Another Hundred People Lyrics — Company

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Quick summary

1. Patter song for Marta in Company, first recorded by Pamela Myers for the Original Broadway Cast album produced by Thomas Z. Shepard.
2. Opens a kinetic New York montage that counterbalances Bobby’s yearning in Someone Is Waiting and tilts the show back toward urban reality.
3. Studio session captured in D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary about the cast album recording.
4. Revived in gender-swapped form in 2018 London as a solo for PJ, recorded by George Blagden; covered by Melanie C on Stages.
5. Tempo sits near quick Allegretto with brisk syllabic delivery and a jazz inflected pit band palette by orchestrator Jonathan Tunick.

Creation History

I have always loved how Company treats the recording studio as a character. On the Columbia Masterworks session that yielded the Original Broadway Cast album, producer Thomas Z. Shepard marshaled a marathon day that Pennebaker turned into a time capsule of musical theater craft. You hear Pamela Myers’s Marta jump the tracks of Bobby’s quiet reverie, and the ensemble leans into that post bop pit band feel that Sondheim and Tunick were channeling for 1970 Manhattan. The track was cut at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio, with Harold Hastings conducting and Tunick’s charts spotlighting a compact rhythm section, bright woods, and the kind of brassy punctuation that slices through the lyric’s city chatter. In later decades, the number morphed with the show’s revisions. Marianne Elliott’s 2018 London production reassigned the song to PJ, sung on record by George Blagden, proof that the lyric’s city pulse fits any point of view when the character is intoxicated by New York’s velocity.

Musically, it is a quick, syllable dense miniature. Sondheim’s melody rides tight intervals and repeated notes, pushing consonants right on the beat. The groove is urban, lightly swung but never slouchy, with a constant forward tilt. That tilt matters. It’s the difference between a postcard and a street corner. The chorus behaves like a transit map: train, bus, plane, stacked in ascending images, then snapped back to street level with a shrug of maybe yesterday. That collapse from bird’s eye to sidewalk keeps the song human.

Key takeaways

1. Structure uses ascending imagery and serial lists to evoke arrivals, then cuts to miniature scenes of how people actually collide in the city.
2. Music favors motoric eighth notes and crisp articulation that mirror commuting rhythms, with harmonic side steps for the song’s more melancholic turns.
3. Functions dramaturgically as a city aria that reframes romance as logistics, messages, and missed connections.
4. Its afterlife includes documentary immortality and multiple cast recordings in English and Spanish, plus pop and cabaret covers.

Video note

The widely shared clip of Myers performing the number gives you the studio’s raw electricity: headphones, close mics, and that late night insistence that every take has to count. You can practically see the pencils tapping on the music stands when she fires the phrase my service’ll explain.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Plot

Company follows Bobby, a thirty something New Yorker, through a mosaic of birthday parties and encounters with friends and girlfriends. Another Hundred People lands right after Bobby serenades a composite dream partner in Someone Is Waiting. Marta, one of his girlfriends, counters with a verbal snapshot of the city: how people arrive, mingle, and slip past one another in public and private spaces. The effect is an urban time lapse. While Bobby imagines a magical fit, Marta shows how the sheer density of the city creates odds and friction that govern any relationship.

Song Meaning

This is the show’s city thesis. The lyric uses lists, phone tag, and geography to depict a New York where connection is a choreography of luck, voicemail, and proximity. Every line is about collisions: crowded streets and guarded parks, postered walls and crude remarks, friends of friends at parties. The patter’s cadence doubles as social noise. Underneath the bustle, the hook contains a fugitive melancholy. Another hundred people getting off a train sounds like abundance, but the refrain keeps arriving like a news ticker that never pauses. In one telling turn, the harmony darkens for some go away. The bustle always has an exit sign.

Annotations

“This song immediately follows Robert’s tender and hopeful ballad ‘Someone Is Waiting’ and provides a stark contrast.”

