One of my favorite theater DVDs is the documentary of the recording of the cast album for Company.

Called a "monumental achievement" by the Los Angeles Times, Original Cast Album: Company is the "extraordinary documentary of the explosive recording session for Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award winning landmark musical."

The DVD is filmed on May 3, 1970, a few days after opening night. The documentary records an grueling 18.5 hour session, and Elaine Stritch is just too perfect. She is so, gee, Elaine Stritch-y...

Equity rules for cast albums is that the cast gets paid a week for each day of the recording session. If I didn't know better, ol' Stritchy pushes the session to a second day so that the whole cast gets another week. Or maybe not. You take a look and decide.

The documentary is filmed by D.A. Pennebaker, who is most famous for The War Room (the inside story of Bill Clinton's 1992 election campaign), but he also did another mind-blowing Broadway documentary called Moon Over Broadway that I'll talk about in the future.

Stephen Sondheim is wonderful in this documentary. He is such a dramatic genius, and so incredibly gifted. It's great to see him in action, at his prime.