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 recording 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.
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Supplements
- New audio commentary by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring director D.A. Pennebaker, actor Elaine Stritch, and Broadway producer Harold Prince
- New conversation among Stephen Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic Frank Rich
- New interview with Jonathan Tunick on the art of orchestrating, conducted by author Ted Chapin
- Never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Elaine Stritch and Harold Prince, conducted by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus in 2000
- “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 Rénee Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, and Paula Pell; and composer Eli Bolin
- An essay by author Mark Harris