This article offers a case study in how historians of science can use musical theater productions to understand the cultural reception of scientific ideas. In 1970, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Company opened on Broadway. The show engaged with and reflected contemporary theories and ideas from the human sciences; Company's portrayal of its 35-year-old bachelor protagonist, his married friends, and his girlfriends reflected present-day theories from psychoanalysis, sexology, and sociology. In 2018, when director Marianne Elliott revived the show with a female protagonist, Company once again amplified contemporary dilemmas around human sciences expertise—this time, the biological fertility clock. Through Company, Sondheim and Furth—and later Elliott—constructed arguments about modern society that paralleled those put forth by contemporary human scientists, including psychoanalytic models of the mind, the lonely crowd phenomenon, and shifting conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Because of their wide popularity and potential for readaptation, musicals such as Company offer a promising source base for analyzing the relationship between contemporary society and scientific expertise in specific historical contexts.

本文提供了一个案例研究，说明科学史学家如何使用音乐剧作品来理解科学思想的文化接受度。1970 年，Stephen Sondheim 和 George Furth 的音乐剧团在百老汇开业。该节目参与并反映了当代人文科学的理论和思想；公司对 35 岁单身主人公、已婚朋友和女友的描绘反映了当今来自精神分析、性学和社会学的理论。2018 年，当导演玛丽安·埃利奥特 (Marianne Elliott) 以女性主角重演这部剧时，公司再次放大了围绕人文科学专业知识的当代困境——这一次是生物生育时钟。通过公司、桑德海姆和弗斯——以及后来的艾略特——构建的关于现代社会的论点与当代人类科学家提出的论点相似，包括心灵的精神分析模型、孤独的人群现象以及不断变化的男性气质和女性气质概念。由于其广受欢迎和重新改编的潜力，像公司这样的音乐剧为分析当代社会与特定历史背景下的科学专业知识之间的关系提供了一个有希望的来源基础。