compant

Question 1

Hammerstein teaches Sondheim

Answer 1

1. Turn a play you admire into a musical: Beggar on Horseback by
   George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly (All That Glitters)
2. Turn a flawed play into a musical: High Tor by Maxwell Anderson
3. Adapt a short story or novel (a non-theatrical form) for the
   musical stage: Mary Poppins, a series of children’s books by P. L.
   Travers
4. Write an original musical: Climb High

Question 2

Sondheim in the 1960s

Answer 2

Hammerstein dies
* Sondheim starts psychoanalysis
* A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
(music + lyrics)
* Anyone Can Whistle (music + lyrics)
* Do I Hear a Waltz? (lyrics only)
* Evening Primrose (music + lyrics, TV musical)
* A Pray by Blecht (lyrics only, abandoned)

Question 3

Harold Prince in the 1960s

Answer 3

What do we already know about
Prince?
* Forum (producer)
* She Loves Me (producer-director)
* Fiddler on the Roof (prod.)
* Flora, the Red Menace (prod.)
* It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s
Superman (prod.-dir.)
* Cabaret (prod.-dir.)
* Zorba (prod.-dir.)

Question 4

Premise and characters company

Answer 4

Sondheim on the premise of Company: “A man with no emotional
commitments reassesses his life on his 35th birthday by reviewing
his relationships with his married acquaintances and his
girlfriends. That is the entire plot.”
* Robert, a bachelor, living in present-day (ca. 1970) Manhattan
* Robert’s circle of friends includes 5 couples:
* Sarah and Harry, Susan and Peter, Jenny and David, Amy and Paul,
Joanne and Larry
* Robert’s 3 girlfriends:
* Kathy, Marta, and April
* There are 4 more singers, dubbed “the vocal minority,” who sing
from the pit

Question 5

Working titles, birthday
parties..

Answer 5

Company was first called “Threes.” Why is “Company” a
better title?
* See playbill for trios and “Company”
* How is Company framed?
* Both acts are bookended by birthday parties for
Robert
* Use MacLib to stream the 2011 filmed concert staging
starring Neil Patrick Harris and directed by Lonny Price.
Watch the establishing number, “Company” (3:50-
11:40)

Question 6

compant sonheim role

Answer 6

Composer-lyricist

Question 7

company Bookwriter

Answer 7

goerge furth

Question 8

Source comapany

Answer 8

One-act plays by Furth

Question 9

compant Producer-director:

Answer 9

harold prince

Question 10

Choreographer company

Answer 10

Michael Bennett

Question 10

yr comapny

Answer 10

1970

Question 11

Scenic designer: company

Answer 11

Boris Aronson

Question 12

Billing company

Answer 12

Musical comedy;
also considered a
concept musical

Question 13

company reception

Answer 13

Tony Awards: 14 nominations, 6 wins, including Best
Musical, Score, and Lyrics
Revivals: 3 Broadway revivals: 1995 (60p.), 2006
(246p.), 2020/21 (265p.)
Films: Concert staging (2011)

Question 14

From Robert to Bobbie

Answer 14

The 2018-19 West End gender-
flipping revival directed by Marianne
Elliott cast Rosalie Craig as Bobbie.
Publications of revised script and
lyrics followed
* The West End production transferred
to Broadway where previews began
in March 2020; the pandemic
interrupted the production. In 2021,
the revival resumed and won the
Tony for Best Revival of a Musical

Question 15

How did Company depart from
conventions?

Answer 15

No plot
* Sondheim: “Up until Company, most musicals, if not
all musicals, had plots. Up until Company, I thought
that musicals had to have very strong plots. One of
the things that fascinated me about the challenge of
the show was to see if a musical could be done
without one…The problem to find the form for it.”

No love story
* No villain
* No resolution or happy ending
* Little dance

Question 16

metaphor company

Answer 16

Like Love Life and Cabaret, Company is a concept
musical tied together by an underlying metaphor
* Prince has explained that he used Manhattan as a
metaphor for modern marriage. Manhattan may sound
like a desirable place to live but Company portrays the
big city as a stark, cold, sterile environment where its
inhabitants feel isolated, lonely, and unhappy. The
creators of Company suggest that marriage is no
different; they posit that if you don’t want to be lonely,
don’t get married…

Question 17

set design company

Answer 17

How did Aronson
capture the
metaphor visually
with his set
designs?
Aronson
created
space for
onstage
observers,
which
Prince
continued
to use after
Cabaret

Question 18

Musical examples company

Answer 18

1. “The Little Things You Do Together” as a comment
   song
2. “You Could Drive a Person Crazy” as a comment song
   and as pastiche
3. “Getting Married Today” as pastiche and as a
   counterpoint song
4. “The Ladies Who Lunch” and 5. “Being Alive” as parts
   of an 11 o’clock complex and also “I am/want” songs

Question 19

The Little Things You Do
Together”

Answer 19

Sung by Joanne while Robert visits
Sarah and Harry
* Watch the 2011 staging (Act 1, scene
2 at 12:46-26:30)
* Note the fractured structure: dialogue
without adhesive underscoring
interrupts the number several times
* Where is Joanne?
* What is the song type?

