TOD:...I know that my introduction to Sondheim's work was discovering and wearing out my parent's LP of Company when I was about 12, and I've never looked back!...
What a nice way to make me feel
OLD. My introduction to Sondheim was also
Company - back when I was starting college, you little whippersnapdaw!
What was a little different, for me, was that it wasn't the OCR that I first heard, but an album recorded by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. There were four Broadway medleys on that LP,
Company and three other shows. I never bothered to listen to, and cannot remember, the other three shows after hearing the music for
Company the first time.
I've long attributed this introduction, to the music sans lyrics, to my attitude that Sondheim is a composer first, and a lyricist later.
Company was also the first show I saw on stage, at Fresno State College. Robert was played by Robert Westenberg, who later looked princely in
Into the Woods, not to mention soldierly in
Sunday In the Park With George.
First Sondheim show seen cold (without having heard a cast album first) -
Into the Woods, at the Old Globe in San Diego, before it got to Broadway. Der Brucer and I went down one December day and waited in line to get returned tickets. Our timing was perfect - not only did we get the tickets (although we didn't sit together), but "No More" and "No One Is Alone" had been added to the show just days earlier.
