Original Cast Album: Company (1970) - full transcript

Yeah, this is number...
It looks like number six.

I want to know
where everything is at this moment

and then we'll talk further.

All right. Tracks one, two and three

- have the five mic vocal split, right?
- Yes.

- Drums is...
- You've got two percussion men.

You might as well put one group
under the violins.

- Yes.
- No, wait a minute.

Number four would be heaviest.

Why don't we give it a listen -.

No, I don't want to listen. Just a minute.



- You're always late on the "we."
- Sorry.

- You go on that one, right?
- Yeah, mm-hmm.

Okay.

- Who is this player?
- Timpani.

You mean to tell me we have
a timpanist, a legitimate drummer

and two percussion men?

- No. Impossible.
- No.

A five, six, seven, eight.

Great.

Stand by, please. "You Could
Drive a Person Crazy." Take one.

I never heard it sound like this.
It's wonderful.

Yeah, we need more bass. There isn't any.

- You crazy bastard!
- You son of a bitch!

You got anything in percussion there
before the "knock, knock"?



I never heard that. That's nice.

Yeah, the whole thing
is very hypnotic.

How fast? And also, right before
"the juice of you." "You're crazy."

He's doing something,
but I hardly hear it.

The ending was great. Just a moment.

Tom. Guitar right is off mic.

Steve. Can we get some dynamics into it?

Like...

Then when they do the "doo-doo-doos,"

get quiet and then sing again
so that there's...

It's possible, except
those "doo-doos" are high. It's very high.

That's really a question
of delicacy, not volume,

because you can't get Donna
to sing that soft, you know?

Nobody can sing an A soft.

There's something
so marvelously ludicrous about...

Yeah. I'll try to get them
to make more contrast.

- "Bubi." Let's hear you say it.
- "Bubi."

- That's it. "Bubi."
- But when I sing it, it goes:

"Bubi."

"Bubi."

Supposing you had to say "goody,"
how would you say that?

- Goody.
- Yeah. "Bobby baby, Bobby goody."

That's it.

Exactly the same vowel sound as "good."

Exactly the same vowel sound as "good."

"Bubi." Buh-buh. Pursed lips. "Bubi."

"Bobby. Bubi."

- You're still doing it. Say, "Goody."
- "Goody."

Say, "Bubi."

That's it. Exactly as if it were "goody."

Now, I know you're gonna sing "goody"
this time, but nevertheless.

Okay. "You Could Drive
a Person Crazy," take ten.

Is it really ten?

Okay? Here we go.

Come on, they'll lose their notes.

The quality's nice.

Oh, it's harder to sing here.

Well, first of all,
you're dancing on the stage,

so that you're all loose and it's easy
and everything goes together.

And you try to be perfect on the stage,
but it's different.

The moment passes by.

But this is the definitive.

It's the end-all
and the be-all of this song

and God, that could drive a person crazy.

- A?
- Yeah, Donna knows. Donna knows.

That's great. Girls, you want to come in
and listen to yourselves?

It was really a beautiful take.

What is that? Steve, you happy with it?

I like to hear occasionally
from the writer.

No, no. There are a couple
of little sloppy bits,

but because it's live,
I don't mind about that.

Well, I've always felt slightly resentful,

the fact that nobody took me seriously
as a composer

or only thought of me as a lyric writer,
but really, it's a matter of circumstance.

I agreed to do lyrics in West Side Story

because it was my first chance to do
something professional in the theater.

Actually, my second,
but the first one hadn't panned out.

And then I did...

I was supposed to do the score of Gypsy.

Then I swore I was never gonna be
just the lyric writer again.

And since I'd been trained as
a musician, it's all I really care about.

And lyric writing, I sort of fell into.

And I was supposed to do
the music and lyrics for Gypsy.

And Ethel Merman had just done a show

called Happy Hunting
which wasn't a success.

And she was afraid to take a chance
on an unknown composer.

And she said she really wanted
an experienced composer

and her choice was Julie Styne.

And by that time,
I felt obligated to the project,

also I liked it and I thought it'd be fine
to work with Julie and all that,

but all the time I was working,
again, I was frustrated.

- That was the best?
- That's great.

We opened with no advance.

We did $40,000 the first week.

We got one review,
which you read, Kevin Kelly.

One from Elliot Norton was:
"the worst play in musical history."

And by the time we closed,
we were sold out.

And we were only there
two and a half weeks, with no advance.

By the time we closed,
you couldn't buy a ticket for anything.

So, you see,
that's what I mean by "vibrations."

It's raining.

Ugh. Sorry.

I think we can get off to a better start.
Don't you?

