Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#2re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:12pmInteresting how she takes the tempo faster than on the recording.
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#2re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:14pmSondheim let her do what she wanted in performance, but wanted it performed to tempo for the recording.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#3re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:15pm
Thanks, Smaxie! Interesting.
Wow I always wanted to see footage of this production.
#4re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:19pmAlso interesting how Donna takes the higher ending note of LOSING MY MIND like Julia McKenzie did. It doesn't sound good with Donna, I wonder if Sondheim made her take the original note for the recording.
#5re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:25pmNot sure I enjoy her delivery of the dialogue before the song, but hers is one of my favorite renditions of the number. And those legs! Excellent performance. Interesting staging. I take it that was Sally she was talking to and not Roscoe as in the original book.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#6re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:30pmShe's talking to Phyllis Newman's Stella.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#7re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:37pmShe was the last of the people the show could actually have been about.
#8re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/30/08 at 11:40pm
Ahhh, Smaxie. Thanks for clearing that up.
Donna McKechnie wrote in her autobiography that Ann Miller was just devastated when the show did not transfer to Broadway as she thought this would be the best way to retire from the Broadway stage.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#9re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 12:40amThat is my account! I'm so honored you all are enjoying the videos, I am slowly but surely uploading most of the numbers from the show.
Tick Tock
#10re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 4:03pm
Can you PLEASE upload "Too Many Mornings" next. 
Thanks.
#11re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 5:21pmCan you also upload the Prologue please? Thanks.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#12re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 5:27pm
Thanks, BNN for posting those from the Papermill production.
To this day, that is one of my favorite videos to watch as the staging of the entire production is simply outstanding. The sequence when the butterfly Follies girl levitates during the Overture and lifting the curtain that begins the opening scene STILL gives me chills.
I once posted the "Who's That Woman" video on there ages ago. Once THAT account was terminated, I never reposted it.
Jerry Mitchell virtually recreated Michael Bennett's original staging and choreography, with the help of Bob Avian. Due to that... this production was the closest to the original 1971 Broadway production we would ever get to see.
Musical Director
Understudy Joined: 10/5/05
#13re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 5:39pmI was the Musical Director along with Tom Helm on that Paper Mill production and it was one of the high points of my career. What an experience!
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#14re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 6:03pmThis is one show that screams to be on video.I have no idea if the whole thing was taped or not.
Poster Emeritus
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#15re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 7:00pm
That pretty decent bootleg video of the Papermill Playhouse production is the only visual document of that production.
I'll say it again... bless the person who took it upon himself to film it.
BNN
Broadway Star Joined: 12/12/05
#16re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 7:00pmIt was taped, but cuts off right after Live, Laugh, Love into the curtain call where the cameraman gets onstage, I'm assuming it was an archival copy.
Tick Tock
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#17re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 7:18pmAny info on where to obtain same? I have to ask even though I know no way will I get it.
Poster Emeritus
#18re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 9:16pm
Love it. Thanks for the post. Ann Miller was not one of my favorites (I saw her in a DREADFUL summer stock production of Can-Can years ago. Yeah, that's right. I said Can-Can.) Anyway, this redeems her in my estimation.
Off the topic slightly, I also loved the Grey Gardens clips. Ya gotta love Hominy Grits.
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#19re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 10/31/08 at 11:31pmI saw the Paper Mill production -- and Miller stole the show from everyone, hands down. There was a ROAR after I'm Still Here that stopped the show for several minutes. It simply was HER number, HER life that was spewing off that stage. Unforgettable!!!!!
BroadwayEd
#20re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 11/1/08 at 2:52am
There's an interesting account of this production in the coffee table book on the Paper Mill Playhouse.
Though this reminds me of when the CD came out. I was unemployed and broke at the time and a friend recorded it on cassette for me. As it was too long for one 90 minute cassette, he recorded the CD that I gave him for Christmas, Judy Holiday's "Trouble Is A Man", to fill up the second cassette. I fell in love with the Judy Holiday album and, while I appreciated the completeness of the "Follies", I felt that it was lacking the "oomph" to make it the definitive recording of it.
Well, I lent the tapes to my sister, who instilled in me my love of musicals. I expected her to have the same response to the Judy Holiday album as I did. When she returned them to me, I asked what she thought of them and her response was that she had tears rolling down her cheeks at Ann Miller singing "I'm Still Here".
I can see why.
"A coherent existance after so many years of muddle" - Desiree' Armfelt, A Little Night Music
"Life keeps happening everyday, Say Yes" - 70, Girls, 70
"Life is what you do while you're waiting to die" - Zorba
#21re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 11/1/08 at 3:30amMusical Director, I am curious; Did Donna always take the higher ending note of LOSING MY MIND throughout the run? And did Sondheim make her use the original note for the recording? The higher note just doesn't work for her like it did for Julia McKenzie. But regardless, Donna's Losing My Mind is absolutely stunning!
#22re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 11/1/08 at 4:53am
"That pretty decent bootleg video of the Papermill Playhouse production is the only visual document of that production."
There's an archival video as well, though in some ways the boot is better as whoever shot the archival video didn't always know when to close in for tighter shots and when to focus where.
"I take it that was Sally she was talking to and not Roscoe as in the original book."
In the original book, she's talking to a group of "admiring gentlemen." And that's the way it was staged.
Updated On: 11/1/08 at 04:53 AM
Smaxie
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/26/05
#23re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 11/1/08 at 9:39amDonna sang the high note at the end of "Losing My Mind" onstage throughout the run. I wouldn't necessarily judge how she fared with it by watching the YouTube clip. When you could see her face, it worked.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#24re: Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here
Posted: 11/1/08 at 9:51am
You're definitely correct -- the boot is in many ways a helluva lot better than this archive video.
Yes, the archive has nice close shots for the dialogue scenes but ruins the entire composition with the musical numbers.
I just watched the archive of "Who's that Woman" and its horrible -- yes, you see the 'stars' doing their bits but you see NOTHING of the entire stage and the choreography -- the 'ghosts' and women dancing and the whole 'mirror' effect, etc. The boot is a full stage shot for the entire number (wise of the cameraman) so you see the entire staging of HOW the number is supposed to look the entire time, which gives you chills -- especially when you see the 'ghosts' dancing upstage on their own stage and the older women emulating the 'ghosts' dance, upstage. All this is missed in the archive video.
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