples discuss their love for him and their concern that he is still single. As he blows out the candles on his cake, the couples leave. Robert, standing in the dark, listens, as previous phone conversations are heard, perhaps in another apartment, perhaps in his memory ("Company").   

Robert visits the home of Sarah and Harry. Harry has recently stopped drinking after being arrested for driving drunk, and Sarah is on a diet. Nonetheless, the two push food and alcohol on Robert while squabbling about their own vices. Sarah has been studying Karate and is convinced to demonstrate some moves. She pins her husband to the ground while Joanne, watching, perhaps from another of Robert’s memories, sings "The Little Things You Do Together".

After the song, the couple engage in a bit more banter until Sarah leaves to go to bed, telling Harry “I love you.” Robert asks Harry if he’s “ever sorry he got married.” He responds with a song saying he’s “always sorry, always grateful.” The other husbands sing the same thing from different apartments on the stage. ("Sorry Grateful")

Robert “takes an elevator up to a terrace overlooking the city” outside of the apartment of his friends, Peter and Susan. The couple tell him a sweet story about how Susan faints every time Peter is in danger. Robert expresses his admiration for Susan and jokingly tells Peter, “if you ever decide to leave her I want to be the first to know.” They reveal he is “the first to know.”

Robert takes the elevator downstairs to visit another couple, Jenny and David, who are smoking pot. Jenny is new to the drug, and is hyper-aware of what she is feeling and concerned about what she should be feeling. David, realizing she’s high, jokingly gets her to curse (something she never does). The three fall to the floor together laughing.  Susan suggests Robert should be married, but that perhaps he’s not ready. Robert objects that he’s completely ready, and is dating a bunch of girls. They ask him why he’s not married then. The girls he is dating (April, Kathy, and Marta) all sing about their frustration with his inability to commit. ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy")

After the song, Robert and David discuss Susan admiringly. As Robert is about to leave, the husbands appear in their own apartments and sing about the women they know who they feel would be great dates, if not wives, for Robert. They question why he would want to get married given the freedom available to him ("Have I Got A Girl for You"). Robert responds with a desire for commitment, but he can’t decide which woman in his life he’d want to commit to. ("Someone is Waiting")

We then meet all of Robert’s current girlfriends, April, Kathy, and Marta, as they come to sit next to him on a bench in the park. In between each conversation Marta sings about the transient nature of New York City. ("Another Hundred People")

The scene then shifts to Amy’s kitchen. She is in a bridal gown (as, in fact, she has been for most of the musical). It is her wedding day. Her groom, Paul, sings about how the day is “for Amy” while Amy has something like a nervous breakdown on stage announcing to the audience that the wedding is off. ("Getting Married Today"). 

After the song, Amy tells Paul she “doesn’t love him enough” to get married. Paul, hurt,  leaves. Robert, out the blue, proposes to Amy so “everybody’ll leave us alone.” The proposal shocks Amy, who tells Robert, “you have to want to marry somebody, not somebody.” She then runs after Paul, who has forgotten his umbrella, saying “I’m the next bride.”

Act Two

The birthday party continues. Robert is “about to blow out the candles” on his birthday cake again. Robert expresses his admiration for his friends as they express their love and concern for him in a tap number complete with hats and canes. ("Side by Side")    

In the next scene we see Robert on a date with the stewardess April who is portrayed as not being particularly intelligent. April tells a long story about a man who gave her a cocoon to care for until it became a butterfly. Her cat attacks the butterfly, and the man accuses her of cruelty.  She says she “really felt damaged by him.” Robert tells a long story about a previous date in which he “lost” a girl because he couldn’t remember which motel room he left her at when he went out to get champagne. As they discuss these stories, Robert and April begin to undress.

The lights go down and come up on Kathy, who dances a dance that “expresses the difference between having sex and making love.” ("Tick Tock")

Robert and April spend the night together. The next morning, April prepares to leave for her job as an attendant on a flight to Barcelona. Robert convinces her to stay with him, and then immediately regrets his decision.

There is a short scene is which Robert and Marta visit Peter and Susan who have divorced, but are still living together and seem to be still very much in love.

Later, Robert is at a party with Joanne and Larry, a couple somewhat older than him. Larry is dancing while Joanne and Robert sit at a table and watch. Joanne is very drunk, and proposes a toast to The Ladies Who Lunch.

After the song, when Larry goes to pay the check, Joanne proposes an affair with Robert. She promises to “take care” of him.  Robert responds, “But who will I take care of?” This question opens up a moment of revelation for Robert. ("Being Alive").

The musical ends back at a surprise party. Robert doesn’t show up. The guests agree to leave him alone. Robert stands alone on stage and smiles.