I don't want to upset you,
but I'd love to have the tune.

Let me hear it once. How would that be?

If you could phrase "You could pick up
a christening" in one phrase,

if you could do that,
'cause that's not the highest note.

Now you don't have enough breath
for "Hudson with the other garbage,"

- breath, "I'm not well."
- There's no time to take a break there.

There is no time.
And I think we ought to do an insert

so that we can put it together
without you having to scramble.

As if you had asthma. That's what I mean.

Actually, you do it anyway,
but you do it very ladylike.

Everybody is throwing things at you,
you poor kid.

All right. The word "fidelity,"
a little hard to understand.

- Yeah, I know.
- You know that.

And you're gonna be big on the "amens,"

especially the first,
which I've got to hear.

And you're not going to wiggle.

Remember Paul?

All right, two. Mic two. Thunder's out.

Three. Less two and more three.

A little less three and a little more two.

That happens to be an incredibly
good take, and I want you to hear it.

I did the melody on two
and then I couldn't remember it anymore.

- The thunder wasn't loud enough.
- That's right.

I don't know why. That other time...

Pam,
that was beautiful. But we can do better.

You changed two notes, and I have
a feeling that I haven't noticed them

and you've been doing it for weeks.

Which is the pick up on, uh...

It's "by the rusty fountains."
Let me hear you do this. "You can..."

- Yeah. You're doing an A there.
- Oh, yeah.

It used to be an F sharp
and it's gradually become an A.

Okay.

What it'll do is it'll preserve
that entrance when it comes down there.

So, try to remember that.

Could I have one of those now?

More a general question than
that. It was what should George Furth do?

I wanted you to read
it because I thought...

- It seems to me -
- ...what a good writer he was.

But I certainly didn't expect
that you would have any interest.

I thought what you were doing
was sending me a lot of terrific material,

which I, by the way, thought it was.

I mean, terrific. All of it. All of it.

Terrific. And saying,
"What do you think they're doing wrong?"

Steve sent them to Hal. I don't know -.

For advice and Hal surprisingly,
instead of advice, said,

"How about a musical of these?"
And I said it would be very peculiar.

How about how you also said - now this is
interesting, in view of your character,

which God knows the entire world
knows well, like the back of its hand.

You said yes.
You didn't say, "Let's think about it."

I said yes.

I said, "What do you think about doing
it as a musical?" He said, "I'll do it."

Looking at the schedule
and I think you should know - Hi, Elaine...

That I think we're gonna finish
roughly at 4:00 in the morning.

Everybody smile.

That is really very beautiful.
I want you to hear it. Come on in, please.

You want it after the "okay"? Because
she's got to have an actual cue for it.

He says, "Okay," and she goes...

- Yes, yes, yes.
- Well, go and tell her, George.

I did tell her. Now, do you want me
to reinforce that?

But I haven't done anything.
What are we doing?

Just tell me what we're doing here.
Is that all?

- That's the lift.
- And I'm having you squeal.

- All right. Okay.
- So the second time, squeal.

The first time's the karate cry,
the second time's the squeal.

And the third one,
we're all set on anyway.

It begins there.
The third one is a struggle.

And then you start.

- Uncle?
- Uncle, you're a -.

- Harry.
- Huh?

Do you want to stand there?

Okay.

I'm standing here. Now what?

Well, darling, just come at me.

Okay.

- I could have blocked that.
- No, that can't be blocked.

- You wanna do it again?
- Okay.

- I'll come at you again.
- Okay.

Stop! Ow!

Okay, that's good.
I want to do it once more.

There came a point where I didn't -
I didn't write it anymore.

They were the characters.

And whenever anything was wrong,
I knew I wrote it.

But when everything sounded right,
they were making it up.

Stand by, please.

"Being Alive," take one.

You're very good.

And I don't want to spoil something
that's potentially marvelous.

And I need more guitar.
Let's hear a guitar.

It's the first time I really like to feel

rhythmic looseness, which you do.

That's - That's the explosion.
That's the flower bursting.

That's where you can take
rhythmic liberties.

Just what you're doing. It's fine.

That's nice and free.

Well, maybe there's one more in me.
Let's find out, hmm?

Dean, practically swallow the mic
on the end.

Okay, I'll stay on 'em.

Also, we're gonna slow up the tempo, Dean.

That's true. But there's more than that.

Is that all you think there is to it?

You've got so many reasons
for not being with someone,

but, Robert, you haven't
one good reason for being alone.

Come on. You're onto something, Bobby.
You're onto something.

- You see what you look for, you know.
- You're not a kid anymore, Robby.

I don't think you'll ever be
a kid again, kiddo.

