COMPANY question

[TheKryptoniteKid]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 3:14am

Why does one of Bobby's friend's compare him to the Seagram's Building? Not being a New Yorker, I don't get the joke.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 3:17am

I think I read a description that it had a cold veneer and seemed isolated and different. Anyone care to confirm that was the meaning?

[fishdancer23]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 7:20am

One theory quoted on Sondheim website "the Seagram windows are opaque and you can't see inside"

Another theory from Variety...

http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117965341.html?nav=tonys

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 8:05am

The Seagram's building was the first in New York to be a tall, dark glass cube. Now a lot of buildings are built that way, but it's famous for bringing in the "modern" era of the skyscraper. I think C is for Company has it right.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:01am

The Variety theory is interesting, but I can't say I buy it. I don't have a libretto handy to see who says the Seagram's building line, but why would Bobby's (presumably, excepting Peter in the revised version) straight male friends say that Bobby reminded them of a place that was a gay cruising ground, or even know that fact about it? And if it's a veiled allusion by Furth and Sondheim, why would they have gone out of their way throughout the years to assert that Bobby's problems with commitment don't stem from his being a closeted gay man? It doesn't add up.

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:07am

Ugh. I didn't even click through until I saw your post. What bull!

[Elkerette]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:39am

I always just assumed it was a reference to drinking...

Given its position in Side by Side, where all the friends seem to be particularly harping on Bobby being fun and free, it fits far more in this way than as a reference to Bobby's possibly being gay or somehow emotionally "hidden".

Off topic -> I now work out of the Montreal Seagram's building which was donated to McGill University in the 90s and continue to get a kick out of that line in the song!

[artscallion]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:39am

From Sondheim.com's FAQ page: (Let's hope their interpretation is more accurate than their spelling.)

"Why does the Seagram Building remind David of Bobby in Company?

The Seagram Building is an office building on Park & 53rd in New York City. It is an isolated building with absolute symmetry with a skeleton structure clearly apparent within the more delicate framing of window elements tht sheath the building. The materials, metal bronze and amber glass, lend the exterior an opaque solidity. One can see out its those on the outside can not see in - much like the character of Bobby in Company."

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:56am

You know, I never made the connection with the drinking. It seems so obvious, but never occured to me as the reason David would say that.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:04am

I, too, got the drinking allusion before the architectural one but they both work for me. I've lived in NY my whole life and wouldn't have gotten the cruising allusion ever. And why would David be the one to say that since he appears to be straight?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:14am

That's one of the jokes I never got. I assumed it to be a generational thing, and one of the few dated lines in the show. I've Googled the Seagrams Building, though, and my best guess had either be what C is for Company said, or some sort of phallic imagery, but I love the idea of not being able to see inside; how very Bobby.

I have to say, I'm glad to see that we're still talking about the show so much this week. I would have been sad if all discussion of the textual elements and things just disappeared after closing.

[Born To Reign]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:19am

I'm glad too :)

I think the whole production can be summed up in that line. Very stark, very cold, yet still striking and beautiful.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:24am

I also never got it, em, but I thought that it had to do with an erection. It's always about penises with me, isn't it?!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:26am

You're not the only one!

[fishdancer23]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:45am

I think the only wrong answer is that there is just one right answer to this.

Remember, Company is about ambivalence, uncertainty...Like Sorry Grateful, Regretful Happy...

God, I love this show!

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:05am

What a fun discussion!

I always thought it was a reference to his drinking, too, as I've never seen the Seagram's building in person.

Even if I had, I'm sure I still would have thought it was about drinking! HAHA!

Cool info!

[Sargar]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:14am

I was also going to mention Sondheim's FAQ page...they also discuss Mahler as well (which I had to google, embarrassingly enough). But the Seagram's building description sounds a lot like the set design for this production of Company as well, no?

[fishdancer23]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:20am

Since penises have already been mentioned, am I the only one who laughed about the potential symbolism of April's tuba?

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:22am

The first time I heard that line was in the early 70s, and I had no clue what it meant. But know what? It didnt matter. It was a private moment between Bobby and one of his friends, an in-joke that I wasnt supposed to get. I found that pretty cool at the time, that the authors would purposely do something like that that would distance the audience. COMPANY is actually full of such things, little details that we gloss over because we're not part of Bobby's "inner circle". I think that's one reason why this is my favourite musical of all time.

>> But the Seagram's building description sounds a lot like the set design for this production of Company as well, no?

Aaronson's original design captured that far better, IMHO.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:27am

I loved the use of the tuba in the revival -- that scene is full of that kind of symbolism. The kind of ironic thing about it, though, is that it's completely distanced intimacy.

Updated On: 7/5/07 at 11:27 AM

[Sondheim Geek]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:55am

The piano-as-bed also has some sort of symbolism that... I have yet to figure out. Anyone have imput?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 12:07pm

I always thought of it that when Bobby took his big leap to the land of commitment, he was sitting down at the piano, so it was fitting that this completely commitment-phobic act also took place there. They had sex, but they never removed their clothes. It was one of the most intimate acts humanly possible, and yet there was so much distance and boundary between them. Given that he sat down to play the piano at that big moment, think of everything it symbolizes. If, within the metaphor, it stands for commitment, and his night with April kind of...details his conflict, I think that makes sense. I've always read Barcelona as this moment where Bobby wants to be with somebody, but obviously not April. And that's all aside from the fact that with a minimal set, hey, it was practical. A piano looks... fairly bed-like.

I just had to go and edit the entire post to put it in the past tense.

Updated On: 7/5/07 at 12:07 PM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 1:43pm

Since it is David's line I always thought it was a "drinking" reference, nothing more.
Everything reminds him of drinking.

[jochang621]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 5:23pm

i love how people are still talking about this show after it closed. God i miss it.

great insight though - the variety theory is interesting, but i like the idea that bobby is like a building that you can't see inside its exterior.

also reminds me a little of kristin huffman's line, "It always looks like he's keeping score. Who's winning, Robert?"

[morosco]

Posted: 7/5/07 at 5:37pm

I'm not sure I understand the "you can't see in" thing. Every photo I've seen of the Seagram...you can see in.