FOLLIES performed with no intermission tonight!- Page 2

[HBBrock]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:24am

As it was stated earlier....in movie theatres, the seats are a LOT roomier and more comfortable (and lean back in most stadium seating theatres) amd people can choose exactly where they want to sit for the same price.

It's a different monster completely. I prefer intermissions in theatres.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:29am

"What we need, is a drink."

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:31am

No ice rattling drinks in Act 2! Thank goodness! I hope they keep the change by the time I get to see it!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:31am

If I remember correctly, in the original production of Les Miserables before they started making cuts to shorten the show, the first act alone was close to 2 hours.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:36am

I saw the original Les Miz back in in previews in '87 -- the first act ran over two hours at that point.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:37am

Now an intermissionless Les Mis? That would be painful.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:37am

Ah! This means I'll have to go back a 3rd time!

According to ATC, SS was there last night-- at least, if I'm reading correctly.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:42am

I wonder if the upcoming Chicago production of Follies will be without intermission.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 10:53am

Theater owners and producers like intermissions because they make lots of $$$ selling all that crap in the lobby. Hats off to Max Woodward and the other producers for doing the right thing for the show.

[Paul W. Thompson]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 11:10am

We don't yet know about Chicago's "Follies" (at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, directed by Gary Griffin), but that's a great question!

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 11:38am

Hey, you don't have an intermission at a party do ya!!!

[jv92]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 11:38am

I wonder what the Widow Goldman thinks of all this. According to a reliable source, she has no regard for anyone involved with FOLLIES. But she must have approved, no?

[ljay889]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 11:42am

According to a reliable source, she has no regard for anyone involved with FOLLIES.

For THIS production? Interesting. I know Schaeffer had said that she was involved in DC.

[RainbowJude]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 11:59am

This is fantastic news and I hope it sticks. This is the way FOLLIES was meant to be experienced.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 12:09pm

The original Broadway production of FOLLIES had no intermission.

[WithoutATrace]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 12:19pm

Wow, haven't seen you in a while WISHIHADATONY - welcome back.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 12:48pm

ljay-

Had no idea she was involved with this production. Maybe things have changed.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 12:59pm

I've never been a big Les Miz fan; once was enough for me. But that first act seemed interminable to me when I saw it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:06pm

JV92--you should know by now never to rely on anyone who has to be identified as a "reliable source."

They invariably turn out to be congenital liars and compulsive fabricators.

[Insider2]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:10pm

When spending a lot of money on a Broadway ticket, a lot of people make an event of it and go out to drinks and/or dinner before a show. Two hours and fifteen minutes in a theatre without an intermission therefore has the potential to turn your cramped little seat into a torture chamber if halfway through, some water or wine or cocktails want to make an exit, and you suddenly have to go to the restroom. A movie theatre is a different animal. You can generally get up and go without being disruptive. The seats in a theatre are usually so cramped together that you have to disrupt an entire row and the row behind you) if you have such an issue. So most people I know just sit there and suffer. If I knew this was being done without an intermission, I would not have bought a ticket.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:15pm

PJ, check your PMs. I don't think my reliable source is anything you mention. Interested in hearing what you have to say.

[jdrye222]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:24pm

It works much better without an intermission.

Scottsboro Boys had no intermission --- it ran 1:55... It is another example of a show that would have been completely ruined with an intermission.

I saw FOLLIES last night, and they were making such a big deal about the intermission - the ushers wouldn't shut up about "go to the bathroom now" ....

Jan Maxwell is wonderful, but Warren Carlyle should be fired for making her do that dance number that she is clearly uncomfortable with. She is perfect in every other way, so why make her do pirouettes?

Bernadette is an odd disappointment. I'm a huge fan of hers, but she gets lost. And it is clear that she has not been directed AT ALL - "Losing My Mind" has no arc... Give me Marin Mazzie singing it at the Sondheim concert over this Bernadette poerformance any day.

This production belongs to Danny Burstein. He is just wonderful. Hands down the best thing on that stage.

The other women are so pointless, and I was reminded about how the plot really goes nowhere... And not one person is a likable character. A very odd framing device for a bunch of great songs.

[bk]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:24pm

Pippin was also in the two hour ten minute range and that was fine, too. If that's how the show was designed and if inserting a pointless and, in the case of Follies, harmful intermission point then play it as its creators intended. And yes, people had no problem sitting still for Avatar or any other two hour plus film, and the Marquis is hardly an "uncomfortable" theater.

And if the director and choreographer of this production try real hard, I'll be they can shave off another five minutes just in pacing.

[rayoflight104]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:29pm

I was at the show as well and thought it did ok without the intermission. When we were given the playbills, a guy next to me made the comment that he always gets nervous when those inserts are in the playbill (expecting a lead actress/actor to be out) - but it was just to announce that there was no intermission.
I have to say that the cast is superb. Bernadette singing Losing My Mind brought a tear to my eye. And she was so nice at the stage door. She was taking pics with people who requested and signing playbills. Can't say enough about the show. It was amazing and I wish I could see it again.

I was also told that Sondheim was in the house last night too. I didn't see him with my own eyes but did anyone else who was there see him? He was supposedly in Center Orchestra around L-P rows on the left side.


Updated On: 8/24/11 at 01:29 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/24/11 at 1:33pm

jdrye, the same thing happened at MF With The Hat the first night they took out the intermission. At least 2 ushers told us to go to the bathroom when we walked in as there would be no intermission. I was glad they were telling us.