The reunion, if it reunifies one couple, destroys another. A Broadway revival opened at the Belasco Theatre on April 5, 2001, and closed on July 14, 2001, after 117 performances and 32 previews. older selves with the failed promises of youth. On her debut solo album, Broadway veteran Dorothy Loudon performs a set of theater songs she was too young to do on stage. A celebrated New York event since 2010 (Its a Hit! Other notable performers in the original productions were Fifi D'Orsay as Solange LaFitte, Justine Johnston as Heidi Schiller, Mary McCarty as Stella Deems, Arnold Moss as Dimitri Weismann, Ethel Shutta as Hattie Walker, and Marcie Stringer and Charles Welch as Emily and Theodore Whitman. you can't turn the clock back: as Heidi Schiller reminds us in And usually SIMON: I mean a lot of big stars like to get out after three or four months, right? Buddy in Arizona - cooking, flower-arranging, trips to the mall, Were Still Here! Ben becomes frenzied, while the dancing ensemble continues as if nothing was wrong. For Ben and Buddy, too, Tickets always were tough to come by. It is 1970 and on the stage of the Weismann Theatre, to get him down, as he scuttles frantically between mistress and That, if I'm good enough for you, you're not good enough SIMON: When did the relationship with Stephen Sondheim begin - looking back on it? HATTIE WALKER - After all these years, still a Broadway Baby. Ms. PETERS: (as Sally Durant Plummer) (Singing) If I stick it long enough, I can get to strut my stuff. to read expert guidance for Broadway Baby and unlock other amazing theatre resources! [128], In November 2019, it was announced that Dominic Cooke will adapt the screenplay as well as direct, following the successful 2017 National Theatre revival in London, which returned in 2019 due to popular demand.[129]. HEIDI SCHILLER - A 90-year old Broadway legend, whose ringing soprano inspired the operetta kings to produce their lushest waltzes. their dressing rooms - but for Ben these memories awake old regrets The song was "One More Kiss", and the compromise was that if there was time, it would be recorded, even if Jones couldn't promise it would end up on the album. "/", "Bolero d'Amour" Danced by Vincent and Vanessa , "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" / "Love Will See Us Through" Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy, "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues" Buddy, "Margie", "Sally", "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" Phyllis and backup male dancers . Afterwards, though, Buddy's The-God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me-Blues begin without his sneered jokes, his loveless love-making, his dreary And then the rest of the cast is fantastic, Jan Maxwell and Ron Raines and Danny Burstein. [43] During the run, Eartha Kitt replaced Gray, sparking somewhat of a comeback (she went on to perform her own one-woman show at The Shaftesbury Theatre to sell-out houses for three weeks from March 18, 1989, after Follies closed). : Directed by Rebecca Frayn. Sally Durant Plummer, "blond, petite, sweet-faced" and at 49 "still remarkably like the girl she was thirty years ago",[4] a former Weismann girl, is the first guest to arrive, and her ghostly youthful counterpart moves towards her. FIRST NIGHT ENCORE CD3 - London Cast. Mr. Weismann's exquisite taste in feminine pulchritude. Carlotta amuses a throng of admirers with a tale of how her dramatic solo was cut from the Follies because the audience found it humorous, transforming it as she sings it into an anthem-like toast to her own hard-won survival ("I'm Still Here"). 66. He had agreed to work on The Girls Upstairs if Sondheim agreed to work on Company; Michael Bennett, the young choreographer of Company, was also brought onto the project. "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" / "Love Will See Us Through" - Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy. Sondheim. The AP quoted Michael Coveney of the Financial Times, who wrote: "Follies is a great deal more than a camp love-in for old burlesque buffs and Sondheim aficionados. On the drab stage an eerie operetta waltz, all dreams are a sweet mistake and eventually Read is the book writer, writing a new ending to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, alongside a score comprising the pop music of Grammy . Julia McKenzie returned to the production for the final four performances. He praised a "broodingly luminous Jan Maxwell" and Burstein's "hapless onetime stage-door Johnny", as well as "the show's final 20 minutes, when we ascend with the main characters into an ironic vaudeville dreamscape of assorted neuroses - the most intoxicating articulation of the musical's 'Loveland' sequence that I've ever seen." The show closed on July 1, 1972, after 522 performances and 12 previews. [5] Sally, Phyllis, Ben, and Buddy show their "real and emotional lives" in "a sort of group nervous breakdown".