Being Alive - Background

Background

By the time "Being Alive" premiered in 1970, lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim had already been recognized with three Tony Awards Best Musical nominations and two winners. He had musicals West Side Story (1958) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963) already to his credit. When Sondheim came around to “transform the American Musical” with the “concept musical”, Company won six Tony Awards of its own. However, "Being Alive" has not always been Company's famous finale. There were four attempts to fill this gap in the show, and still, according to cultural critic Jeremy McCarter, “Sondheim has never been satisfied with the result, calling ‘a cop-out.’”

The first of these attempts was with a song entitled "Multitudes of Amys", but as Sondheim describes “George Furth transferred the situation in which it was to be sung – Robert’s proposal to Amy – to Act One and the song had to be replaced.” The second attempt was “Marry Me A Little.” Sondheim commented that on this try he knew halfway through the writing process that it would not work for the character, and the only reason he finished the song was as “a favor for a friend who loved it.” The third attempt came with “Happily Ever After”, which even made it to the Boston tryout before it had to be replaced because it was “deemed too dark to serve as a closing number.” Hence, Sondheim’s fourth and final attempt was made with "Being Alive", in which he tried to express the same thoughts as “Happily Ever After”, but in a more optimistic way. Finally, "Being Alive" has become the recognized internationally acclaimed closing to Sondheim’s Company.