Editing Company (musical) (section)

===Act I===
Robert is a well-liked single man living in New York City whose friends are married or engaged couples. The couples are Joanne and Larry, Peter and Susan, Harry and Sarah, David and Jenny, and Paul and Amy. It is Robert's 35th birthday and the couples have gathered to throw him a surprise party. When Robert fails to blow out any candles on his birthday cake, the couples promise him that his birthday wish will still come true, although Robert wished for nothing, and said that his friends are all he needs ("[[Company (Broadway song)|Company]]").

What follows is a series of disconnected vignettes in no chronological order, each featuring Robert visiting with one of the couples or alone on a [[Dating|date]] with a girlfriend.

In the first vignette, Robert visits Sarah, a [[foodie]] who is dieting, and her husband, Harry, a recovering alcoholic. Sarah and Harry taunt each other on their vices, escalating toward karate-like fighting and thrashing that may or may not be playful. This prompts the caustic Joanne, the oldest, most cynical, and most-often divorced of Robert's friends, to sarcastically comment to the audience that it is the little things that make a marriage work ("The Little Things You Do Together"). Harry explains, and the men concur, that most people are both thankful and regretful about getting married, and that marriage changes both everything and nothing about the way they live ("Sorry – Grateful").

Robert is next with Peter and Susan, on their apartment terrace. Peter is an [[Ivy League]] graduate, and Susan is a [[Southern belle]]; the two seem to be a perfect couple, yet they surprise Robert with the news of their upcoming divorce. At the home of the uptight Jenny and chic David, Robert has brought along some [[Cannabis (drug)|marijuana]] that the three share. The couple turns to grilling Robert on why he has not yet gotten married. Robert claims he is not against the notion, but three women he is currently dating—Kathy, Marta, and April—appear and proceed, [[The Andrews Sisters|Andrews Sisters]]-style, to chastise Robert for his reluctance to being committed ("You Could Drive a Person Crazy"). After Jenny asks for another joint, but is discouraged by David, David privately tells Robert that Jenny does not actually like marijuana, but partakes in it as a show of her love for him.

All of Robert's male friends are deeply envious about his commitment-free status, and each has found someone they find perfect for Robert ("Have I Got a Girl for You"), but Robert is waiting for someone who merges the best features of all his married female friends ("Someone Is Waiting"). Robert meets his three girlfriends in a small park on separate occasions, as Marta sings of the city: crowded, dirty, uncaring, yet somehow wonderful ("Another Hundred People"). Robert first gets to know April, a slow-witted airline flight attendant. Robert then spends time with Kathy. They had dated previously and both admit that they had each secretly considered marrying the other. They laugh at this coincidence before Robert suddenly considers the idea seriously. However, Kathy reveals that she is leaving for [[Cape Cod]] with a new fiancé. Finally, Robert meets with Marta; she loves New York, and babbles on about topics both highbrow and lowbrow. Robert is left stunned.

The scene turns to the day of Amy and Paul's wedding; they have lived together for years, but are just now getting married. Amy has gotten an overwhelming case of [[cold feet]], and as the upbeat Paul harmonizes rapturously, a panicking Amy confesses to the audience that she can't go through with it ("[[Getting Married Today (song)|Getting Married Today]]"). Robert, the best man, and Paul watch as Amy complains and self-destructs over every petty thing she can possibly think of, and then finally explicitly calls off the wedding. Paul dejectedly storms out into the rain and Robert tries to comfort Amy, but emotionally winds up offering an impromptu proposal to her himself. His words jolt Amy back into reality, and she runs out after Paul, at last ready to marry him. The setting returns to the scene of the birthday party, where Robert is given his cake and tries to blow out the candles again. He wishes for something this time ("Marry Me A Little").