Lastly Ben takes the stage Follies set, a fabulous wedding cake reaching for the stars, an And I usually do things that are different and a challenge and interesting to me to approach. 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. And when I read it, I thought this is just so heartbreaking, really. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. Sally appears next, dressed as a torch singer, singing of her passion for Ben from the past - and her obsession with him now ("Losing My Mind"). Tickets always were tough to come by. Janie Dee and Peter Forbes returned as Phyllis and Buddy, while Joanna Riding and Alexander Hanson replaced Staunton and Quast as Sally and Ben. Suddenly, at the peak of madness and confusion, the couples are engulfed by their follies, which transform the rundown theater into a fantastical "Loveland", an extravaganza even more grand and opulent than the gaudiest Weismann confection: "the place where lovers are always young and beautiful, and everyone lives only for love". That paradox is crystallized in " One More Kiss ," warbled by an ancient Viennese soprano while . Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. The majority of the Broadway cast reprised their roles, with the exception of Bernadette Peters, who had prior concert commitments and was replaced by Victoria Clark in the role of Sally, a role she has previously played in New York. She made her Broadway debut in 1967 in "How Now, Dow Jones" and went on to play roles in "Promises, Promises" and "Applause." 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. out his wife's name and we return sharply to reality. The evening follows a reunion of the Weismann Girls who performed during the interwar period. Follies premiered on Broadway on April 4, 1971, at the Winter Garden Theatre. And as years went on and I got out of that bad habit, my real voice revealed itself. OTHER GUESTS and PERFORMERS, STAGE MANAGER, The cast featured Diana Rigg (Phyllis), Daniel Massey (Ben), Julia McKenzie (Sally), David Healy (Buddy), Lynda Baron, Leonard Sachs, Maria Charles, Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson. Dolores Gray was praised as Carlotta, continuing to perform after breaking her ankle, although in a reduced version of the part. These plans also did not work out,[3] and finally Harold Prince, who had worked previously with Sondheim, became the producer and director. 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. [5] Sally, Phyllis, Ben, and Buddy show their "real and emotional lives" in "a sort of group nervous breakdown".[6]. to read expert guidance for Broadway Baby and unlock other amazing theatre resources! SALLY DURANT PLUMMER - Buddy's well-to-do wife, still gushy and girlish YOUNG HEIDI - The celebrated soprano in her heyday. [50][51], A production also ran from March to April 1995 at the Theatre Under the Stars, Houston, Texas, and in April to May 1995 at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle with Constance Towers (Phyllis), Judy Kaye (Sally), Edie Adams, Denise Darcel, Virginia Mayo, Maxene Andrews (Hattie), and Karen Morrow (Carlotta). Kiss Me, Kate! Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. 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. days waiting around for the girls upstairs, but they're still here. Follies Original West End Musical Cast 1987 | West End World Stephen Sondheim attended one of the performances. ; and Hattie proclaims again that she's, I thought I wasn't a Sondheim girl. 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. DIMITRI WEISMANN - An impresario who flourished between the wars and [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). Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists, See more songs from Read is the book writer, writing a new ending to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, alongside a score comprising the pop music of Grammy . [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. 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"). he is at everything - but his song gradually starts to go wrong. YOUNG BEN - Ben thirty years earlier, in 1940, when he was dating [92], The 2011 Broadway and Kennedy Center production transferred to the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, California, in a limited engagement, from May 3, 2012, through June 9. Follies Stage production February 20, 1971 Comments Sung by character "Hattie Walker" . Not to say the show's not fun, the show has got lots of fun moments and it's haunting and it's gorgeous, because they've come back to this old theater and you notice ghostly, walking really slow, gorgeous showgirls. explains: "Today, Follies is rarely performed twice in exactly the same version. Seeing Sally again, Ben realises Follies review - Sondheim's showbiz stunner returns in breathtaking New York, NY, Escape To Margaritaville So, you grow up listening to your mother. [57], A concert was held at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, on December 8, 1996, and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on February 15, 1997. 