Anyone seeing FOLLIES in LA tonight?- Page 12

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 7:11pm

Took a work friend with me to see the show last, had no idea about who Sondhein is or what the show was, he loved every ninute of it. Mirror Mirror was beyond stunning, Ms Paige was a joy to watch in that number. Losing My Mind was sublime, Ms Clark sang it with such heartbreak of a woman who was lost with everything in her life.

Jan Maxwell nearly stopped the show with Could I Leave you, those final moments of the song were she was shaking with anger was one of those rare magical stage moment.

Can't wait to see it again. Perfect

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 7:14pm

IS it supposed to be set in the 70's? Because I would never had known.

[E.Davis]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 7:20pm

They clearly say how long has passes since the last war and the fact that Sally has not been back for 30 years.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 8:22pm

I must have been staring at something shiny and missed that.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 8:36pm

To be frank almost all period costumes/hair/set are done through a modern eye. For a non Follies example look at Dolly Parton's hair in 9 to 5, it is basically a blond afro which was in style in 1980, but if you saw the musical Megan Hilty's wig was still big hair, but softer curls. If they'd have done the exact Dolly wig audiences would have laughed and thought it was a joke. Costumers and hair designers more often than not try to convey the period without doing harm to the show/character. Granted some periods are more dignified and attractive to our modern eye.

A Follies example would be the red suit Alexis Smith wore. In 1971 it was chic and regal. If Jan Maxwell walked out today in the same design there would be a whole Maude/Bea Arthur goes to the prom aesthetic that wouldn't convey the dignified, "just like Jackie O" dripping with money character that Phyllis is.

Designing the show is difficult but I do appreciate when there are clear price points among the women's outfits. If you go to a reunion now you'll see jeans with blazers, JC Penny formal, J Crew bridesmaid, and expensive designer dresses. It stands to reason Sally went to her local shop and bought a silly dress off the rack, Stella went to the mall, someone made their own outift, and another lady maybe pulled a nice dress she bought 5-10 years ago out of her closet.

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 9:24pm

Why on earth would they raise the key in Losing My Mind? It causes the song to lose its effectiveness.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/9/12 at 10:08pm

I think the main point is that yes it is 'set' in 1971 but when we are watching the show it feels that it is the 'here and now' rather than 'transporting us' to the 70s.

I think qolbinau puts it better and more distinctly than I. (No surprise.)

It's true that the show has to take place circa 1971. The Ziegfeld Follies-type revues went by the wayside about the time of OKLAHOMA! during the war. (There were a few exceptions--an attempt to revive the Ziegfeld Follies without Ziegfeld in the late 40s--but basically.) If the central characters are roughly 50, then they had to be 20 during WWII.

The pastiche numbers wouldn't make any sense if Sally and Phyllis had played felines together in CATS.

But that being said, the essential themes of FOLLIES--regret over choices made in the past, self-delusion, losing one's self in one's ambition, etc.--these all remain current issues. We in the audience are better off thinking the characters are like us, rather than thinking they are curiosities of the past.

***

ETA nasty_khakis does a great job of explaining the approach to costume design used in the show. It's not that the outfits couldn't be worn in 1971, it's that the more extreme fashions we associate with that period are omitted. Thankfully.

The spoken lines that deal with time are still there. So if one really cares, it is possible to calculate the year of the party at 1971. But it's also possible to conflate eras and think of the "present" in the play as something akin to now.
Updated On: 5/9/12 at 10:08 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 12:11am

Did someone mention the Adonis? Talk about the tragedy of a theater being torn down...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 12:40am

The current script, at least when they were on Broadway, has Weismann saying in his first speech, "It's 1971."

Diva, hopefully the shiny thing you were staring at was on the stage and not the d-bag you posted about.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 1:17am

Yes, it was.

I did have to shush them since they insisted on commenting after the first few numbers...

Oy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 1:28am

I want to rewrite Follies about the destruction of the Gaiety. My character will be called Phyllip Roger Stoned.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 5:09am

"Why on earth would they raise the key in Losing My Mind? It causes the song to lose its effectiveness."

So, they're still doing this? Maybe it was to accommodate Clark -- sits more comfortably for her there. Such a shame that this is the way so many people will be hearing this song. Oh, well, if you guys can survive the DressGate 2012, I guess I can survive Key Change 2012. I'm sure I'll love the rest of her performance.

[LALALand]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 12:23pm

Saw the show last night. Had never seen this show live. Fantastic all the way around, even with the controversial dress and key change! They stopped the show 4 times due to applause. Joanne Worley and Cloris Leachman were there as well. Very happy to have seen this production.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 6:51pm

Even with the key change (I'm taking the word of others that the key was changed), Clark still gets to demonstrate her rich lower register as well as her lovely head voice. I thought she was still working on vocal placement at various places throughout the show, but it wasn't anything worth complaining about. That said, I suspect she will sing the role even better by the end of the month.

***

Thanks for the photo, joey. I think a musical about the destruction of the Adonis is a swell idea! Will Chase can play Jack Wrangler.

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 7:09pm

I was there last night as well. A very good performance with a responsive crowd, but there were not 4 showstoppers. Hearty applause yes on several occasions. But nothing out of the ordinary.
I thought Clark's approach helped the first act achieve a buoyancy missing at the Marquis. But Peters' obvious madness helped act 2 navigate the weird libretto switch, when seconds after the act break, Sally shows how bonkers she is with her line to Ben about getting married.
Still, a good revival of a brilliant show.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 8:01pm

I like that Clark doesn't play Sally as a raving lunatic. (I didn't see Peters, so I'm not commenting on what Peters did instead.)

I thought the staging made it clear that Sally, stuck as she is in the past, is responding to what Ben said in 1941, not what he is saying in 1971. Yes, she's delusional (which is another word for crazy, I'll grant you), but since the libretto/staging make it clear that, despite his denials, Ben DID in fact tell her he loved her in the past, her assumption that a declaration of love is the same as a proposal of marriage actually makes a certain sense for 1941. No raving required.

[DAME]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 8:07pm

P.J; maybe we have met at Adonis?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 8:09pm

What happened at the Adonis, stays... well you know.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 8:13pm

The LA Times is a huge rave.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-follies-review-20120511,0,6304167.story

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/10/12 at 8:37pm

Sort of surprised at the passing mention for the costume designer...

[choitoy]

Posted: 5/11/12 at 12:21am

Just saw this pic of the curtain call.

Is this the same dress Sally wore during previews? Or did they finally change the color to something less greenish? I can take the lightish blue color. It also looks like her hair is different.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 5/11/12 at 12:35am

Same dress.

Her hair looks like she just bowed and came back up and it's sort of flying back into place. That's not how it was styled.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/11/12 at 12:38am

Maybe it's made out of Changeable Taffeta.

[choitoy]

Posted: 5/11/12 at 12:43am

It looked so green in the earlier promo pictures. Well, it actually is just the lighting, and is really blue, then I can live with it. But really, a costume designer must have worked with the lighting designer to see how the lights would affect the colors before putting up those promo pictures and making the dress look green and then whipping up all the Follies theater queens into a frenzy of run on sentences.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 5/11/12 at 3:11am

Oh man. Not a surprise that the Times review is a rave, but it makes we want to see the show even more. Don't know if I can hold out until June when I have tickets -- especially not when I work just down the street from the Ahmanson.

Oh, and, from the review...?

"The formality of Clark's manner of singing undercuts some of the pathos of Sally's cri de coeur "Losing My Mind" (the sentiment is illustrated rather than vocalized), but that might be a blessing given that the emotion is already crushing.:

Just sayin...