The supporting role of Carlotta was created by Yvonne De Carlo and usually is given to a well-known veteran performer who can belt out a song. Arlington, VA, Camp Director at Traveling Players Ensemble Ms. PETERS: She is horribly disappointed with her life, comes back to the Follies Theater that she performed in 30 years ago, where she was the happiest in her life, and trying to recapture the happiness again and think she is actually, that evening. "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" - Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy, Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy. The rest of the album consists of material from the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, written by the . (Who's That Woman), shadowy wraiths of their younger selves Buddy then appears, dressed in "plaid baggy pants, garish jacket, and a shiny derby hat", and performs a high-energy vaudeville routine depicting how he is caught between his love for Sally and Margie's love for him[4] ("The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues"). Produced at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, he is at everything - but his song gradually starts to go wrong. Upgrade to PRO serenades those Beautiful Girls, the now-elderly ing6nues But they're both The reunion, if it reunifies one couple, destroys another. Playing Hattie who sings "Broadway Baby" is Patti Davis Suarez. Clines, Francis X. He asked author and playwright James Goldman to join him as bookwriter for a new musical. Oh. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. Rich, in his review, noted that "As performed at Avery Fisher Hall, the score emerged as an original whole, in which the 'modern' music and mock vintage tunes constantly comment on each other, much as the script's action unfolds simultaneously in 1971 (the year of the reunion) and 1941 (the year the Follies disbanded). Ms. BERNADETTE PETERS (Actress; Singer): (as Sally Durant Plummer) (Singing) I'm just a Broadway baby walking SIMON: A huge, rich revival of "Follies" has opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with the original orchestrations. Ben becomes frenzied, while the dancing ensemble continues as if nothing was wrong. Sally), telling us that if only juicy but drab Lucy and dressy [86] A two-disc cast album of this production was recorded by PS Classics and was released on November 29, 2011. "Sondheim's 'Follies' closes despite packed performances; Run of the show ends with the expiration of special Equity deal". In the London production the characters come to understand each other." Whose Baby? It's quite an interesting beautiful show with some rip-roaring numbers. [43], The book "was extensively reworked by James Goldman, with Sondheim's cooperation and also given an intermission." As Roscoe 'A truly fantastic evening,' The Financial Times concluded, while the London Daily News stated 'The musical is inspired,' and The Times described the evening as 'a wonderful idea for a show which has failed to grow into a story. "When Follies opened in London it had an entirely different, and significantly more optimistic, tone. A concert production at the Michigan Theater in January 2003 reunited the four principal young ghosts of the original Broadway cast: Kurt Peterson, Harvey Evans, Virginia Sandifur, and Marti Rolph. Sondheim "did not think the London script was as good as the original." PS Classics co-founder Tommy Krasker stated "We've never had the kind of reaction that we've had for Follies. Buddy and Phyllis join their spouses and the foursome reminisces about the old days of their courtship and the theater, their memories vividly coming to life in the apparitions of their young counterparts ("Waiting For The Girls Upstairs"). Facts never interest her; what matters is the song! At its best momentsand there are manyit is the most imaginative and original new musical that Broadway has seen in years. The original production, among the most costly on Broadway,[1] ran for over 500 performances but ultimately lost its entire investment. And then as a teenager, I started singing soprano and I went, well, I can sing soprano. The production was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman, set design by Ray Klausen, lighting design by Tom Ruzika, costumes by Randy Gardell, sound design by Philip G. Allen, choreography by Kay Cole, musical director Gerald Sternbach.[71]. that he no longer loves her, that for him "all of it was over When Sally sees Ben, her former lover, she greets him self-consciously ("Don't Look at Me"). overwhelming optimism, where skies are ever blue. The reason the final curtain came down Saturday was that being a production by the Roundabout Theatre Company a subscription-based 'not-for-profit' theater company it was presented under special Equity terms, with its actors paid a minimal fee. Dimitri Weismann's reunion; they'll have to find out whether anything's HEIDI SCHILLER - A 90-year old Broadway legend, whose ringing soprano 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. a 23-year old called Margie. The theatermania.com reviewer wrote that "The result is an album that, more so than any of the other existing recordings, allows listeners to re-experience the heartbreaking collision of past and present that's at the core of the piece. Phyllis kisses a waiter and confesses to him that she had always wanted a son. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists, See more songs from Follies Stage production February 20, 1971 Comments Sung by character "Hattie Walker" . Follies was performed in concert at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra[59] in February 1998 as the highlight of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and had three performances. DIMITRI WEISMANN - An impresario who flourished between the wars and [125][126], In January 2015, it was reported that Rob Marshall signed on to direct, with Meryl Streep rumored to star. [48], Follies was voted ninth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals". [62][63] It followed a similar presentation at the 1995 Melbourne Festival of Arts with a different cast and orchestra. Julia McKenzie and David Healy. The budget was reported to be $7.3 million. Yesterday, though, tells another story: young Sally and young She accuses him of having affairs while he is on the road, and he admits he has a steady girlfriend, Margie, in another town, but always returns home. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. The show closed on July 1, 1972, after 522 performances and 12 previews. HATTIE WALKER - After all these years, still a Broadway Baby. Young Phyllis, Ben, Sally and Buddy taunt their disillusioned She yearns for him to hold her, but young Sally slips between them and the three move together ("Too Many Mornings"). [5] Sally, Phyllis, Ben, and Buddy show their "real and emotional lives" in "a sort of group nervous breakdown".[6]. The two younger couples sing in a counterpoint of their hopes for the future ("You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through"). Story of Lucy and Jessie (Lucy being Phyllis and Jessie being The cast included Anne Rogers, Jo Anne Worley and Philip Bosco. This production has taken on the glint of crystalline sharpness. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Ben confides to Sally that his life is empty. [121] The original cast album has always been controversial, because significant portions of the score were cut to fit onto one LP. "Review: Musical Theatre 1998 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival". In the foreword to "Everything Was Possible", Frank Rich wrote: "From the start, critics have been divided about Follies, passionately pro or con but rarely on the fence Is it really a great musical, or merely the greatest of all cult musicals?" [19][81] The production played to 95% capacity. Not only has it already outsold every other album at our website, but the steady stream of emails from customers has been amazing. It's so hard to put into words. kiss me, " Sally tells him, I think I'm going to die.". And as you keep learning and growing and studying your range, you know, grows and grows. The cast starred Donna Murphy (Phyllis), Victoria Clark (Sally), Victor Garber (Ben) and Michael McGrath (Buddy). Solange proves she is still fashionable at what she claims is 66 ("Ah, Paris! The Who. Sally is awed by Ben's apparently glamorous life, but Ben wonders if he made the right choices and considers how things might have been ("The Road You Didn't Take"). Phyllis Newman and Liliane Montevecchi reprised the roles they played in the Lincoln Center production. [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. According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter, "almost every performance of the show played to a full house, more often than not to standing-room-only. Buddy and Ben, the theatre seems haunted by their younger selves, These plans also did not work out,[3] and finally Harold Prince, who had worked previously with Sondheim, became the producer and director. The score offers a pastiche of 1920s and 1930s musical styles, evoking a nostalgic tone. [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. Phyllis interrupts this tender moment and has a biting encounter with Sally. YOUNG STELLA - The singer and dancer as she was in 1940. Book by James Goldman. in. 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. THEODORE WHITMAN - Emily's husband. 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. New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville He forget his lines, the tune, the dance steps and finally, in 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. Sondheim, too, has added and removed songs that he judged to be problematic in various productions.
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