Could I Leave You from Follies: Favorite Version

[esparza 333]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:21pm

This is one of my favorite Sondheim songs ever and each interpretation is so different and wonderful. I am so excited to here Jan Maxwell sing this. I was wondering what everybody's favorite version is. I love Dee Hoty's and Alexis Smith's very much.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:23pm

The original production of course.

[binau]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:30pm

Waiting for the DVD of the Sondheim concert for Donna's performance!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:31pm

Hopefully it is not chopped up like the Follies Concert DVD

[Pianist3912]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:39pm

I am partial to Donna Murphy's since I was at the Sondheim concert this year

[RevolutionaryCostume]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 7:43pm

I personally love Julie Andrews' version from "Putting It Together" best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auHmrxqkgo0

I could watch that video for days.

-Jacob.
Updated On: 11/7/10 at 07:43 PM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 8:18pm

I think I'll always be partial to Alexis Smith's dead pan version.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 9:00pm

Alexis Smith.

Watch and learn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Jj0ZLyHQA

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/7/10 at 11:18pm

Thank God for bootlegs

It brings back memories. Thanks for posting.

[Joey.]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 1:15am

Dee Hoty, please. :) She's pretty much THE Phyllis for me.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 3:51am

She's just a tad too melodramatic for me. Just a tad.

[madbrian]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 8:16am

I am partial to Dee Hoty's take on it.

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 8:43am

I've always liked David kernan's version from Side by Side by Sondheim almost as much as Alexis Smith's.

[newintown]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 10:15am

Alexis Smith, sitting stone still in a single spot, holding in that rage until the end - it was really stunning work. Underplaying at its finest.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 10:18am

Alexis, hands down, but Donna Murhphy's take on it at City Center was pretty thrilling live.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 10:20am

Oh I am partial to Blythe Danner's performance - especially the one in which she got a little miffed on the lyrics and they came out:

"Could I live through the pain on a terrance in Spain, would it pass? Bet your ass."

Could I bury my rage with a boy half your age in the grass...Yes I would..."

[jv92]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 11:33am

Oh, I'll always like Lee Remick's version too. I suppose it's because I love Lee Remick. Smith is outstanding as well.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 12:12pm

On record, I probably listen to Hoty's the most and Remick's the least.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 12:13pm

Alexis Smith and Donna Murphy.

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 11/8/10 at 12:52pm

I love them all for such different reasons. But since she hasn't been mentioned yet i love carol burnett's rendition from putting it together. She gives such a hard comic edge.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 11/10/10 at 12:18pm

Definitely Blythe Danner's. What a shame there's no recording. It was so brutal and biting. Her final "Guess" was gasp-inducing.

[peerrjb]

Posted: 11/10/10 at 10:26pm

Julie Wilson at the Cinegrill in Hollywood.

And, because I got to musical direct a benefit and thereby play for her, Diana Canova [from the "Soap" TV show, B'way "They're Playing Our Song" and others]. Elegant, gorgeous, almost achingly hostile in her sincerity -- there were places in her phrasing that just stopped your heart. (And I hadda keep playing, mind you.) "Wait -- I'm just beginning" has never been so kind and so killing.
For the record, Smith WAS fascinating at the start of the run...but boy howdy, did she start walking through that show by December.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/10 at 11:59pm

This is not "Could I Leave You, " but I just came across this video of Jana Robbins doing "I'm Still Here":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0bq7UrFiX8

Obviously, she's over the top--she's Jana Robbins--but it's interesting to see a big, powerful, funny/scary, too-young but very-talented actress create a different kind of Carlotta.

[Jamie Pierce]

Posted: 11/19/10 at 12:44pm

One of the greatest acting song out there.

Donna Murphy was pretty fantastic but having seen so many great interpretations, I think Carol Burnet's may be definitive, hitting just the right tone throughout. Love the bitterness in her "Guess" (which just might be the best ending to a musical theatre song ever!)

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 11/19/10 at 4:39pm

I've always found CB's rendition to be a bit... precious... and unconvincing when she goes dark with it.