Question 20

What is pastiche?

Answer 20

Pastiche is an imitation of a familiar musical or textual
style with specific associations and contexts. Many
Broadway composers use pastiche in their scores to
evoke a certain setting or era

Question 21

How does Sondheim use
pastiche?

Answer 21

Sondheim uses pastiche provocatively as commentary
and characterization. He often imitates a recognizable
musical style to set up expectations that can then be
twisted into unconventional versions, acquiring new
meaning in contrast with the original frame of reference
* His pastiche invites listeners to re-hear the music as a
borrowed object, as though framed between quotation
marks
* This approach to using pastiche can have a
metadramatic effect: the songs encourage listeners
to adopt a distanced perspective and stick out from the
rest of the score, as another ex. of interruption

Question 22

You Could Drive a Person
Crazy”

Answer 22

Robert visits Jenny and David, and their
dialogue is interrupted by April, Kathy, and
Marta who pastiche the Andrews Sisters
(top), a close harmony trio popular in the
1920s-1960s. Listen to
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” (1941)
* Watch documentary, Company: Original
Cast Album by D.A. Pennebaker (stream
with MacLib at 4:57-11:00)

The popularity of the Andrews Sisters has endured:
* Bette Midler (1973)
* Christina Aguilera (2006)
* Why do you think Sondheim evoked the Andrews Sisters
for Robert’s girlfriends?
* What is the song type for “You Could Drive a Person
Crazy”?

Question 23

Getting Married Today”

Answer 23

Robert spends time with Amy and Paul on the morning of their
wedding
* Watch the 2011 concert staging (1:03:40-1:08:00)
* This trio is also a pastiche song. This time, Sondheim imitates
and combines 3 different musical styles:
1. Jenny as the mediocre church wedding singer
2. Paul as the enamored juvenile singing a ballad in the style
of West Side Story, “Maria” or Lerner and Loewe,
My Fair Lady, “On The Street Where You Live” (ff to 1:10)
3. Amy as the frantic bride singing a patter song like
Gilbert and Sullivan, Pirates of Penzance
, “Major-General’s Song” (FF 0:30)

Question 24

What is an 11 o’clock spot
number?

Answer 24

A big, show-stopping number that heightens the
excitement before the denouement of the show
* Some feature a main character performing a star turn
(“Cabaret”), whereas others call for a large group or
full cast to perform an energetic, optimistic number
(“Oklahoma!”)
* Company has two 11 o’clock spot numbers, which
together could be called an 11 o’clock complex: (1)
“The Ladies Who Lunch” and (2) “Being Alive”

Question 25

The Ladies Who Lunch”

Answer 25

Sung by Joanne at a nightclub
* Watch Elaine Stritch as Joanne in the documentary (45:00-51:00)
Joanne: “Here’s to the ladies who lunch . . .
Everybody laugh.
Lounging in caftans and planning a brunch
On their own behalf.
Off to the gym,
Then to a fitting,
Claiming their fat.
And looking grim
‘Cause they’ve been sitting
Choosing a hat—
Does anyone still wear a hat?
I’ll drink to that . . .”

Question 26

Being Alive”

Answer 26

Sung by Robert
* Watch the 2011 concert staging with Neil Patrick Harris (2:14-
2:19)
* A fractured form with 11 sections alternating between
underscored speech and song. After many interruptions, Robert
finally gets to sing his song
* “I am/want” song: in this case, a pivotal moment when the
longtime bachelor approaches the brink of recognition and self-
awareness and finally discovers or admits a desire for a lasting
relationship; the song helps Robert heal
* Grammatical change to 1st person with the imperative and
personal pronouns

Question 27

Awards company

Answer 27

In the first clip, from 1971, Sondheim wins his
first Tonys and acknowledges the contributions of
his orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick, and
musical director, Hal Hastings
* Tunick: Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific
Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Into the
Woods, Passion, and Road Show
* Hastings: Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Once Upon a
Mattress, Fiorello!, Tenderloin, Forum, Cabaret, Company,
Follies, A Little Night Music
* Fast-forward to 14:42 to hear Mandy Patinkin read
Sondheim’s response to winning a special Tony Award
for Lifetime Achievement in 2008

Question 28

do i hear a waltz

Answer 28

sondheim and rogers but it ddnt work

Question 29

company as a name

Answer 29

comapny coming over

company as a cast

Question 30

does company ooze

Answer 30

no its choppy and a lot of dialogue

Question 31

set deisgn and useage

Answer 31

the score relied an elevator