That contrast is the dramaturgical engine. Sondheim places an idealist’s wish right next to a realist’s city report so we feel the whiplash between fantasy and logistics. The contrast is not to mock Bobby, but to prime his growth: wanting love is easy, managing the settings in which people meet is the hard part.

“From the underground subway, to the bus on the road, and the plane in the sky, Sondheim employs auxesis with ascending imagery.”

Exactly. The arrival list climbs from ground to sky, generating lift before the lyric says maybe yesterday and drops back to now. That climb mimics how New Yorkers narrate the city at scale, then immediately fixate on getting from A to B. The music mirrors that with rising figures and then clipped cadences.

“It’s funny how this song compares to On the Town and Wonderful Town... Sondheim is brutal in his reduction of the Big Apple dream.”

Bernstein’s New York dazzles but never forgets loneliness. Sondheim compresses that duality into fewer words and sharper cuts. The phrase city of strangers is repeated like a mantra. Where Bernstein lets romance open a window, Sondheim nudges us to check the weather app and the bus schedule. It is not cynicism. It is adulthood.

“Look, I’ll call you in the morning or my service’ll explain...”

The answering service reference lands like a time stamp. Before cell phones, actors, doctors, and hustlers relied on services to catch calls and relay messages. In a show about timing, that single detail explains why near misses and rain checks are moral forces, not inconveniences.

“Some go away.”

On that line the harmony turns minor and the rhythm breathes. Suddenly the transit montage has consequences. Careers fail to launch. Lovers chase quieter cities. The lyric reminds you that every arrival implies a departure, and New York is both the dream and the sorting hat.

“Listen for Bobby’s motif.”

Company is studded with motivic cross talk. If you listen for Bobby’s intervallic fingerprint, you hear how Marta’s city rapture still speaks his language. The point is that Bobby is not special because the city makes no one special. The dramatic irony is that this realization is what will make him finally ready.

Genre and rhythm

This is Broadway patter with downtown jazz DNA. The accompaniment walks hard on the beat, barely swung, with rhythm section stabs that feel like cab traffic changing lanes. Tunick writes crisp reeds and brass figures, then lets strings add sheen without softening the attack. The result: a city sound that is theatrical but never quaint.

Emotional arc

We start in the dizzy optimism of arrivals and end with a shrug of tough knowledge. The lyric catalogs how people meet, then shows how uncertainty is the only constant. By the last refrain, abundance feels both hopeful and threatening. That ambivalence is Company’s heartbeat.

Language and imagery

Sondheim’s list technique here is reportorial. Trains, buses, planes. Crowded streets, guarded parks. Postered walls with crude remarks. He writes like a journalist on a moving platform, then slips in comedy through phrasing: or my service’ll explain is funny because it is fussy. Diction becomes character work.

Key Facts

• Artist: Pamela Myers (vocal), with Thomas Z. Shepard as producer
• Featured: Company Original Broadway Cast
• Composer: Stephen Sondheim
• Producer: Thomas Z. Shepard
• Release Date: May 13, 1970
• Genre: Broadway, patter song with jazz inflection
• Instruments: Pit orchestra with rhythm section, brass, woodwinds, strings
• Label: Columbia Masterworks
• Mood: kinetic, observational, bittersweet
• Length: approx. 2:42 on the OBC album
• Track #: 7 on the Original Broadway Cast album
• Language: English (later Spanish version titled Cien Personas Mas)
• Album: Company (Original Broadway Cast)
• Music style: modern show tune with pop jazz accents and rapid syllabic delivery
• Poetic meter: mixed, with prose like patter and internal rhyme

Canonical Entities & Relations

• Stephen Sondheim wrote words and music.
• Thomas Z. Shepard produced the cast recording session.
• Pamela Myers originated Marta and introduced the song on record.
• Harold Prince directed the stage production; Harold Hastings conducted the session; Jonathan Tunick orchestrated.
• D. A. Pennebaker filmed the recording session in Original Cast Album: Company.
• Warner’s Arts Music released the 2018 London cast album with George Blagden singing the number as PJ.
• Concord Theatricals and Craft issued the Spanish cast recording featuring Cien Personas Mas.

