"Story of Lucy and Jesse" or "Ah! But Underneath?"

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 6:07pm

Listening to the Papermill recording of FOLLIES, which remains my favorite excpet for Dee Hoty's Phyllis, I was again struck by the way Sondheim in effect kept rewriting the same song. He began with "Uptown, Downtown," replaced it with "Story of Lucy and Jesse," and ended up with the optional "Ah! But Underneath."

I know, they all have wildly different imagery. But they all employ the same musical vamp, and are structured around a contradictary duality in human nature--two sides of the same character expressed through urban geography/socio-economic differences, a young woman/older woman, or clothed/stripped. I always prefer "Lucy..." but find this particular replaced number unique,because tonally they 3 songs remain so similar. I can't think of another show where the same musical moment kept changing, while generally ending up a new song with almost identical values.

(Sorry for the Glebb-ian comparison come-on... Consider its homage to Glebb, at whose feet I sit in admiration.)

Updated On: 11/14/04 at 06:07 PM

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 6:18pm

I like all three songs. As you probably know, the reason for their existence is due to the performers they were originally given to. Alexis Smith couldn't handle the "Uptown" vocal, and Sondheim wrote "Lucy and Jesse" for her, so she could showcase her dancing skills. Diana Rigg couldn't dance, so he wrote "Ah, But Underneath" for her. (Why he didn't just make her sing "Uptown" remains a mystery).

Personally, "Uptown, Downtown" is my favorite of the three. I love that bluesy vamp, and the lyric "hyphenated Harriet, the neuvo from New Rochelle" is one of my favorite Sondheim lyrics.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 6:26pm

My preference is "Lucy."

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 6:26pm

I like all three, and Dee sings each very well. I think Ah, But Underneath is probably my favorite. All of them do sound similar, and have brilliant rhymes. In the Follies at Papermill CD booklet, they say Uptown/Downtown was cut because when Michael Bennet joined, he to start fresh. Uptown/Downtown and Bring on the Girls had been written, and were scrapped.

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 6:34pm

Yes, the cutting of "Uptown, Downtown" did apparently have a lot to do with Michael Bennett. He made that choice, according to all printed evidence. But the choice was made because Alexis Smith just didn't have the vocal chops to handle it, and Bennett, of course, wanted a more up-tempo number that he could choreograph. The end result was wildly successful, as Smith received huge accolades for that number. I wish I could have seen it.

[Glebb]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 7:03pm

Hi Auggie27!
Thanks for the kind homage. (I love that word!)
You made me think of a Shirley MacLaine line from TERMS OF ENDEARMENT - "Don't worship me until I've earned it." :)

Though I used to have a video of Lee Remick in the concert version of FOLLIES and have seen Dianna Rigg and Blythe Danner as Phyllis, I've never heard of "Uptown, Downtown". I'll have to look for it.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 7:10pm

Thanks for all these thoughtful appraisals. I saw the original (at 19), and remember Lucy and Jesse as the single showstopper of the "Follies" section. (Collins didn't bring down thehouse with "Losing My Mind," as some think.). But if my memory serves, Alexis wasn't exactly a dancer. She had great legs --revealed only in this number -- and rhythm, but the choreography was all about her ascending stairs, and arm movements--lots of aerobics-styled arm extensions over her head. The chorus did most of "dancing." But Bennett was a master, and if I recall, he restaged the number after the show had been running a while, or before it headed to LA. When it was restored for the dreary Roundabout revival, I assumed that meant Sondheim wasn't satisfied with "Ah, But Underneath." Blythe Danner did a decent job with it, but the staging never dame close to serving the production the way the Bennett/Smith collaboration took the roof off.

[magruder]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 7:57pm

Bennett did stage "Uptown, Downtown" with the chorus facing upstage a lot of the time. But I think it's in Sondheim & Co. where Bennett worried that the number would look like it was about backs, and he asked for another number.

Of the three songs, I'd have to say "Lucy and Jessie" is my favorite, but I think "Ah, But Underneath" may be the most effective in the context of the show.

Pretend you are new to Follies and seeing it and hearing it for the first time. Those lyrics in "Lucy and Jessie" go flying by, then there is about five minutes of dance music and then, the number ends. Could you process all of what the song is saying about Phyllis?

I think "Ah, But Underneath" may have the more direct approach, and is possibly better toward illustrating the character's point of view about herself. The number at Paper Mill was staged in the style of a Jack Cole routine, with Phyllis doing an elaborate strip tease, until she disappears on "There's nothing underneath at all". That, to me, says more about Phyllis than all of the (very wonderful) hot-cha dancing in "Lucy and Jessie".

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 8:56pm

Yes, Magruder. Wonderful new insights. Lucy and Jesse requires multiple hearings to appreciate (unlike, say "Getting Married Today," which works *because* we only hear every 3rd word...) Uptown is perhaps the better crafted in terms of context. Great to learn all this.