Company (Musical/Original 1970 Broadway Cast Recording)

Stephen Sondheim's award-winning 1970 outing Company, like most of his work, is highly acclaimed by theater-goers, critics, and his peers. Essentially a musical about nothing, Company chronicles the thoughts and remembrances one man has about his friends (five married couples) as he hesitates outside the door, about to walk in on his own "surprise" birthday party. The only single member in their group, he spends the entire musical wavering between adoring his bachelorhood and trying to locate his dream woman -- the perfect merging of his female friends' best qualities -- so he too can settle down. Company truly exemplifies that less can be more, at least in terms of story line. Heralded by some as instigating the reconstruction of the concept of musical theater, the score of Company is completely modern and utterly charming in every way. Among its many highlights are the amusing "Getting Married Today" and the lovely yet quirky "Barcelona." A winner at both the Drama Critics Circle and Tony Awards in 1970, this show established Sondheim as a demigod of the contemporary musical theater. The story of a bachelor afloat in a sea of the very married was certainly of its time, but it has proven to have enduring appeal, as have Sondheim's deliciously tongue-twisting songs. ~ Marjorie Ellen Ruhlmann and Sarah Erlewine