Hey, buddy. Don't be afraid
that it won't be perfect.

The only thing to be afraid of, really,
is that it won't be.

Don't stop now. Keep going.

And what does all that mean?

Robert, how do you know so much about it
when you've never been there?

It's much better living it
than looking at it, Robert.

Add 'em up, Bobby. Add 'em up.

Blow out the candles, Robert,
and make a wish.

Want something. Want something.

That's quite a number.
Would you like to hear it?

Great. Look, you're more than
covered and you've done it beautifully.

I want you to do one more for us
if you can get it in your voice.

We're gonna do one more -.

Sing? I can't spit
this time of the morning.

No? But you sound marvelous.

It's too short, too short...

Great. Sensational. Wrap it up.

- So long.
- Bye.

See ya.

Goodbye!

Come on.

There. Perfect.

Okay.

Okay. "The Ladies Who Lunch," take one.

In other words,
I'm going to start.

- Listen to me.
- I'm scared to do this.

But you've been doing the whole thing...

- Okay.
- Take it.

I'll take it, when you get
right back on the note.

I don't, baby.

You spent your whole life saying,

"I'll go with you" and you rule
the whole thing.

You bet your bottom dollar.

That's what I mean, see?

God, these curtains have never worked.
Since we've had this apartment.

All right, Elaine.

"I'd like to propose a toast."

I'd like to propose a toast.

What's that? What?

Okay, let's check the chords.

I have a feeling we ought
to take it down a half tone.

- Hmm, okay.
- I just think it's late.

- I know. I know.
- It's very late in the day.

I don't want to upset you,
but I'm talking entirely vocally.

Maybe if I took my hat off, I could do it.

- Let's do it.
- I don't know.

- Change of keys, fellas.
- I hate to take it down.

I know you do.

- Down a half tone.
- It has to do with the lateness.

You have been here for 14 hours.

I know. But that shouldn't have anything
to do with it. I feel fine.

Can we do this?
Can we take it down a half tone?

And then that's only three takes
I'm asking for, which is pretty good.

So we take it down a half tone
and then do it up a half?

Sure. Absolutely.
I want to relax you into it.

I don't mind. I love it in this key.

But your voice is tired.

Therefore, I want to be sure that we get -
This is the permanent recording.

- Therefore, it's important.
- I understand.

I'd like to propose a toast.

Look, I want to do one more right away.

Everybody's waiting for this
on the record.

And this just doesn't have the tension
that it ought to have. It's just flaccid.

Okay. Once more from the top.

Sung, please.

What?

Sung.

Okay. Stand by, please.

"The Ladies Who Lunch," take eight.

- Steve.
- Yeah.

I think if I - What, does it stink
or something? Is it just awful?

You're talking it too much.
You're not singing it.

Well, tell me, though.
Now I know what to do with it.

I want you to sing it. Really sing it.

I don't want anything spoken
until the scream.

Okay. Well, let's do it up the key.

Let's do it up the key.
And I will just sing the song.

- I'm trying to get to it.
- I understand.

- Okay?
- Please, trust the song.

All right. And let's sing it
right up in the key

that I do it in the theater and then
it'll be smashing this time, I think.

- Okay.
- Okay. Just sing it.

Okay.

I'm just screaming!
It's too early to scream.

You're screaming because
you know that your voice is tired

and you're trying to make up in power.

Yeah. But I've always done that, Steve,
because I've always had dumb material.

So now I get good material
and I can afford to go backwards.

It's not so much that my voice is tired.

I just want you to listen.

I can take this all down.

See, I've just proven every point.

Wrong!

Oh, shut up!

All right, this is the last shot on it
because...

I mean, we're at diminishing returns.
Stand by, please.

What the hell do you want me to do?

Well, I think we better lay
an orchestral track and have her...

The only thing I could think of is

you can't make the whole orchestra
call a separate day.

Elaine, you're sounding tired,

which is, you know, quite understandable
this hour of the morning.

I think we're going to lay down
an orchestral track

and tomorrow or Tuesday,
you know, when we're all a little fresher,

we'll put you in over it, okay?

What do you think?

I don't know. I can't hear myself.

'Cause we're all getting kind of punchy.

Okay?

- Right.
- Right.

Okay. Stand by, please.

- That's it!
- Great!

That's one hell of a good take.
I want you to come in and listen to it.

Perfect. And let's hear it for
the "Ladies." It's got to be in there.

- I'll take it.
- Don't fool around with...

- Oh, no.
- No, we won't, Elaine.

If you tell me it was wrong,

$50,000 I'll give to you.

Great! Sensational. Wrap it up.