D. A. Pennebaker

Original Cast Album: “Company”

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.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1970
  • 53 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.33:1
  • English
  • Spine #1090

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

Purchase Options

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

Original Cast Album: “Company”
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

Current

Original Cast Album: “Company”: The Little Things You Do Together
Original Cast Album: “Company”: The Little Things You Do Together

D. A. Pennebaker turns his camera on Stephen Sondheim and the cast of his breakthrough musical in this revelatory documentary about artists at work.

By Mark Harris