Ann Miller sings I'm Still Here- Page 2

[Artistic Director]

Posted: 11/1/08 at 6:12pm

Donna always sang the final note of "Losing My Mind" up the octave. Stephen Sondheim allowed it because Donna liked to sing it that way. It did change on the recording. Donna is a fabulous person and in my opinion, she was the best Sally next to Dorothy Collins. The whole experience was a joy from the first rehearsal to the closing day. It is such a shame the show didn't move. The money was all there after the wonderful review from Ben Brantley in The New York Times. But Mrs. James Goldman felt that the Roundabout would do a classier production, and that was the end of that. We all had a beautiful experience. It was a stellar cast, and everyone got along famously....Some great stories, though....maybe one day I will write a book!

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 2:13am

Mrs Goldman didn't find this production classy?

And BNN you should upload some more..

some suggestions:

- Don't Look At Me
- Waiting For The Girls Upstairs
- In Buddy's Eyes
- Loveland

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 10:59am

I second the uploading more. I would love to be able to see the full bootleg, can anyone tell me how I could get it?

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 4:07pm

Thanks to all who've shared the videos and the backstories of this production. Looks like a classy enough production for me. I would have loved to have seen it on Broadway (but I don't think I'll ever be a fan of "Ah, But Underneath").

I'd love to see any more of the bootleg AND hear any more stories anyone has to share.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 4:11pm

The irony of course is that the Roundabout production ended up being the opposite of classy. It was wretched and wrongheaded and regrettable.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 4:14pm

Must agree. The Roundabout production was one of the biggest disappointments of the last 20 years. Almost everything about it but Polly Bergen let the audience down. It looked cheap -- not because it was conceived with minimalism, but because it just looked like it was done for a buck and a quarter. The cast was game, and no one was wrong for the roles. Yet it never came to life, and even the best of the leads, Blythe Danner, just failed to excite. I remember leaving at the end and feeling as if I had not seen FOLLIES.

[BNN]

Posted: 11/2/08 at 4:52pm

Having seen both productions only on video, I am still shocked that the Papermill production didn't transfer over the Roundabout. I don't know how anyone could think the Papermill production was not classy, especially Mrs. Goldman when she would have already seen the Papermill production, which her husband had more of a hand in helping to succeed than the original Follies! I also can't help but think how great it would have been for so many talented performers to be back on Broadway, I can't think of the last time Donna McKechnie, Kaye Ballard, or Ann Miller were on Broadway and I think it would have been, to quote the show, a "final burst of glory" for these talented veterans of the stage.

Granted, I'm probably entirely too young to judge and didn't see these shows live but I actually had a smile on my face for most of Papermill's and actually CARED about these people, they still had their flaws but I felt that by the end they were willing to help and support eachother. Roundabout's left me cold and rather blue, which could be more in tune with the original production, but at least with the original the characters made resolutions to fix whatever problems they had, and I actually believed them!

And who could so no to Ann Miller?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 12:41am

Well, pardon me for saying this, but I do question the truth of the Bobbi Goldman story. What I've heard is that neither Sondheim nor Goldman wanted the Paper Mill production to transfer. But they both (especially Sondheim) knew and had worked with a lot of those people and might be working with some of them again in the future. They didn't want those people to be angry at them. Bobbi Goldman didn't care and said, "Tell them I'm the one who didn't want it to transfer. I blocked it."

I mean, come on, are were supposed to believe that Sondheim and Goldman both wanted it to transfer and there were producers ready to move it but it didn't happen because of Bobbi Goldman? I find that hard to believe.

I quite believe that the people involved in the production believe that's what happened, but I don't buy it for a minute.

Sorry, but I think the Paper Mill production was misguided and misconceived. As was the Roundabout production. In very different ways, the two productions were kind of a wash as far as I was concerned.

