Betty Buckley To Play Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies"

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:32pm

Royal Albert Hall in London on April 28, 2015 (2 performances). Thoughts?




Betty Buckley

Updated On: 3/21/15 at 03:32 PM

[Showface]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:45pm

Meanwhile, Jennifer Coolidge has disappeared from the poster...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 3:48pm

I love Betty Buckley, though she wouldn't have crossed my mind as a Carlotta. But in a concert full of weird casting, I don't think hers is all that weird.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 4:08pm

Who was Jennifer Coolidge going to play??

[Showface]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 4:10pm

Hattie

[lovebwy]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 8:48pm

Why can't they ever get people the right age for this role?

"Some nights he wants the works and some nights he gets it". Blech.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:06pm

Carolotta? Buckley is many things, but not to my thinking a natural Carlotta. It's only a concert, but there, if anything, a more obvious shorthand is needed without opportunities to developed character (and Carlotta is rather narrowly set forth in the text anyway). It's unfair to to state that the lyrics aren't easily in sync with her persona. She's an actor, she can of course play many people unlike herself. But Carlotta's rue, her innate world-weariness is at odds with Buckley's neurotic edge. And I've often thought that Carlotta has to be almost ... no other way to put it ... a little tacky. I've seen many (including DeCarlo, twice), but the role still has DeCarlo's stamp, and when it's done best it leans in that direction (i.e. Ann Miller, Polly Bergen, Elaine Paige; not Carol Burnette, Christine Baranski.) Just my two cents, but I don't think there's actually a role for Betty Buckley in "Follies."

Updated On: 3/21/15 at 09:06 PM

[indytallguy]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:30pm

I'll take Betty Buckley singing Sondheim live in just about any role for a concert version. And I can see her playing Carlotta somewhat similar to how Hollis Resnik did in the Chicago Shakespeare Theater production a couple of years back.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 9:47pm

"Singing Sondheim live" is a little generic to me as an artistic expectation. It's a concert version of a show about very specific people looking back, this role possesses a POV and and sensibility that's show-biz specific and very focused. I don't see the Buckley of 2015 matching the necessary fading but still palpable glamour. It's not about her vocal or acting chops (expertise in both areas a given) but sensibilities. I admit I could be very wrong. I'd take Shirley Bassey.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/21/15 at 10:33pm

She could sing a helluva "Who's That Woman."

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 7:28am

Very true. Of course, what she might do with "...that woman is ME!" scares the hell outta me.

[amoni]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 8:15am

Who was Jennifer Coolidge going to play??

Well, if her entire career is any indication, she'll be playing Jennifer Coolidge.

[indytallguy]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 8:57am

"I don't see the Buckley of 2015 matching the necessary fading but still palpable glamour."

Fair point. I think I might see it in her more than you do, but can't argue with your assertion.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 11:30am

Betty Buckley is great, but Betty Buckley is not Carlotta.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 12:12pm

Those of you who see Buckley's breadth being limited by her famous neurotic edge:

Were Martha Jefferson (1776), Abby Bradford (Eight is Enough) and Miss Collins (Carrie) neurotic and edgy women?

Or did you find those Buckley performances somehow unconvincing because those characters weren't neurotic and edgy? (I ask because I don't recall anyone finding Buckley's work in those roles being subjected to widespread criticism... far from it).

I ask because one thing I have learned from bww's myriad casting discussions is that it is in our nature - and I include myself here at times - to be prone, with selective memory and a lack of imagination, by fixating only on certain experiences we've had of that performer and concluding that there's a limitation that may or may not be true.

Exhibit A: "Audra McDonald as Billie HolIday! WTF are they thinking!"

Updated On: 3/22/15 at 12:12 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 12:25pm

You want to look at the dates on those performances? And then run through several since then? Using Martha Jefferson and Miss Collins as indicators of her body of work since provides an rarefied yardstick past a shelf life. I have infinite respect for Buckley. I'm even a fan. But to me, she's not Carlotta.

Of course, this is almost a prototypical BWW thread, parsing this into oblivion (and I'm the guiltiest parser here). Does anyone think Buckley will do a bad job? Not I. Doe anyone believe she won't in some way land the song? Not I. She's a consummate professional, a gifted interpreter of lyrics with a remarkable, distinctive voice. This is about a pair of performances, when sensibilities ideal for the characters might best serve. My quibble is: why choose this particular artist for this role. It's a rarefied quibble at that.

Updated On: 3/22/15 at 12:25 PM

[indytallguy]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 1:46pm

The Rarefied Quibbler would make a great autobiography title. :)

[binau]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:30pm

Ruthie singing "Losing My Mind" and "In Buddy's Eyes"

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Ruthie-Henshall-Sings-Two-Sondheim-Showstoppers-Live-To-Preview-Royal-Albert-Hall-FOLLIES-20150322

Maybe it's something that has to be seen but, like so many others on record for me, the subtext of "In Buddy's Eyes" is lost during this vocal performance (for me, at least).

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:51pm

Actually, I think Betty could be a hell of a Sally. She'd nail the pathos and sing the hell out of Losing My Mind. She plays unstable well.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:52pm

But Auggie, why expect that because she's been so convincingly something particularized for so long that that's all she's capable of at this stage of her career? And why assume because her successes in roles that vary from that particularized something were so long ago that she's not capable of delivering now what she could so ably deliver back then?

There's a great irony. People often complain that performers are limited to a certain kind of typecasting, i.e. that "they are always the same." (see the claim about Ms. Coolidge, above). Then these same folks, it seems, often turn around and complain when they find someone cast in something that defies a well-worn mold of portrayals.

That's nonsensically having it both ways.

Isn't trying to keep an open mind, isn't having the imagination of a savvy theatergoer, far more appropriate than, contradictorily, mocking typecasting, on the one hand, and against type casting, on the other?

There's a difference between acknowledging that someone might not be a "natural fit" for something based on what she's been delivering for quite some time - which is merely stating a fact - and assuming that she won't be a great success in a role that's a stretch from that well-worn mold.

Especially since, quite often, casting that conforms to such a held "natural fit" can prove obvious, boring and too "on the nose" as well as perpetuating the complaint that the performer is "always the same."

I do agree that casting someone as Carlota who resonates with a trooper who's been around a great many rough blocks and not shied away from the trashy in her resume is the way to go. And for that reason Carol Burnett certainly struck many of us as not ideal casting.

But, Buckley has indeed careered from career to career, been someone's mother and stepmother, and certainly not shied away from camp (Margaret White)) or vamp (Grizabella) in a career that's had many highs, disappointments and outright oddities. And I wouldn't for a second doubt if she hasn't sometimes been asked "hey lady aren't you Whositz?





Updated On: 3/22/15 at 04:52 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 5:09pm

All that being said, I still view Carlotta as a vamp, still sexual. Buckley doesn't convey that in any of her incarnations. And Im a huge Buckley fan.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 6:02pm

I just had a fleeting thought of Betty Buckley and Alice Ripley working together in something. Now, that would be something.

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 12:30pm

And Lorna Luft is in the cast as well!

Posted: 4/2/15 at 12:43pm

Who is Lorna Luft playing?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/2/15 at 1:07pm

 

Lorna is playing Hattie. I wish I could be there just to hear her sing "Broadway Baby."

 

Anyone know much about Anita Dobson, who is playing Stella?