"Follies in Concert" Comments

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:16pm

I LOVE "Follies" and one of my favorite songs is "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs".

However, in the recording Lee Remick, who is a good Phyllis, sings her opening line "Waiting around for the boys below, stalling as long as we DARE", do you just hate how she is flat on DARE??????
Everytime I listen to it, I think it will be different.

Also, don't you wish that Sondheim had given a "no go" to the solo version of "Buddy's Blues"?

And (on a side note) I had a "Follies" Dream last night and Jane Fonda was Phyllis.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:42pm

For me Barbara Cook singing "In Buddy's Eyes" and "Losing my mind" more than make up for the Patinkin's manic Buddy and Remick's less than perfect singing.

My wish is that they had issued the concert recording dialogue and all.

[lildogs]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:46pm

I kinda like the solo Buddy's Blues--makes alot of sense and is a challenge for the actor.

Hey, he didn't pick Lee cause she can SANG. For me, it was more of the way she pronounces DARE. Like "day-er"

Phyllis Newman does it for me...

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:49pm

Can't forget to mention how much I love George Hearn.

[zooxanthellae]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:50pm

I really like the solo Buddy, personally.

I love Follies in concert, but I love the NJ cast recording the most, mostly because of its completeness.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:54pm

I'm partly blinded by the fact that I'm not a big Patinkin fan, so I would probably appreciate the solo-Buddy's Blues choice more with another actor.


..ok.. the Stritch singing "Broadway Baby" = PERFECTION

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 4:58pm

It's not my favorite recording, although it was the very first Follies recording I ever bought.

[jv92]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 5:00pm

I can't say I love the Follies in Concert album. I love Remick and Cook, but Patinkin is too young for Buddy, though I like his Buddy's Blues. George Hearn is just too strong of a singer for Ben. Stritch is great, but she takes the tempo of her song too damned slow.
But why carp? It's more complete than the OBCR.

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 5:00pm

Same here, Phyl!

At the end of the day.. I have to go with OBC cast recording. I know it is flawed.. but who else can touch Dorothy Collins and Alexis Smith?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 5:46pm

No one.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 5:54pm

I wasn't thrilled with Carol Burnett's "I'm Still Here". It bugs me that she tried to do a comic bit with:

I've been through Herbert and J. Edgar Hoo-WOO-ver

[morosco]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 6:35pm

wasn't thrilled with Carol Burnett's "I'm Still Here". It bugs me that she tried to do a comic bit with:

She always tends to be broad where a broad shouldn't be broad.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 7:31pm

Thanks for all the replies!!!!!!
Here are some thoughts:
lildogs- I never thought of looking at "Buddy's Blues" that way. I kinda like that was of thinking!

Gothampc- I've also not been fond of the way Burnett sing Hoover! I also hate the way she sings "....vamp, then someone's mother, then you're KEAMP". I HATE IT!!!!!!

[BkCollector]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 7:32pm

One star turn after another, it's kind of bland. Its my least favorite.

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 7:33pm

I hate how they truncated the Overture.

[MisterRussell]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 7:36pm

I got to play Buddy in the Concert Version a few years back. That solo "Buddy's Blues" is a bitch. Luckily, the rental score gives you the option to add the two women back in.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 8:48pm

Mandy Patinkin's "Buddy's Blues" is just a vanity project, so misconceived and over the top. The best renditions of that song that I've listened to are by Gene Nelson and Larry Blyden who performed the song at a Sondheim concert accompanied by none other than Chita Rivera and Donna McKechnie. Michael McGrath was wonderful though, and his ladies were really funny actually.
Cook's Sally is beautifully sung and I of course love Stritch singing "Broadway Baby." I also really like the young ones (Liz Callaway, Daisy Prince, Jim Walton, and Howard McGillin--who I hope to see as Ben one day).
It does feature my favorite legally recorded version of "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" simply because of the way it ends with the "Lucy's a lassie" verse sung at a quicker tempo. Apparently this is the way Murphy wanted to sing it at Encores! but Sondheim would not allow it.
Patinkin said that Lee Remick couldn't sing and perhaps he is somewhat right, but I think she works as Phyllis.

Updated On: 4/27/08 at 08:48 PM

[nmartin]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 8:56pm

Barbara Cook makes that concert.
Did not like Patinkin or Burnett.

[madbrian]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 9:38pm

It's on of my favorite DVDs, flaws and all. Gems like Comden & Green doing Rain on the Roof. Stritch still manages to steal the show from such a star studded cast. Phyllis Newman is great on Who's That Woman (the mirror song).

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 9:40pm

I was actually at one of the performances. It was a totally electrifying evening for me.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 9:45pm

Ray- I know you know this, but its not "Michael McGillin," but Howard McGillin :)

I really don't like this concert. While Comden and Green, Stritch, Newman, and the young couples are thrilling, the rest of the performers don't do it for me. Cook is the only lead that I can listen to.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 9:46pm

Oops, gotta edit! Thanks for noticing that, jewishboy.

[BNN]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 10:11pm

I think I have logged more play on Rain on the Roof than any other track from that CD, if that means anything.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 10:18pm

I saw it twice, and each time made me sadder. The cast was star-studded, as a Follies cast should be, and for the most part good. But there was no excitement there.

And that's when I realized I would never have the experience I had at the Winter Garden because the key ingredient of the magic of the original production was gone: Michael Bennett.

We still have Sondheim's score, which is nonpareil, and Goldman's book, for better or for worse. Maybe someday we'll have costumes and sets as sumptuous as those of Florence Klotz and Boris Aronson.

But it was the genius of Michael Bennett, moreso than Hal Prince, that is lost and never be recaptured, recreated or bettered.

The staging, the endless series of gasp-inducing coups de theatre--these are things only Michael Bennett could come up with.

I go back every time it's revived, but it can only what it is. It will never be what it was.

And that's what Follies is all about, isn't it? That's what it's really about.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/27/08 at 10:34pm

I posted a piece of the original cast. Go now, before it's deleted.

The moment at 3:49 when the ghosts are revealed is the magic of Michael Bennett--and then at 5:04 when the ghosts break through! That's an orgasmic coup de theatre.

At 5:35, the audience starts to spontaneously applaud--from the sheer magic.

Who's That Woman

Updated On: 4/27/08 at 10:34 PM