Company Script Question
Company Script Question
Company Script Question#1
Posted: 4/23/11 at 1:36amI was talking to a friend tonight who was telling me he somehow got his hands on a script for Company that was supposedly from 1970 but contained Multitudes of Amys and also Being Alive, which came mid-way through the second act. Is this even a real thing? My friend claimed that this was the script it opened on Broadway with, and then he saw another one that they "changed" during the original Broadway run and that's the script we all know as the original Company script. I checked with him, and he confirmed that it isn't the difference between the '70 and '95 versions. My friend can't possibly be right can he? Any insight into this?
Company Script Question#2
Posted: 4/23/11 at 1:45amHe's given you some wrong info. The show NEVER opened with Multitudes of Amys. And the 95/96 licensed script has several revisions/updates. Not the same as the 1970 script.
Company Script Question#2
Posted: 4/23/11 at 1:49amI had no idea what he was talking about. I know the differences between the '70 and '95 scripts and was able to find out for sure that he did not have the '95 revisions (most notably, his version didn't have the "gay scene"). I really don't know what he was talking about. He did seem sure that Being Alive was midway through Act 2, and then the guests arrive at the party and there are more scenes.
Company Script Question#3
Posted: 4/23/11 at 1:52am
I guess it could be some kind of draft, but the show didn't run on Broadway looking like what you're describing.
You can find the 1970 script in the first volume of an anthology called Ten Great Musicals of the American Theatre, by Stanley Richards.
Company Script Question#4
Posted: 4/23/11 at 6:01am
Being Alive was never in an earlier draft, and it was never earlier in the act. It was written during the Boston tryout and it was the fourth of four songs written for the final position.
In Sondheim's words, "
"'Multitudes of Amys' was the earliest of four attempts both to communicate the still evolving self-awareness of the central character and be a satisfying culmination of Act Two. However, George Furth transferred the situation in which it was to be sung--Robert’s proposal to Amy--to Act One and the song had to be replaced. ‘Marry Me a Little’ and, subsequently, ‘Happily Ever After’ were written and then cut before I wrote ‘Being Alive’ to fulfill that moment in the show.
"‘Marry Me a Little’ was my second try at a final song for the show. I was halfway through writing it when I began to feel that it was too self-knowing for the character of Robert at the end of the play. Nevertheless, I completed it as a favor for a friend who loved it. When we revisited Company for its first major Broadway production since the original run, the song seemed better suited to end Act One and was restored to the show’s official version.
"‘Happily Ever After’ was my third attempt at a concluding song for Company. It was in the show at the Boston tryout. After a few performances, Hal persuaded me that it was too sour a note with which to end the show and that the same thoughts could be expressed optimistically. Hence, and finally, ‘Being Alive.'
You can hear Larry Kert sing the opening of "Happily Ever After" before he sings "Being Alive" on the 1973 album Sondheim: A Musical Tribute (aka "The Scrabble Album"). The lyrics are a direct precursor to "Being Alive":
Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to love you too hard,
Happily ever after.
Someone to need you too much,
Someone to read you too well,
Someone to bleed you of all
The things you don’t want to tell,
That’s happily ever after,
Ever, ever, ever after--
In hell.
Company Script Question#5
Posted: 4/23/11 at 12:50pm
I don't wish it had stayed in the show, but I do really love that song.
There's also a recording of Raul singing Multitudes of Amys with Seth Rudetsky accompanying him floating around.
Company Script Question#6
Posted: 4/23/11 at 1:51pmAll of this is exactly what I told my friend. I'm going to try to find out more details about what he has.
Company Script Question#7
Posted: 4/23/11 at 2:50pmUpdate: it was just the original 1970 script with all the stuff he was talking about in his head. He must've been reading the script and then reading somewhere about all the previous cut numbers and such and thought he saw them together. Sorry, all!
Company Script Question#8
Posted: 4/23/11 at 2:51pm... lol.
Company Script Question#9
Posted: 4/23/11 at 3:05pmMy thoughts exactly, Emcee.
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