Exciting documentary featuring the original cast of "Company"
A longtime tradition in recording original cast albums of Broadway musicals was to assemble the cast in the studio on the Sunday after opening night. Songs from the show would be recorded in a single day. Planned as the first in an unrealized series of documentaries on several of these sessions, “Original Cast Album: Company” provides a candid look at the process, with the cast and creators of “Company.”<br /><br />Directed by D.A. Pennebaker, the documentary is set almost entirely in the recording studio as record producer, Thomas Z. Shepard, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, musical director Harold Hastings, and orchestrator Jonathan Tunick work with the cast to achieve the best possible renditions of the numbers. With numerous microphones strategically placed among the orchestra and singers in the same studio, the entire cast performs the opening title song, followed by Beth Howland’s rapid-fire version of “Getting Married Today.” Donna McKechnie, Susan Browning and Pamela Myers deliver the bouncy “You Can Drive a Person Crazy.” We see Dean Jones’ wrenching solo of “Being Alive” and the satirical “The Little Things You Do Together” performed by Elaine Stritch, Barbara Barrie, Charles Kimbrough and company.<br /><br />As the session extends into the wee small hours of the morning, only one more song has yet to be recorded — Elaine Stritch’s show stopper “The Ladies Who Lunch.” Tensions escalate as take after take falls flat. Stritch is tired and her voice shows it. She becomes short of patience, frustrated, angry at herself, and disappointed that she can’t deliver. This fascinating, dramatic sequence shows how hard it is to record everything in a single day and how far artists are pushed. Eventually, record producer Shepard decides to call a halt and have Stritch return in a couple of days when she’s fresh to get the definitive version on tape.<br /><br />Pennebaker captures the excitement of what, under another director, might seem routine. With no staged shots, he captures great moments, including Sondheim obsessing over a single note in one of his songs, tight close-ups of the singers as they record, tired faces, the conductor’s body language encouraging the singers’ enthusiasm, a tap dancer’s feet in “Side By Side,” and close-ups of various musicians and their instruments. Tracking shots, zooms, and interesting cutting help to keep the single location visually interesting.<br /><br />“Original Cast Album: Company” has been out of print for many years, so it’s exciting to have it released by The Criterion Collection. “Company” was the first collaboration between Stephen Sondheim and director Hal Prince, a relationship that would produce several major musicals through the 1970s, including “A Little Night Music,” “Follies,” and “Sweeney Todd.”  “Company” was revived on Broadway in 1995 and 2006. Patti LuPone is set to resume preview performances in December, 2021 ahead of a January, 2022 opening night.<br /><br />Bonus material on The Criterion Collection Blu-ray release include two audio commentaries; conversation among Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic Frank Rich; interview with Tunick about the art of orchestrating; never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Stritch and Prince; “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” a 2019 episode of the TV parody series Documentary Now!; reunion conversation among cast members of “Original Cast Album: Co-Op;” and a booklet containing a critical essay.<br /><br />“Original Cast Album: Company” deglamorizes and demystifies the creative process. Fighting the clock, the cast move quickly while striving for the best possible rendition of each song. Singers, musicians, and recording engineers collaborate toward perfection through glamorless, repetitive work.
The movie title "Original Cast Album: "Company" (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]," available on Movies & TV, has received an average rating of 4.8 from 319 reviewers. 
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The additional details include the following in key-value format :
 {"Genre": "Musicals & Performing Arts/Musicals/General, Special Interests", "Format": "Blu-ray, Subtitled", "Contributor": "McKechnie, Donna, Sondheim, Stephen, Stritch, Elaine, Pennebaker, D. A.", "Language": "English", "Studio": "The Criterion Collection", "MPAA rating": "NR (Not Rated)", "Package Dimensions": "6.69 x 5.31 x 0.67 inches; 3.53 Ounces", "Director": "Pennebaker, D. A.", "Media Format": "Blu-ray, Subtitled", "Release date": "August 17, 2021", "Actors": "Sondheim, Stephen, Stritch, Elaine, McKechnie, Donna", "Country of Origin": "USA", "Number of discs": "1"}

Here is a brief synopsis of the title : 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.