SOURCE: Bristow, Eugene K., and J. Kevin Butler. “Company, About Face!: The Show That Revolutionized the American Musical.” American Music 5, no. 3 (fall 1987): 241-54.

In the following essay, Bristow and Butler provide a thematic and stylistic examination of Company and appraise its place in American musical theater.

Opening in April 1970, Company achieved a Broadway run of 690 performances, winning almost all Tony awards: best musical, director, designer, choreographer, author, lyricist-composer. It sent out a road company and later played in London. Aided by the brilliant choreography of Michael Bennett, by an exceptional cast, and by Boris Aronson's single, high-rise apartment setting complete with working elevators, the show was shaped essentially by three persons: George Furth, who wrote the book; Stephen Sondheim, who composed both music and lyrics; and Harold Prince, who directed the whole production.

George Furth, the youngest of the three (b. 1932), had written a script intended for production...