Anyone seeing FOLLIES in LA tonight?- Page 7

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 7:37pm

To paraphrase Lily Tomlin as "Dracula's Daughter": Will you please stop talking about that DRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS?!?!?!?????
(SLAM)

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 7:39pm

Any other reports on the actual show? Does Lora Lee Gayer have a new wig? How has her performance changed now that she's playing the younger version of a very different Sally?

[Kad]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 7:42pm

"If an audience can intuit characteristics based on color, characters can be smart enough to want others to intuit them too, particularly in the case of someone like Sally who is trying so hard to project a false exterior."

That's valid, and that, I'm sure, is the reason she was a given a red dress.

However, there are color choices that just don't work on characters because they disrupt the bigger picture of the work. Giving Sally the boldest color on stage is not a good decision, particularly a color that signifies so much. There are other ways Sally could achieve a false exterior without red.

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:02pm

Just got back from seeing Follies this afternoon, and it was fantastic. This was the 5th time that Ive seen it. I saw it in Washington DC, and 3 times in NYC. Victoria Clarks interpretation of Sally is very different than Bernadettes. Her Losing My Mind is very sultry and sexual.

Shes more subtle and calmer than Bernadette in all of the scenes. And, theres been so much discussion about her dress. Its a beautiful color on her, and a perfect character match. Bernadettes original red dress in DC, could be speculated as a character contradiction. Is she wearing such an elegant dress to show everyone how glamorous her life is, when it really isnt? Did she wear to show Ben how great everything is  if he did come to the reunion? Is it a completely wrong dress for a woman who is  losing her mind?

Broadway Baby, Whos That Woman, Im Still Here, and Would I Leave You? stopped the show.

Terri Whites wife sat right behind me, and led the applause on most of the numbers.

I all ready have tickets for June 8th and June 9th, the closing performance.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:14pm

Is the dress really blue/green?

How is Clark's entrance and exit?

Is there a noticeable height difference between Maxwell and Clark?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:16pm

Obviously I'll never win this argument. I guess we'll just leave it with me thinking there are more ways than one to interpret Sally's character, and you thinking that your way is the only true way, and everyone else be damned.

What, exactly, is your understanding of "winning an argument", Lizabombs? Is it that everyone sits around and applauds your wonderful insights?

Because to me, the very fact I'm still discussing this with you means I am affording your opinion a measure of respect, even if I disagree with it.

FWIW, I've taken more than enough costume design courses to know that designers regularly make decisions on the bases we have been discussing: so-and-so's dominant color will be blue because she is cool or sad; another character's dominant color will be yellow because she has a sunny disposition. (Sorry, these are trivial examples, but you get the gist.)

If you'd like a more practical reason: Phyllis does relatively little singing in the play until the last 20 or 30 minutes; meanwhile Sally has at least three major solos or duets. Putting Phyllis in red helps to remind us that she is as important a character as Sally during the hour and a half when Phyllis isn't singing. Obviously they went a different way in the current revival and decided to save Phyllis' red for Loveland. Fine. I'll see it in two days.

But I agree with paljoey that putting Sally in red until the climax and then putting Phyllis in red tends to muddle the message.

[binau]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:22pm

DId they do the 'environmental' staging' like they did in NYC?

Updated On: 5/6/12 at 09:22 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:24pm

Colors (not to mention things like line, silhouette, cut, etc.) all say something about a character... and have meaning.

Beautifully put, kad, as usual.

Really, liza, if all these choices are so unimportant, why does it take an army of artists to mount a show? Why not just let the actors brings clothes from their closets?

***

To the poster who asked about the Ahmanson balcony. I have sat up there twice since the renovation and had no problem whatsoever. It IS the balcony, of course, but I could see and hear just fine.

Updated On: 5/6/12 at 09:24 PM

[SingOutLouise2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:25pm

Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576516543068789216.html

The idea for the color had come from Ms. Peters, who thought her character might wear something red to capture the heart of an old flame. Mr. Barnes agreed and went for it, and a flurry of Internet opining followed.
" 'Jaw-droppingly horrible' is my favorite quote," said Mr. Barnes, who confessed to having read everything that was written online. The dress has since been refashioned in a softer pink."

green=jealousy/envy.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:28pm

^^^^Yeah, I think a lot of us guessed the idea came from Miss Peters. I love her, but there's a reason why stars get to be stars. And it isn't always what's best for the play.

