COMPANY question
COMPANY question
#1COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 3:14amWhy does one of Bobby's friend's compare him to the Seagram's Building? Not being a New Yorker, I don't get the joke.
C is for Company
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/16/05
#2re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 3:17amI think I read a description that it had a cold veneer and seemed isolated and different. Anyone care to confirm that was the meaning?
fishdancer23
Understudy Joined: 5/8/07
#2re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 7:20am
One theory quoted on Sondheim website "the Seagram windows are opaque and you can't see inside"
Another theory from Variety...
http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117965341.html?nav=tonys
#3re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 8:05amThe Seagram's building was the first in New York to be a tall, dark glass cube. Now a lot of buildings are built that way, but it's famous for bringing in the "modern" era of the skyscraper. I think C is for Company has it right.
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
#4re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:01amThe Variety theory is interesting, but I can't say I buy it. I don't have a libretto handy to see who says the Seagram's building line, but why would Bobby's (presumably, excepting Peter in the revised version) straight male friends say that Bobby reminded them of a place that was a gay cruising ground, or even know that fact about it? And if it's a veiled allusion by Furth and Sondheim, why would they have gone out of their way throughout the years to assert that Bobby's problems with commitment don't stem from his being a closeted gay man? It doesn't add up.
#5re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:07amUgh. I didn't even click through until I saw your post. What bull!
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
Elkerette
Swing Joined: 10/17/03
#6re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:39am
I always just assumed it was a reference to drinking...
Given its position in Side by Side, where all the friends seem to be particularly harping on Bobby being fun and free, it fits far more in this way than as a reference to Bobby's possibly being gay or somehow emotionally "hidden".
Off topic -> I now work out of the Montreal Seagram's building which was donated to McGill University in the 90s and continue to get a kick out of that line in the song!
#7re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:39am
From Sondheim.com's FAQ page: (Let's hope their interpretation is more accurate than their spelling.)
"Why does the Seagram Building remind David of Bobby in Company?
The Seagram Building is an office building on Park & 53rd in New York City. It is an isolated building with absolute symmetry with a skeleton structure clearly apparent within the more delicate framing of window elements tht sheath the building. The materials, metal bronze and amber glass, lend the exterior an opaque solidity. One can see out its those on the outside can not see in - much like the character of Bobby in Company."
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.
#8re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 9:56amYou know, I never made the connection with the drinking. It seems so obvious, but never occured to me as the reason David would say that.
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
keen on kean
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/1/06
#9re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:04amI, too, got the drinking allusion before the architectural one but they both work for me. I've lived in NY my whole life and wouldn't have gotten the cruising allusion ever. And why would David be the one to say that since he appears to be straight?
#10re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:14am
That's one of the jokes I never got. I assumed it to be a generational thing, and one of the few dated lines in the show. I've Googled the Seagrams Building, though, and my best guess had either be what C is for Company said, or some sort of phallic imagery, but I love the idea of not being able to see inside; how very Bobby.
I have to say, I'm glad to see that we're still talking about the show so much this week. I would have been sad if all discussion of the textual elements and things just disappeared after closing.
#11re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:19am
I'm glad too :)
I think the whole production can be summed up in that line. Very stark, very cold, yet still striking and beautiful.
It's just a message board. Let's not take it too seriously.
SorryGrateful
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/10/05
#12re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:24amI also never got it, em, but I thought that it had to do with an erection. It's always about penises with me, isn't it?!
You promised me poems. ~Tricky
#13re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:26am
You're not the only one! 
fishdancer23
Understudy Joined: 5/8/07
#14re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 10:45am
I think the only wrong answer is that there is just one right answer to this.
Remember, Company is about ambivalence, uncertainty...Like Sorry Grateful, Regretful Happy...
God, I love this show!
#15re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:05am
What a fun discussion!
I always thought it was a reference to his drinking, too, as I've never seen the Seagram's building in person.
Even if I had, I'm sure I still would have thought it was about drinking! HAHA!
Cool info!
"To love another person is to see the face of God!"
Sargar
Stand-by Joined: 10/16/04
#16re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:14amI was also going to mention Sondheim's FAQ page...they also discuss Mahler as well (which I had to google, embarrassingly enough). But the Seagram's building description sounds a lot like the set design for this production of Company as well, no?
"Hey Joey McIntyre, is there a balcony in Madison Square Garden? Joey knows his venues a little better than me. That's okay...I have a bigger part on broadway...:)" -Idina Menzel
fishdancer23
Understudy Joined: 5/8/07
#17re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:20amSince penises have already been mentioned, am I the only one who laughed about the potential symbolism of April's tuba?
#18re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:22am
The first time I heard that line was in the early 70s, and I had no clue what it meant. But know what? It didnt matter. It was a private moment between Bobby and one of his friends, an in-joke that I wasnt supposed to get. I found that pretty cool at the time, that the authors would purposely do something like that that would distance the audience. COMPANY is actually full of such things, little details that we gloss over because we're not part of Bobby's "inner circle". I think that's one reason why this is my favourite musical of all time.
>> But the Seagram's building description sounds a lot like the set design for this production of Company as well, no?
Aaronson's original design captured that far better, IMHO.
http://docandraider.com
#19re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:27amI loved the use of the tuba in the revival -- that scene is full of that kind of symbolism. The kind of ironic thing about it, though, is that it's completely distanced intimacy.
#20re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 11:55amThe piano-as-bed also has some sort of symbolism that... I have yet to figure out. Anyone have imput?
SondheimGeek: Is it slightly pathetic that you guys get to be Jedi bitches, and I'm Bitchy the Hutt?
LizzieCurry: No, you're more memorable
LizzieCurry: No, you're more memorable
#21re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 12:07pm
I always thought of it that when Bobby took his big leap to the land of commitment, he was sitting down at the piano, so it was fitting that this completely commitment-phobic act also took place there. They had sex, but they never removed their clothes. It was one of the most intimate acts humanly possible, and yet there was so much distance and boundary between them. Given that he sat down to play the piano at that big moment, think of everything it symbolizes. If, within the metaphor, it stands for commitment, and his night with April kind of...details his conflict, I think that makes sense. I've always read Barcelona as this moment where Bobby wants to be with somebody, but obviously not April. And that's all aside from the fact that with a minimal set, hey, it was practical. A piano looks... fairly bed-like.
I just had to go and edit the entire post to put it in the past tense. 
CurtainPullDowner
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/4/04
#22re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 1:43pm
Since it is David's line I always thought it was a "drinking" reference, nothing more.
Everything reminds him of drinking.
#23re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 5:23pm
i love how people are still talking about this show after it closed. God i miss it.
great insight though - the variety theory is interesting, but i like the idea that bobby is like a building that you can't see inside its exterior.
also reminds me a little of kristin huffman's line, "It always looks like he's keeping score. Who's winning, Robert?"
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#24re: COMPANY question
Posted: 7/5/07 at 5:37pm
I'm not sure I understand the "you can't see in" thing. Every photo I've seen of the Seagram...you can see in.
