"Tick Tock " from Company

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:09pm

Does anyone know how this was staged in the original production?

[mygfdontliveincanada]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:16pm

I've seen a few productions of Company, and in every production I've seen, Bobby is in the bed with the dumb girl (I forget her name) as the one that really had potiential but then got engaged (once again forgetting the name) does some sort of dance in front of the bed.

[hypertruffle]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:16pm

Not very helpful, but nonetheless:

I remember a picture of Donna McKechnie in a purple-pink nightdress standing with her legs crossed.

I attempted to draw it (the picture). It was my first theater sketch. It's somewhere buried in my room. If you want, I can try to find it and scan it.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:17pm

Wasn't it a solo dance for Donna McKechnie?

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:49pm

I've always been curious about this one because, you know, in the OCR, they definitely sound like they're doing a little sumptin' sumptin', but I was doubting they actually were doing that onstage. I'd love to see that photo, if you do have it somewhere handy, hypertruffle. I haven't seen any photos at all from the production. I am, however, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the DVD of the recording of the OCR.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 5:51pm

The productions I've seen have had Bobby and April in bed. April does her "butterfly" monologue. Then they get down under the covers. Kathy enters and dances the Tick Tock dance. I've seen it danced on a platform upstage center (with the bed being centerstage) and sometimes danced in front of the bed. But all the productions I've seen have had Bobby and April in the bed throughout the entire dance.

I thought someone once told me the original was done with the platform idea, but I'm not positive on that.

Updated On: 9/12/05 at 05:51 PM

[leefowler]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 6:42pm

For the record, Tick Tock was written (arranged...) by David Shire.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 8:50pm

In the original, the bed moved offstage at the beginning of the dance, and came back at the end. The dancer (Kathy) used the entire stage. The dialogue (and moaning) by Bobby and April is done from offstage over a microphone.

The dance was choreographed by Michael Bennett and danced by Donna McKechnie. Listen to it, then listen to "Music and the Mirror" from A CHORUYS LINE. The dance music is very similar, and the choreography is very silmilar.

[alterego]

Posted: 9/12/05 at 9:18pm

leefowler, you beat me to it!

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 10:15am

Define "written (arranged...)" for me leefowler. I'm perplexed.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 11:24am

David Shire was the dance music arranger for COMPANY. He created "Tick Tock" using little melodic snippets of various songs from the show. You'll hear sections of the title song, "Someone is Waiting", and others. So, Sondheim never actually sat down a the piano and said, "now I am going to compose a pice of music for this dance sequence". The idea for the dance was either Harold Prince's or Michael Bennett's. Bennett then worked with Shire, telling him what rhythms, tempos and moods he wanted, how meany measures of each, etc.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 12:12pm

Jon-- That is so interesting! I had no idea that's what had been done. I always did think that "Tick Tock" sounded slightly unSondheim-esque (it's a word), even though it was obviously his. Thank you for the info!

[WOSQ]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:48pm

Michael made the dance on Donna and it had many of her signature moves like the head rolls and head snaps that were practically trademarked. You're right about Music and the Mirror being similar because Michael knew how to make Donna look good and she was his muse. He would not make a dance on her that was not flattering. The Music and the Mirror is more cerebral and Tick Tock was quite sexual/sensual.

The set for Company was one of the best unit sets that ever was and it is very difficult to describe. It was a series of connected platforms and steps that was very stark and very adaptable. Set pieces came in on wagons/winches and there were many subtle projections. What made the set go from brilliant to sublime was a small working elevator in the unit set that was used to move people around including Kathy at the start of Tick Tock.

She first appeared on stage level in the elevator and then it rose up to the second level of the set and the real dancing began.

Donna's original understudy was also someone who was in the Hullaballoo dancers and knew both of their styles very well. She played it both in NY and on the road and covered Donna in ACL also. Not many other people could do Michael's choreography and it had to be adapted for the dancer. Sometimes the number was cut entirely.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 2:50pm

This sounds like such an amazing production! Damn my parents for not conceiving me until 1980.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 3:55pm

I think the reason "Tick Tock" is often cut these days is that it is almost impossible to hear the music and NOT think of Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie. Plus - it just sounds very "70's disco" and many productions choose to update the show to the present, or do it in some vague "anytime" period.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 4:00pm

How was it done in the '95(?) Roundabout revival?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 4:09pm

"I think the reason "Tick Tock" is often cut these days is that it is almost impossible to hear the music and NOT think of Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie. Plus - it just sounds very "70's disco" and many productions choose to update the show to the present, or do it in some vague "anytime" period."