[binau]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:31pm

Still, watching Bernadette appear in a new dress for the first time was, pathetically enough, one of the most exciting things I've ever seen on stage. The controversy was worth it for that one moment, and ejaculation.

Updated On: 5/6/12 at 09:31 PM

[lizabombs]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:34pm

What, exactly, is your understanding of "winning an argument", Lizabombs? Is it that everyone sits around and applauds your wonderful insights?

No, it's perhaps acknowledging that someone can have a different opinion without being told I need to "think" about it more, as joey said.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:37pm

I don't think you're pathetic, qolbinau, but now I'm curious. Was it the first time you'd seen Peters? Or did she only wear old rags in previous shows?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:43pm

No, it's perhaps acknowledging that someone can have a different opinion without being told I need to "think" about it more, as joey said.

Not to worry, liza. joey just employs a very direct style of writing. He has written far worse to me and still I wouldn't miss one of his posts.

And in this thread, he called me "eloquent", so I'm on top of the world!

Wait. Your turn will come... :)

[binau]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 9:45pm

I saw her in NIGHT MUSIC (and I had seen it earlier with CZJ) - so/but it didn't have quite the same impact. It's interesting/sad to think that the FOLLIES run became a bit tepid after a couple of months because the first preview felt like a true event (to me, at least).

Updated On: 5/6/12 at 09:45 PM

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 10:00pm

I'm glad you got to see it when it was still exciting for you.

I saw the original a few weeks after it opened and a few weeks before it closed. The first time was with Saturday matinee ladies who actually remembered Ethel Shutta from the Ziegfeld Follies! The second time, the audience was mostly baffled tourists.

I loved the show both times, but the two experiences can't really be compared.

[PalJoey]

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

I'd never seen that Wall St Journal article. Thanks for the link, SingOutLouise.

Ljay--do you remember which one of us called the red dress "jaw-droppingly horrible"? I don't think it was me. I may have a "direct style of writing (thank you very much, Gaveston!), but it's not my style of invective.

And since Greg Barnes confesses in that article to "having read everything that was written online," what do we think his screen name is?

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 10:11pm

On a slightly different note...I FINALLY listened to my recording to the original Follies...score and libretto :) So I do thank whoever recorded that back in 1971!!!

[SingOutLouise2]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 10:30pm

You're welcome for the link Joey.

Maybe Gregg Barnes is a lurker. : )

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:06pm

I did a quick search and Gregg Barnes exaggerated.

No one here said the red dress was "jaw-droppingly awful." (I didn't remember anyone actually being that savage.) And no one used the phrase "jaw-droppingly."

Barnes conflated two posts. In one, a poster referred to the set as "fine but not jaw-dropping" and another referred positively to Barnes's Loveland costumes, saying her "jaw dropped" at the sight of them. Both posters, however, disliked the red dress:


CURTAINPULLDOWNER:

...I found the set lacking in every way. The LOVELAND set was fine but not jaw-dropping. I thought there were several costume gaffes, starting with Sally's dress. A lot is discussed about the color, but the color is not the problem, it basically says nothing about the character except that she's hot, and I find that totally wrong....


KATIA2:

...The costumes were fantastic, jaw dropped at the Loveland costumes (though the set was lacking to say the least...), but didn't like Peter's red dress. Just didn't seem right for Sally, and someone who was seeing it for the first time was mildly confused...

[binau]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:10pm

Is it possible he could be referring to a post on another forum, though?

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:10pm

PalJoey, to be fair to Barnes, this is not the only theater message board in existence (or even the "preeminent" one, by most standards.) He very well could have been talking about a post he read on All That Chat, which is widely considered to be the go-to forum for people within the industry.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:12pm

He said he "read everything that was written online."

I presume "everything" includes us and not just All That Chat.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:13pm

Paljoey, shhh Gregg's name is Lizabombs.

And this board is far more fun than AllThatChat. I'm not the expert on this but I've heard a lot of people say they now consider this forum the go-to for all things Broadway.

Updated On: 5/6/12 at 11:13 PM

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/6/12 at 11:28pm

Should Sally wear this?