Original Cast Album: “Company”
This holy grail for both documentary and theater aficionados offers a tantalizingly rare glimpse behind the Broadway curtain. In 1970, right after the triumphant premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking concept musical Company, the renowned composer and lyricist, his director Harold Prince, the show’s stars, and a large pit orchestra all went into a Manhattan recording studio as part of a time-honored Broadway tradition: the making of the original cast album. What ensued was a marathon session in which, with the pressures of posterity and the coolly exacting Sondheim’s perfectionism hanging over them, all involved pushed themselves to the limit—including theater legend Elaine Stritch, who fought anxiety and exhaustion to record her iconic rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch.” With thrilling immediacy, legendary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker offers an up-close view of the larger-than-life personalities, frayed-nerve energy, and explosive creative intensity that go into capturing the magic of live performance.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by Chris Hegedus and Nate Pennebaker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring director D.A. Pennebaker, actor Elaine Stritch, and Broadway producer and director Harold Prince
- New conversation among Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic and television producer Frank Rich
- New interview with Tunick on the art of orchestrating, conducted by author Ted Chapin
- Never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Stritch and Prince, conducted by D. A. Pennebaker and Hegedus in 2001
- “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” a 2019 episode of the TV series Documentary Now! that parodies the film
- Reunion of the cast and crew of “Original Cast Album: Co-Op” recorded in 2020, featuring director Alexander Buono; writer-actor John Mulaney; actors Renée Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, and Paula Pell; and composer Eli Bolin
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Mark Harris
New cover by Raphael Geroni
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by Chris Hegedus and Nate Pennebaker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New audio commentary by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring director D.A. Pennebaker, actor Elaine Stritch, and Broadway producer and director Harold Prince
- New conversation among Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic and television producer Frank Rich
- New interview with Tunick on the art of orchestrating, conducted by author Ted Chapin
- Never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Stritch and Prince, conducted by D. A. Pennebaker and Hegedus in 2001
- “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” a 2019 episode of the TV series Documentary Now! that parodies the film
- Reunion of the cast and crew of “Original Cast Album: Co-Op” recorded in 2020, featuring director Alexander Buono; writer-actor John Mulaney; actors Renée Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, and Paula Pell; and composer Eli Bolin
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Mark Harris
New cover by Raphael Geroni
Cast
- Stephen Sondheim
- Harold Prince
- George Furth
- Thomas Shepard
- Dean Jones
- Barbara Barrie
- Elaine Stritch
- George Coe
- John Cunningham
- Teri Ralston
- Charles Kimbrough
- Donna McKechnie
- Charles Braswell
- Susan Browning
- Steve Elmore
- Beth Howland
- Pamela Meyers
- Merle Louise
- Cathy Corkill
- Carol Gelfand
- Marilyn Saunders
- Dona D. Vaughn
Credits
- Director
- D. A. Pennebaker
- Cinematography by
- Jim Desmond
- Richard Leacock
- D. A. Pennebaker
- Sound recorded by
- Robert Van Dyke
- Robert Leacock
- Kate Taylor
- Mark Woodcock
- Executive producer
- Daniel Melnick
- Produced by
- Chester Feldman
- Judy Crichton
- Music and lyrics for Company by
- Stephen Sondheim
- Book for Company by
- George Furth
- Production directed by
- Harold Prince
- Orchestrations by
- Jonathan Tunick
A scene from Original Cast Album: “Company”