Obviously, lots of people here don't share that opinion, and that's OK.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 1:26am

Wow. I have to say. I am IN LOVE with what I have seen from Donna McKechnie's Sally. It seem she is one of the few major Sallys who retained that child-like innocence in the spirit of Dorothy Collins. Love it.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 1:58am

Also. I LOVE the staging of 'The Right Girl.' I wasn't sure how it would be to have Young Buddy do most of the dancing. But I LOVE the interaction. And Tony Robert's rage is amazing.

I wonder why Sondheim and Goldman wouldn't want this to transfer? I agree, it would be pretty absurd for a production not to transfer because of the co-writers wife. That story does sound like BS.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 2:42am

Is this another BS story? It might as well be, but I was wondering since I know nobodyhome is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to this: I remember reading in Donna McKechnie's book that the cast was told that someone (Can't remember if it was Goldman, Sondheim, or who) had already promised the show to Roundabout, and there was nothing that could be done.
The Roundabout production is just depressing, not because of the content/tone of the show, but because it was so awful (judging from footage, audio I've seen/heard). The idea that that is the last Broadway revival of this beautiful show that we'll see in possibly decades is just so utterly depressing. Every time I think of the way Kathleen Marshall pooped all over the "Mirror Number," I get sad/mad/annoyed/upset.
I was going through some of Ken Mandelbaum's fantastic columns on Broadway.com, and around the time Roundabout was casting the revival, he mentioned Victor Garber and Donna Murphy were being courted to be part of the show. How interesting that they weren't part of this misconceived revival and instead went on to give acclaimed performances in the marvelous Encores! concert.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 4:52am

>I mean, come on, are were supposed to believe that Sondheim and Goldman both wanted it to transfer and there were producers ready to move it but it didn't happen because of Bobbi Goldman? I find that hard to believe.<

It's true. Roger Berlind was set to move it, and the money was in place. But Bobby Goldman had already promised the show to Roundabout and there was nothing further to be done. This was just after Roundabout had opened its revival of Cabaret, and I think her idea was that Matthew Warchus would do for Follies what Sam Mendes had done for Cabaret. Plus, getting Follies was Roundabout's reward for producing Goldman's The Lion in Winter.

As far as what the authors thought of the Paper Mill production, who can say, but several of the casting choices were suggested by Sondheim (including Donna McKechnie as Sally), he saw the production multiple times, was with the cast at the closing party and executive produced the cast recording. Those actions do not sound consistent with someone who did not like the production.

Updated On: 11/3/08 at 04:52 AM

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 5:30am

I didn't actually write that Sondheim and Goldman didn't like the Paper Mill production. All I wrote was "neither Sondheim nor Goldman wanted the Paper Mill production to transfer." They may have liked it perfectly well for what it was without wanting it to be the Broadway revival of the show.

As it turned out, it made for a good recording. I don't think it was an especially good production, despite a couple of good performances (most notably from McKechnie), a lot of money being spent, and recreations and approximations of the original choreography.

I do find it difficult to believe that Bobbi Goldman promising the Roundabout that they could produce a revival of Follies would by itself scuttle the move of the Paper Mill production if both Sondheim and James Goldman felt strongly about that production moving. These things happen all the time. Verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 5:40am

To my amazement, Goldman controls/controlled first class rights to the show, not Sondheim. Sondheim had very little say in the matter of what happened to it. And James was somewhat powerless against his own wife. It was a George and Martha relationship.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/3/08 at 5:57am

Well, maybe that's why he died a few months later.

[Musical Director]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 2:54pm

The money was there to move the show...Roger Berlind and Chase Mishkin were the producers who were going to move the show...they saw it multiple times. After the Brantley review appeared we were a who's who of Broadway in who attended. And Mrs. Goldman was a lot more powerful than people think. It was a wonderful time and a thrill to go to work every day.

[Sonia&Vernon]

Posted: 11/6/08 at 3:40pm

Kaye Ballard said in her autobiography that she didn't think Sondheim really liked it. I don't have the book with me at the moment, but I believe she said she thought Sondheim didn't think the Papermill production was classy enough.