But it throws off the balance of the show. Of the three "You Could Drive A Person Crazy" girlfriends, April has the butterfly monologue, Marta has "Another 100 People" and Kathy has the Tick-Tock Dance. Without the dance, there is very little need for the Kathy character.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 4:12pm

Most productions of COMPANY I've seen have set the piece in a 1970s world. Its so dated, you almost have to.

The number was cut from the Donmar Warehouse production because the stage is too small to really stage it. I would imagine thats also the reason a lot of other productions cut the dance. COMPANY has become a staple of the 99 seat theatre cirucit, and the number wouldn't work on a postage stamp stage.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 4:24pm

That's actually rather disappointing. I wish there was a way to keep it in. I hate when things are cut when it diminishes the production.

[morosco]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 5:11pm

It was cut from the Sondheim Festival production at the Kennedy Center too. I was kind of looking forward to hearing it live. But then again, they cut a couple things from the pit that I was looking forward to hearing: 1) the Vocal Minority 2) the funky jazz organ. (But it was fun to watch Jonathan Tunick conduct!)

Posted: 9/13/05 at 7:42pm

Tick Tock is no longer I believe in the script you're allowed to rent/perform (which is based on the Donmar and subsequenet Roundabout "updates"--www.sondheim.com has a great essay listing all of them--there are a LOT of subtle line changes, almsot as many as done to FOllies for its last production). I think it should be offered as an option frankly, cuz if pulled off well it adds so much to the show.

The original point of the dance I believe was to first show, in dance form, "having sex" and then a more sensual "making love" (when the other couples talking takes over and the "Someone is Wiating" bit comes in musically). I love it and the music.

I'm one of those who thinks most of the updating for the show doesn't work (thought the Donmar production which was televised is an interesting take) and that Company is VERY much about 1970 and doesn't work when it's meant to be "now". I just wish you were legally given the option of both versions (ditto with Follies--and Merrily We Roll Along)

The Kennedy Center version did bring the show back to the 1970s--but left out Tick tock

E

[mygfdontliveincanada]

Posted: 9/13/05 at 7:53pm

I just saw it last year at Reprise! in Los Angeles, and Cady Huffman as Cathy danced to "Tick Tock." Therefore, the statement above is wrong. The number is in the licenced version of the show.

[AvenueQPat]

Posted: 9/15/05 at 11:58pm

I recently was the Md for a production of Company. Tick Tock is not sent along with the rehearsal materials, and is not offered as something to rent like some additional musical numbers.

When a large company does a show they often have the chance to make changes, additions, and deletions that small shows are not granted the rights to.

So, I am sad to say it, but if you are not a million dollar theater, Tick Tock is not included in the materials, and can not legally be included in the show without the prior permission of Steven or MTI.

[Jon]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 5:37am

Exactly - realy big productions don't deal witb MTI - they deal directly with the authors.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/16/05 at 10:42am

I was 14 and saw the original production 6 times. It was how I became a Sondheim devotee.

The concept behind "Tick Tock" was to show in dance what Bobby and April were doing in bed--foreplay, sex-play and orgasm--after which they sang "Barcelona" lying in each other's arms. (For a 14-year-old boy to watch, this was pretty hot stuff!) The concept may have been Hal Prince's but the execution was pure Michael Bennett. (And of course Donna McKechnie.)

McKechnie danced all over the amazing Boris Aronson set, as Jon and others described above, doing the head rolls and neck snaps and hip-pops Michael Bennett created for her in "Turkey Lurkey Time" and "Music and the Mirror." If you haven't seen the pictures of the set in the Boris Aronson book with the text by Frank Rich, you should take a look.

For a show that was so cerebral and clever, "Tick Tock" was a moment of physicality and eroticism and sensuality. I still get a frisson remembering it, as I do recalling the sound Stritch made saying "I'd like to propose a toast" or "She's tall enough to be your mother" or the vision of the divine Larry Kert standing center stage, his heart on his sleeve, singing "I'll always be there / As frightened as you."