Ann Miller: Follies for Free?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 9:35pm

Question:

Ann Miller was in Follies at Papermill a few years ago. I remember hearing something about her doing it or offering to do it for free because she wanted to be in it so bad. Is this true? Or at least, this was a big rumor right? I seem to recall something on Forbidden Broadway about this...

[BroadwayNick]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 9:41pm

Isn't Paper Mill non-for-profit?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 9:42pm

Yes, but non-profit theaters do pay their actors.

[kjklo]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 10:53pm

Apparently there were hopes to remount the Papermill production on Broadway, but they were scotched by James Goldman's widow. Reportedly, Ann Miller and Kaye Ballard were bitterly disappointed by that. Miller may have joked that she loved the part so much that she was willing to do it for free on Broadway, but if she did, that's all it was, a joke.

Forbidden Broadway may have touched on that in one of their skits, but not the ones about Ann Miller that I saw.

[Glebb]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 10:55pm

"Too damn weird." - FB

[kjklo]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 11:14pm

Ha!

Little bit of a correction: in "I'm Still Weird," they do use the line "I'm such an airhead, that I volunteered," so maybe that's what BobbyBubby was thinking of.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/14/05 at 11:33pm

Exactly. If anyone else has input on this...I know that there was a bigger story there, I just can't remember specifics.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/15/05 at 10:20am

bump

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/15/05 at 10:28am

"but they were scotched by James Goldman's widow."

Does anyone know what the problem was there? The Papermill cast was remarkable.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 4/15/05 at 11:03am

My understanding was that it focused heavily on the Glitz and didn't have as much substance or wasn't as dark as they wanted for the first revival of "Follies".