Follies

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This article is about the musical. For the architectural term, see Folly.

Original Broadway poster
Follies

Music	Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics	Stephen Sondheim
Book	James Goldman
Productions	Broadway 1971, 2001 Lincoln Center 1985, 2007 London 1987, 2002

Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman.

1 Background and story
2 Productions
3 Song list
4 References and Footnotes
5 External links

[edit] Background and story

Originally entitled The Girls Upstairs, Follies is set in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, during a reunion for all the past members of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies) which played in that theatre between the World Wars. The musical focuses on two couples, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Ben and Phyllis Rogers Stone, who are attending the reunion. Sally and Phyllis were both showgirls in the Follies as were many of the other guests. Both marriages are having problems because Buddy, a traveling salesman, is having an affair with a girl on the road, Sally is still in love with Ben as she was years ago, and Ben is so self-absorbed that Phyllis feels emotionally abandoned.

The two couples interact with each other and other partygoers, and throughout the first half, musical numbers from the old Follies are performed by the characters, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of their former selves. These songs are pastiches of songs by popular songwriters of the past. ^[1] The last section of the show features a string of vaudeville-style numbers reflecting the leading characters' emotional troubles before returning to the theatre for the end of the reunion party.

[edit] Productions

[edit] 1971 Broadway premiere

Follies opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. It starred Alexis Smith, John McMartin, Dorothy Collins, Gene Nelson, and Yvonne De Carlo, along with several veterans of the Broadway and vaudeville stage. Even though the production ran for well over a year (522 performances), it was not considered a success, and lost money. This was due partly to the extravagant set by Boris Aronson and costumes by Florence Klotz, and partly to the rather bleak nature of the show itself, particularly Goldman's book. Frank Rich, for many years The New York Times's chief drama critic, wrote on the occasion of the 1985 concert performance that audiences at the original production were baffled and restless. [1] Goldman subsequently revised his work right up to his death, which occurred shortly before the 1998 Paper Mill production. Sondheim too has added and removed songs that he judged to be problematic in various productions.

The plum supporting role of Carlotta Campion, the world-weary ex-Follies girl who sings the showstopping "I'm Still Here," was created by Yvonne De Carlo in 1971, but has subsequently been given often to a once-celebrated performer making a final return to the stage.

For commercial reasons, the cast album was cut from two LPs to one early in production. Most songs were therefore heavily abridged and several were left entirely unrecorded. ("One More Kiss" was omitted from the final release for time reasons, but was restored for CD release.)

[edit] 1985 Concert

The 1985 concert at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, featured Carol Burnett in the role of Carlotta. A stellar cast was assembled for the other roles: Barbara Cook, George Hearn, Mandy Patinkin, Lee Remick, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Liliane Montevecchi, Elaine Stritch, Phyllis Newman and Licia Albanese.

Among the reasons the concert was staged was to provide an opportunity to record the entire score. The resulting album was much more complete than the original cast album. However, director Herbert Ross took many liberties in adapting the book and score for the concert format--dance music was changed, songs were given false endings, 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.

[edit] 1987 London production

The London production purple poster

Dolores Gray played Carlotta in the 1987 London production at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The production by Cameron Mackintosh was directed by Mike Ockrent and featured Diana Rigg, Daniel Massey, Julia McKenzie, Lynda Baron, Leonard Sachs, Maria Charles, Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson. During the run, Eartha Kitt replaced Gray as Carlotta. Goldman wrote a completely new book for the production, and Sondheim wrote four new songs: "Country House" (replacing "The Road You Didn't Take"), "Loveland" (replacing the song of the same title), "Ah, But Underneath" (replacing "The Story of Lucy and Jessie", for the non-dancer Diana Rigg), and "Make the Most of Your Music" (replacing "Live, Laugh, Love"). The production was, in the opinion of critics who saw it in New York (such as Frank Rich), substantially more "upbeat" and lacking in the atmosphere it had originally possessed. This production was also recorded on two CDs. Follies was voted ninth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals." [2]

[edit] 1995 revival

This production ran at the Theatre Under the Stars, Houston, Texas and later at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Seattle with Virginia Mayo, Denise Darcel, Edie Adams, Constance Towers and Karen Morrow in the cast.

