Some music documentaries have aged well--the Maysles' Gimme Shelter on the Rolling Stones, or D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back on Bob Dylan, come to mind. Pennebaker's Company, a fly-on-the-wall treatment of the recording on May 3, 1970 of the original cast album for the Tony award-winning Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical, is not one of them. Aside from an extended sequence in which Elaine Stritch struggles to hit the right notes on "The Ladies Who Lunch," the majority of the film is comprised of snippets of songs and truly idle banter that will appeal to few, aside from diehard theatre fans and Sondheim aficionados. A much better choice for a behind-the-scenes look would be Pennebaker's own Moon Over Broadway (VL-9/00). Strictly optional. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Aug. 17, 2021—Criterion, 53 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95] Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, Company (1970) boasts an excellent 4K digital restoration and extras including a new audio commentary by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim; a 2001 audio commentary with director D. A. Pennebaker, actor Elaine Stritch, and Broadway producer Harold Prince; a new conversation among Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic Frank Rich; a new interview with Tunick on the art of orchestrating, conducted by author Ted Chapin; never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Stritch and Prince, conducted by D. A. Pennebaker and Hegedus in 2000; “Original Cast Album: Co-Op," a 2019 parody episode from the TV series DocumentaryNow!; a reunion of the cast and crew of “Original Cast Album: Co-Op" recorded in 2020; and a booklet with an essay by author Mark Harris. Bottom line: Sondheim fans will be delighted with this extras-packed Criterion edition of Pennebaker’s acclaimed documentary, although mileage may vary for others.]