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. SIMON: All the featured roles you've played on Broadway, including several obviously noteworthy Sondheim roles, I mean: "Annie Oakley," Mama Rose in "Gypsy," Witch in "Into the Woods," where does Sally Durant Plummer fit in? The net result was four new songs For reasons which I've forgotten, I rewrote "Loveland" for the London production. The cast starred Julia McKenzie (Sally), Donna McKechnie (Phyllis), Denis Quilley (Ben) and Ron Moody (Buddy). In this it reflects the age of Heidi Schiller, one of the more senior of the Follies girls. Follies girls through "the mirror number" Ms. PETERS: He does that with notes and music. despite the routine of married life. When they sing, in voices layered with ambivalence and anger and longing, it is clear that it is their past selves whom they are serenading. Julia McKenzie returned to the production for the final four performances. [33] However, director Herbert Ross took some liberties in adapting the book and score for the concert formatdance music was changed, songs were given false endings, the new dialogue was spoken, reprises were added, and Patinkin was allowed to sing "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues" as a solo instead of a trio with two chorus girls. [99] The production was directed by Tyran Parke and produced by StoreyBoard Entertainment. Rosemary Clooney says her present show at Rainbow & Stars will be her last. of the derelict theatre Loveland rises - the apotheosis of a Weismann Most songs were therefore heavily abridged and several were left entirely unrecorded. Bernadette Peters, who's stopped more shows on Broadway than the stagehands union, joins us in our studios. Variations are discussed in Versions. During one night of romance and regret, two crumbling thirty-year-long marriages are put to the test. a 23-year old called Margie. Follies (New Broadway Cast Recording) - Apple Music Broadway Baby, Learning how to sing and dance, Waiting for that one big chance To be in a show.Oh.Gee.' I'd like to be On some marquee, All twinkling lights, The Who. [19][81] The production played to 95% capacity. Book by James Goldman. Christine Baranski played Carlotta, and Lucine Amara sang Heidi. [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]. At its very start, ghosts of Follies showgirls stalk the stage, mythic giants in winged, feathered, black and white opulence. [48], Follies was voted ninth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals". Sally and her younger self enter and Ben firmly tells Sally that he never loved her. Gene Nelson (Buddy). The production was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on November 16 through the National Theatre Live program. ); and Carlotta Campion, a film star who has embraced life and benefited from every experience. Note: This is the song list from the original Broadway production in 1971. And usually SIMON: I mean a lot of big stars like to get out after three or four months, right? 'Follies'. BENJAMIN STONE - A big man on Wall Street, with a chic Manhattan wife, This English-language production, using the full original orchestration, was directed by Olivier Bnzech and conducted by David Charles Abell. Ben, goaded, starts to argue with Phyllis, [19] However, the August 23, 2011 Broadway preview performance was performed without an intermission. Whose Baby? - Wikipedia At the height of the confrontation the orchestra suddenly swells "Follies' Restaged In London". descend the famous Follies staircase one last time. Jayne Houdyshell as Hattie, Mary Beth Peil as Solange LaFitte, and Don Correia as Theodore joined the Broadway cast. Several of the former showgirls perform their old numbers, often accompanied by the ghosts of their younger selves. Having exorcised the ghosts of their pasts the two couples depart [75][76] Donna McKechnie enjoyed top billing as Carlotta. "Liner notes to original Broadway cast recording". Bennett also reprised her Olivier-nominated performance. Buddy tells her she must be either crazy or drunk, but he's already supported Sally through rehab clinics and mental hospitals and cannot take any more. Upgrade to PRO The reunion, if it reunifies one couple, destroys another. Sondheim, Stephen and Goldman, James (2001). "[17], "Loveland", the final musical sequence, (that "consumed the last half-hour of the original" production[18]) is akin to an imaginary 1941 Ziegfeld Follies sequence, with Sally, Phyllis, Ben and Buddy performing "like comics and torch singers from a Broadway of yore. Only Carlotta seems In 1971, on the soon-to-be-demolished stage of the Weismann Theatre, a reunion is being held to honor the Weismann's Follies shows past and the beautiful chorus girls who performed there every year between the two world wars. The concert starred Barbara Cook (Sally), George Hearn (Ben), Mandy Patinkin (Buddy), and Lee Remick (Phyllis), and featured Carol Burnett (Carlotta), Betty Comden (Emily), Adolph Green (Theodore), Liliane Montevecchi (Solange LaFitte), Elaine Stritch (Hattie Walker), Phyllis Newman (Stella Deems), Jim Walton (Young Buddy), Howard McGillin (Young Ben), Liz Callaway (Young Sally), Daisy Prince (Young Phyllis), Andre Gregory (Dmitri), Arthur Rubin (Roscoe), and Licia Albanese (Heidi Schiller). The MOT production starred Nancy Dussault (Sally), John-Charles Kelly (Buddy), Juliet Prowse (Phyllis) and Ron Raines (Ben), Edie Adams (Carlotta), Thelma Lee (Hattie), and Dennis Grimaldi (Vincent). ", and "Losing My Mind". seems to be seeping into the present. Stephen Sondheim. It depends on how you like to work. 