[edit] 1996 Dublin production

The 1996 Dublin Production starred Lorna Luft, Millicent Martin, Mary Millar and Enda Markey.

[edit] 1998 revival

The 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse revival in Millburn, New Jersey featured the legendary MGM star Ann Miller in the role of Carlotta. Also in the cast were Donna McKechnie, Kaye Ballard, Eddie Bracken, and Laurence Guittard; Newman and Montevecchi reprised the roles they played in the Lincoln Center production. "Ah, But Underneath" was substituted for "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" in order to accommodate non-dancer Dee Hoty in the role of Phyllis. This production received a full-length recording on two CDs, including not only the entire score as originally written, but a lengthy appendix of songs cut from the original production in tryouts.

[edit] 2001 Broadway revival

Shortly thereafter another former MGM star, Betty Garrett, played the role of Hattie in the short-lived 2001 Broadway revival at the Belasco Theatre, which also starred Blythe Danner, Judith Ivey, Treat Williams, Marge Champion, Gregory Harrison, Polly Bergen, Joan Roberts (later replaced by Marni Nixon), Larry Raiken, and an assortment of famous names from the past. It was significantly stripped down (previous productions, especially the original, were most notable for their extravagant sets and costumes) and was not a success critically or financially.

[edit] 2002 London Revival

London's Royal Festival Hall mounted a full production in August 2002, with Paul Kerryson from the Leicester Haymarket directing. The cast starred David Durham as Ben, Kathryn Evans as Sally, Louise Gold as Phyllis, and, Henry Goodman as Buddy. With Louise Gold being Arts Ed trained they were able to include Lucy And Jessie.

[edit] 2007 Encores!® semi-staged Concert

New York City Center's Encores!® Great American Musicals in Concert series featured Follies as its 40th production. The cast starred Donna Murphy, Victoria Clark, and Victor Garber. Christine Baranski played Carlotta, and Lucine Amara sang Heidi. The cast also included Michael McGrath, JoAnne Worley, and Philip Bosco. The director and choreographer was Casey Nicolaw, the music director Eric Stern. One objective of the Encores! series is to use the full original instrumentation intended by the composer. Stephen Sondheim spoke from the stage at the post-matinee audience "talkback" session.

[edit] Song list

The original Broadway production of Follies was performed in one act; however, many later productions added intermissions.

Beautiful Girls - Roscoe and Company
Don't Look at Me - Sally and Ben
Waiting for the Girls Upstairs - Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy, with Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy
Rain on the Roof - Emily and Theodore
Ah, Paris! - Solange
Broadway Baby - Hattie
The Road You Didn't Take - Ben
Bolero d'Amour - Danced by Vincent and Vanessa; omitted from some productions
In Buddy's Eyes - Sally
Who's That Woman? - Stella and Company
I'm Still Here - Carlotta
Too Many Mornings - Ben and Sally
The Right Girl - Buddy
One More Kiss - Heidi and Young Heidi
Could I Leave You? - Phyllis
Loveland - Company
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow / Love Will See Us Through - Young Ben, Young Sally, Young Phyllis and Young Buddy
Buddy's Blues - Buddy
Losing My Mind - Sally
The Story of Lucy and Jessie - Phyllis; some productions substitute Ah, But Underneath...
Live, Laugh, Love - Ben
Finale - Company; varies by production, often a reprise of Beautiful Girls

[edit] References and Footnotes

^ For example, Losing My Mind is in the style of a George Gershwin ballad, with a Dorothy Fields lyric, and The Story of Lucy and Jessie is in the style of Cole Porter.

Ted Chapin, (2005). Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies. New York: Applause Books. ISBN 15-5783-653-1.
Stephen Sondheim, James Goldman (2001). Follies (Playwrights Canada Press). New York, N.Y: Theatre Communications Group. ISBN 15-5936-196-4.