[6]. The youthful ghosts of the four leads are winning portrayed by Erin Dilly, Richard Roland, Joey Sorge and Lauren Ward. Stephen Sondheim attended one of the performances. Copyright 2011 NPR. ", "2017 Results | Critics' Circle Theatre Awards", "Standard Theatre Awards 2017 the Shortlist", "These are the winners of the 2017 Evening Standard Theatre Awards", Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Cats: Complete Original Broadway Cast Recording, Les Misrables: The Complete Symphonic Recording, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Follies&oldid=1151569839, Articles with dead external links from August 2021, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2022, Articles with MusicBrainz release group identifiers, Articles with MusicBrainz work identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The orchestra, Nicholas Skilbeck and Nigel Lilley, 1971 - New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Musical, "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy, Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy, "Montage" ("Rain on the Roof"/"Ah, Paris! Ben pledging their love. Sally tells Ben about her life with Solange purrs her way through the fake Gallic sophistication Polly Bergen stops everything cold with "I'm Still Here", bringing a rare degree of introspection to a song that is too often a mere belt-fest [T]he emotional highpoint comes when Joan Roberts sings 'One More Kiss'. Elsewhere, Willy Wheeler (portly, in his sixties) cartwheels for a photographer. Follies By Rick Pender Follies original poster Follies, Sondheim's seventh Broadway production, began as The Girls Upstairs, a collaboration with bookwriter James Goldman about some young women in a Ziegfeld-like extravaganza and the stage-boy Johnnies who courted them. Stephen Sondheim. and soon Sally and Buddy, together with their younger selves, join Stephen Sondheim Songs from Musicals Follies the Musical - Broadway Baby Lyrics I'm just a Broadway Baby. Di Botcher sits at her former dressing room table and sings Broadway Baby. The show and the score have a double vision: simultaneously squinting at the messes people make of their lives and wide-eyed at the lingering grace and lift of the music they want to hear. [42], The musical played in the West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre on July 21, 1987, and closed on February 4, 1989, after 644 performances. Ms. PETERS: Oh, you know, what's great about it is that there's no comparison. The original production, among the most costly on Broadway,[1] ran for over 500 performances but ultimately lost its entire investment. "[34] Chapin confirms this: "Alas final word came from Capitol that they would not go for two records [Dick Jones] now had to propose cuts throughout the score in consultation with Steve. Yesterday marked the birthdate of the actress/singer/dancer Ethel Shutta (pronounced Shuh-tay), born in 1896, immortalized as the person who introduced the Stephen Sondheim favorite "Broadway. Follies is a blend of both, and the new production is rounded out with production numbers celebrating love's simple hope for young lovers, its extravagant fantasies for Ziegfeld aficionados, and its fresh lesson for the graying principals. SOLANGE LAFITTE - A Broadway Parisienne. Angry and hurt, Phyllis considers whether to grant his request ("Could I Leave You?"). [38] The production was the premiere attraction at the newly constructed 1,800-seat theater, which, coincidentally, was itself razed thirty years later (in 2002, in order to build a new office building), thus mirroring the Follies plot line upon which the musical is based. New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville I hadn't read the script until about a year ago. [31], Frank Rich, for many years the chief drama critic for The New York Times, had first garnered attention, while an undergraduate at Harvard University, with a lengthy essay for the Harvard Crimson about the show, which he had seen during its pre-Broadway run in Boston. Playing Hattie who sings "Broadway Baby" is Patti Davis Suarez. SIMON: Is there a role you wish you could do over or do again? With Andrew Lincoln, Sophie Okonedo, Esther Coles, Darren Tighe. with Live, Love, Laugh, singing of how clever and adept They pass through the spectral showgirls without seeing them. Vance, David. He is a salesman, in his early 50s, appealing and lively,[4] whose smiles cover inner disappointment. Ben tells Sally It depends on how you like to work. Follies - New Broadway Cast Recording Produced by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin Executive Producers: Michael M. Kaiser, Sean Patrick Flahaven Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York City on October 3-4, 2011 Recorded and Mixed by Bart Migal Assistand Engineer: Bob Mallory, Tim Marchiafava, Tyler Hartman & Mike Bauer Music Coordinator: John Miller Broadway Cast, 2011 (PS Classics, 2 CDs) (4 / 5) The success of the Paper Mill Playhouse production played a sizable role in convincing Broadway that a Follies revival was, in fact, feasible. "[66], A production was mounted at London's Royal Festival Hall in a limited engagement. The Sydney Symphony was conducted by Maestro Tommy Tycho. "[9] Bernadette Peters quoted Sondheim on the character of "Sally": "He said early on that [Sally] is off-balance, to put it mildly. Ms. PETERS: But he is like an actor, but with notes and words. A celebrity panel meet the child of a well-known person, and guess who their parents are. And even when I saw it, I think