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. follies. "[45] In The New York Times, the critic Francis X. Clines wrote: "The initial critics' reviews ranged from unqualified raves to some doubts whether the reworked book of James Goldman is up to the inventiveness of Sondheim's songs. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies ). You know, I'll do it for, like, at least a year and then beyond that. EMILY WHITMAN - The female half of a cheerful song and dance team. HEIDI SCHILLER - A 90-year old Broadway legend, whose ringing soprano inspired the operetta kings to produce their lushest waltzes. The coffee cup, I think about you. The once resplendent theater is now little but planks and scaffolding ("Prologue"/"Overture"). After the failure of Do I Hear a Waltz? "Could I Leave You?" - Phyllis. [53] "Ah, but Underneath" was substituted for "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" in order to accommodate non-dancer Hoty. Group Sales Associate at Broadway at The National Buddy in Arizona - cooking, flower-arranging, trips to the mall, Ms. PETERS: (as Sally Durant Plummer) (Singing) If I stick it long enough, I can get to strut my stuff. Hal Prince said: "Follies examines obsessive behavior, neurosis and self-indulgence more microscopically than anything I know of. Sondheim, too, has added and removed songs that he judged to be problematic in various productions. Osborne, Robert. He creates what's necessary for the piece. [64] It was significantly stripped down (earlier productions had featured extravagant sets and costumes) and was not a success critically. overwhelming optimism, where skies are ever blue. (It did get recorded but didn't make its way onto the album until the CD reissue years later. Broadway impresario Dimitri Weismann arranges a reunion of the actors, singers, dancers, and personalities who peopled his famous Follies in the years between the World Wars . "[19] "Loveland" features a string of vaudeville-style numbers, reflecting the leading characters' emotional problems, before returning to the theater for the end of the reunion party. [56], The Dublin Concert was held in May 1996 at the National Concert Hall. Were Still Here! : Directed by Rebecca Frayn. Ben replies by saying that he wants a divorce, and Phyllis assumes the request is due to his love for Sally. And even when I saw it, I think it was about 2000 there was a revival, maybe 2001. between Buddy and his pal, Ben. YOUNG HEIDI - The celebrated soprano in her heyday. [127] Tony Award-winning playwright and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter John Logan has expressed interest in writing the adaptation. Do again. PHYLLIS ROGERS STONE - Ben's 50-year old society wife, smart, tart, vicious 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?" "[120], There have been six recordings of Follies released: the original 1971 Broadway cast album; Follies in Concert, Avery Fisher Hall (1985); the original London production (1987); the Paper Mill Playhouse (1998); the 2011 Broadway revival; and the 2017 London revival. without his sneered jokes, his loveless love-making, his dreary Phyllis and Sally were roommates while in the Follies, and Ben and Buddy were best friends at school in New York. the old days, stumble through a song or two and lie about ourselves" -before '"[46] The Times critic Irving Wardle stated "It is not much of a story, and whatever possibilities it may have had in theory are scuppered by James Goldman's book a blend of lifeless small-talk, bitching and dreadful gags". Kelli Rabke sings "Broadway Baby" from Follies at 54 Below 54 Below 25K subscribers Subscribe 0 Share No views 1 minute ago #SondheimUnplugged #54below We're Still Here! The principal cast included Kim Crosby (Sally), Leslie Denniston (Phyllis), Jeff McCarthy (Ben), Lara Teeter (Buddy), Joy Franz (Solange), Marni Nixon (Heidi), and Donna McKechnie (Carlotta). All rights reserved. Clines, Francis X. Solange purrs her way through the fake Gallic sophistication Against this volatile atmosphere of drunken remembrances, a decades-old love quadrangle receives a revival when Follies dancers Sally and Phyllis, and their respective husbands, Buddy and Ben -- who used to hang around backstage, waiting for their girls -- meet again. [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. Kelli Rabke sings "Broadway Baby" from Follies at 54 Below Ms. PETERS: Oh, definitely, because I was really a kid. is by now wondering Could I Leave You and live without Ben, She's crazy. "[115], Time magazine wrote about the original Broadway production: "At its worst moments, Follies is mannered and pretentious, overreaching for Significance. Angry and hurt, Phyllis considers whether to grant his request ("Could I Leave You?"). Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman . waltzes. [91] Out of seven Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical, it won only one, for Barnes' costumes. The music is so beautiful, classical, involved, intricate. I'm Scott Simon. "[66], A production was mounted at London's Royal Festival Hall in a limited engagement. [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.