Questions and Answers

Who produced “Another Hundred People” by Pamela Myers?

Thomas Z. Shepard.

When did Pamela Myers release “Another Hundred People”?

May 13, 1970, as part of the Company Original Broadway Cast album.

Who wrote “Another Hundred People”?

Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist.

Is there a filmed record of the recording session?

Yes. D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary about the making of the cast album captures the session, including this number.

Has the song been reassigned to another character in later productions?

Yes. In the 2018 London revival the solo is sung by PJ, a male counterpart to Marta, recorded by George Blagden.

Notable covers worth hearing?

Melanie C included it on her 2012 album Stages. Numerous cabaret artists have also recorded it.

Is there a Spanish language version on record?

Yes. The 2022 Original Spanish Cast recording features Cien Personas Mas.

What tempo and key should singers expect?

Original markings hover near Allegretto, with commercial releases around the upper 90s to low 110s BPM range. Keys vary by edition and cut; many resources list G major for the OBC track, though licensed materials are transposable.

How does the song function in the show?

As the city’s thesis statement. It counters Bobby’s idealism with the logistics and churn of urban life, setting up later breakthroughs.

Awards and Chart Positions

Company as a production made awards history and pulled its album into the canon. The show earned a record setting slate of Tony nominations for 1971 and won multiple categories, including Best Musical and Best Score. The cast album received the Grammy for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album. Decades later, the Original Broadway Cast album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, cementing its archival status.

How to Sing Another Hundred People

Think city brisk, not frantic. The motor is steady eighth notes, a conversational belt placed forward in the mask, with unshowy vibrato and clean consonants. Prepare like a reporter with a stopwatch.

1. Tempo: Aim for a quick but controlled roll in the upper 90s to low 110s BPM range. Practice at 90, then step up by 4 BPM increments until the text stays crisp.
2. Key and range: Many charts circulate in G major; published selections are often transposable. Plan for a comfortable mezzo belt center with frequent mid range repetitions. If you are a baritone or tenor in the PJ version, keep the tone lean.
3. Diction: Over articulate initial consonants on names and transit words. Link function words into the next stressed syllable so the line does not chop.
4. Breath plan: Map breathing before each list unit. Use quick, silent sips, and treat commas as mini rests. The patter needs air economy.
5. Flow and rhythm: Keep a slight forward lean. Imagine walking against a light crowd. The groove should feel like footfalls on pavement.
6. Accents and color: Shape contrast points like maybe yesterday and some go away with darker vowel color and a touch of space in the resonance.
7. Ensemble or doubles: If you have background responses or stacked doubles, align sibilants and cutoffs like a percussion section.
8. Mic craft: On a handheld, ride closer on quick lists to catch consonants, then pull back slightly on sustained lines to avoid overload.
9. Pitfalls: Beware speeding up on lists and letting pitch sag on repeated notes. Use a drone or keyboard to anchor centers during long rehearsal takes.

Additional Info

Notable recordings beyond the Original Broadway Cast include Melanie C’s studio cover on Stages and the 2018 London cast album where George Blagden reframes the lyric from a male perspective. The Spanish language cast recording from Teatro del Soho uses Cien Personas Mas, proof that the song’s images survive translation without losing their New York tang. As stated in the 2024 Rolling Stone’s study of Sondheim’s cultural afterlife, the show’s recordings have become a way people learn the repertoire as much as they remember productions. According to NME magazine’s long standing coverage of reissues, Company’s album era stature rests on how modern its band still sounds. Contemporary essays also underline the documentary’s cult status, with critics pointing to its immortal snapshot of a producer, a composer, and performers trying to nail a take at dawn.

Sources: The New Yorker, Masterworks Broadway, Playbill, Arts Music and Warner Classics materials, Discogs, Billboard archives, criterion notes and press, Concord Theatricals and Craft Recordings, London Theatre news, Spotify and Apple editorial notes.