it was about 2000 there was a revival, maybe 2001. The production was directed by Dominic Cooke, choreographed by Bill Deamer and starred Peter Forbes as Buddy, Imelda Staunton as Sally, Janie Dee as Phyllis, Philip Quast as Ben[100][101] and Tracie Bennett as Carlotta. Amidst a deafening discord, Ben screams at all the figures from his past and collapses as he cries out for Phyllis. If you're somebody that gets it and then thinks, you know, I've done it, I've gotten it now and there's no place else to go. 1971, the weismann theatre, new york city, College/University, Large Cast, Mature Audiences, Mostly Female Cast, Professional Theatre, Regional Theatre, Star Vehicle Female. [81] The cast starred Bernadette Peters as Sally, Jan Maxwell as Phyllis, Elaine Paige as Carlotta, Linda Lavin as Hattie, Ron Raines as Ben and Danny Burstein as Buddy. [52] The 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse production (Millburn, New Jersey) was directed by Robert Johanson with choreography by Jerry Mitchell and starred Donna McKechnie (Sally), Dee Hoty (Phyllis), Laurence Guittard (Ben), Tony Roberts (Buddy), Kaye Ballard (Hattie ), Eddie Bracken (Weismann), and Ann Miller (Carlotta). Seeing Sally again, Ben realises The cast featured Charlotte Page (Sally), Liz Robertson (Phyllis), Graham Bickley (Ben), Jrme Pradon (Buddy), Nicole Croisille (Carlotta), Julia Sutton (Hattie) and Fra Fee (Young Buddy).[96]. Sondheim "did not think the London script was as good as the original." Ms. PETERS: As a little girl, yeah. Panic-stricken, he rushes off, screaming Accuracy and availability may vary. To extend the show, it would have been necessary to negotiate new contracts with the entire company because of the Belasco's limited seating, it wasn't deemed financially feasible to do so. THEODORE WHITMAN - Emily's husband. and a brief glimpse of those dreams. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal noted that "One of the signal achievements of this Follies is that it succeeds in untangling each and every strand of the show's knotty plot Mr. Schaeffer is clearly unafraid of the darkness of Follies, so much so that the first act is bitter enough to sting. It was directed and staged by Stephen Lloyd Helper and produced by Helper and Alistair Thomson for Mardi Gras. Ms. PETERS: And then I got the call when I was I was performing at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, James Lapine called me to say he wrote this new show with Stephen Sondheim and it's to play an artist model. Directed by Michael Scott, the cast included Lorna Luft, Millicent Martin, Mary Millar, Dave Willetts, Trevor Jones Bryan Smyth, Alex Sharpe, Christine Scarry, Aidan Conway and Enda Markey. YOUNG HEIDI - The celebrated soprano in her heyday. [75][76] Donna McKechnie enjoyed top billing as Carlotta. Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman . And then as a teenager, I started singing soprano and I went, well, I can sing soprano. Don't panic. "[46], This production was also recorded on two CDs and was the first full recording. As their younger counterparts approach them, Phyllis comments to Ben about their past. [27] The 2017 National Theatre production is performed without an interval as well as largely returning to the 1971 book, James Goldmans widow no longer alive to insist on the revised script. Dimitri Weismann's reunion; they'll have to find out whether anything's Former Weismann performers at the reunion include Max and Stella Deems, who lost their radio jobs and became store owners in Miami; Solange La Fitte, a coquette, who is vibrant and flirtatious even at 66; Hattie Walker, who has outlived five younger husbands; Vincent and Vanessa, former dancers who now own an Arthur Murray franchise; Heidi Schiller, for whom Franz Lehr once wrote a waltz ("or was it Oscar Straus?" serenades those Beautiful Girls, the now-elderly ing6nues in. [39], A full production ran at the Forum Theatre, Wythenshawe, England, from April 30, 1985, directed by Howard Lloyd-Lewis, design by Chris Kinman, costumes by Charles Cusick-Smith, lighting by Tim Wratten, musical direction by Simon Lowe, and choreographed by Paul Kerryson. Ben confides to Sally that his life is empty. SIMON: And from the performer's point of view, what makes him a genius by such universal acclaim? Christine Baranski played Carlotta, and Lucine Amara sang Heidi. Group Sales Associate at Broadway at The National, Camp Director at Traveling Players Ensemble. Do again. [73] Tom Bosley originally was cast as Dimitri Weismann. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. The cast starred Julia McKenzie (Sally), Donna McKechnie (Phyllis), Denis Quilley (Ben) and Ron Moody (Buddy). [47] Clines further commented: "In part, the show is a tribute to musical stage history, in which the 57-year-old Mr Sondheim is steeped, for he first learned song writing at the knee of Oscar Hammerstein II and became the acknowledged master songwriter who bridged past musical stage romance into the modern musical era of irony and neurosis. Both Buddys enter to confront the Bens about how they stole Sally. PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker stated "We've never had the kind of reaction that we've had for Follies. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Radiantly optimistic and more than a little sexy, they turned "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" into one of the highlights of the evening. The Paper Mill Playhouse production used some elements from London but stayed close to the original. (Who's That Woman), shadowy wraiths of their younger selves Follies Stage production February 20, 1971 Comments Sung by character "Hattie Walker" . It could be. and matronly starlets, veterans of a more innocent age of entertainment, She yearns for him to hold her, but young Sally slips between them and the three move together ("Too Many Mornings"). But they're both A lthough it has legions of admirers, Follies has often seemed a problematic show. YOUNG SALLY - A Follies chorine, 20 years old in 1940, and caught However, he thought that it was "wonderful" that, at the end of the first act, "the principal characters recognized their younger selves and were able to acknowledge them throughout the last thirty minutes of the piece. Synopsis. The once resplendent theater is now little but planks and scaffolding ("Prologue"/"Overture"). his mind, all the past evening's traumatic experiences are regurgitated [83], Reviews were mixed, with Ben Brantley of The New York Times writing "It wasn't until the second act that I fell in love all over again with Follies". Shakespeare in the Woods 2023 Season inspired the operetta kings to produce their lushest A few years after the fling that led to his unknown fatherhood, the man has settled into a new life, but the establishing of his paternity makes him determined to . Peter Marks of The Washington Post wrote that the revival "takes an audience halfway to paradise." EMILY WHITMAN - The female half of a cheerful song and dance team. Inspired by a New York Times article about a gathering of former Ziegfeld Girls, they decided upon a story about ex-showgirls. In 1971 or 2001, Follies validates the legend that a Broadway show can be an event worth dressing up for. [23] The 1987 West End, 2005 Barrington Stage Company,[24] the 2001 Broadway revival[25] and Kennedy Center 2011 productions were performed in two acts. Although many of the album's most enduring highlights capitalize on the unhinged genius of drummer Keith Moon ("Won't Get Fooled Again," "Baba O'Riley"), the gorgeous ballads . "[35] "One More Kiss" was omitted from the final release but was restored for CD release. He noted, though, that "I'm sorry the cast was reduced from 52 to 38, the orchestra from 26 players to 14 To appreciate the revival, you must buy into James Goldman's book, which is peddling a panoramically bleak take on marriage." [67][68][69] This production conducted by Julian Kelly featured the original Broadway score. But when. Buddy and Ben, the theatre seems haunted by their younger selves, The production starred Bob Gunton (Ben), Warren Berlinger (Dimitri Weismann), Patty Duke (Phyllis), Vikki Carr (Sally), Harry Groener (Buddy), Carole Cook (Hattie), Carol Lawrence (Vanessa), Ken Page (Roscoe), Liz Torres (Stella), Amanda McBroom (Solange), Grover Dale (Vincent), Donna McKechnie (Carlotta), Carole Swarbrick (Christine), Stella Stevens (Dee Dee), Mary Jo Catlett (Emily), Justine Johnston (Heidi), Jean Louisa Kelly (Young Sally), Austin Miller (Young Buddy), Tia Riebling (Young Phyllis), Kevin Earley (Young Ben), Abby Feldman (Young Stella), Barbara Chiofalo (Young Heidi), Trevor Brackney (Young Vincent), Melissa Driscoll (Young Vanessa), Stephen Reed (Kevin), and Billy Barnes (Theodore). Sally is bitter, having never been happy with Buddy, although he has always adored her. [18], Goldman continued to revise the book of the musical right up to his death, which occurred shortly before the 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse production. the resurrection of their distant pasts only serves to point Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. the theatre is demolished to make way for a parking lot. WAITERS, WAITRESSES, PHOTOGRAPHERS, SHOWGIRLS, etc. Phyllis, having successfully seduced Kevin, one of the waiters, follies. "[123] The recording of the 2011 revival was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Musical Theater Album category. Don't Look At Me, Sally babbles Follies has had 20 productions including Broadway which opened in 1971, Broadway which opened in 1971, US Tour which opened in 1972, Off . Solange proves she is still fashionable at what she claims is 66 ("Ah, Paris! ; and Hattie proclaims again that she's, The producer was Cameron Mackintosh, the direction was by Mike Ockrent, with choreography by Bob Avian and design by Maria Bjrnson. Paul Kerryson directed, and the cast starred David Durham as Ben, Kathryn Evans as Sally, Louise Gold as Phyllis, Julia Goss as Heidi and Henry Goodman as Buddy. [43], The book "was extensively reworked by James Goldman, with Sondheim's cooperation and also given an intermission." The good news is that it also features some of the most exciting musical moments Broadway has seen in several seasons. The emotional high generated by the reunion of the Follies girls ultimately gives way to anger, disappointment, and weary resignation to reality.
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