Bye Bye Birdie and Follies

[redmustang]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 6:43pm

I was asked this question today by a friend: What do the original productions of these two shows have in common?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 6:54pm

They are both musicals.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 7:04pm

The obvious is Susan Watson doing the original Birdie and 2011 revival of Follies. But not sure what it has in common with the original Follies.

[redmustang]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 7:17pm

I've checked the obvious: opening dates, closing dates, # of performances, etc. He said it has nothing to do with casts or plot lines. I will post the answer tomorrow.

[Gomez3]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 7:27pm

They both were inspired by actual newspaper articles.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 7:30pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmvFK739E_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAmPZZ-y8ZI

There's a happy little flute riff that's part of both these songs. It's discussed in Ted Chapin's book Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies.

Updated On: 7/27/14 at 07:30 PM

[lovebwy]

Posted: 7/27/14 at 9:27pm

"During Waiting for the Girls I heard things in the flute and piccolo that reminded me of Bye Bye Birdie. They came during the women's chorus, adding a playful punctuation to the ends of their four descriptive lines. They reminded me of the flute passages from "Put on a Happy Face". I asked Jonathan Tunick about them and he said 'Ah yes. The Ginzler flutes'. Ginzler was the orchestrator of Bye Bye Bridie and one of Tunick's mentors... in the hands of a good ochestrator there's room for appropriate musical quotes or references. Little ornamentations or jokes that can be added and invisible except to those knowledgeable about musical theater."

[redmustang]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 12:24pm

Sorry everyone - my friend thought each show had a song called One Last Kiss. I spanked him.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 1:21pm

I think we should all make up quizzes based upon wrong answers. It would make the summer pass so much faster.

Q: What do the original productions of Greenwillow and A Hatful of Rain have in common?

A: They both starred Anthony Perkins!

[ggersten]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 1:57pm

Q. What do "Angels In America" and "Wicked" have in common?
A. Laurence Olivier did not appear in either.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 2:22pm

It's a perfectly valid question.

They both utilize the Ginzler flutes. I'd noticed it before I even read the Chapin book.

[Rinaldo]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 3:03pm

Me too, lovebwy. Many arrangers like to bring out the Ginzler flutes when appropriate: Jonathan Tunick did it again for "Manhattan" in Stairway to Paradise. And I hear an instance on Philip Chaffin's newest CD from PS Classics. There's also a startling pre-example in the title song of Louisiana Purchase (1940).

[newintown]

Posted: 7/31/14 at 3:30pm

It's a nice answer. But it wasn't the answer.