Dorothy Collins in FOLLIES

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:10am

Having listened to the complete soundboard an obscene amount of times recently and watching certain clips that apparently one can't mention on this site, I just felt the need to create a thread for Sally Durant...Plummer as played by Dorothy Collins.
What an excellent Sally she made! I particularly love the way she just sounds like a child and in the Voldemort clips you can see how child-like her mannerisms are, how lost she looked when Ben was around.
And NO ONE can beat her "TA-DAAAA!"

[C is for Company]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:16am

Ditto!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:21am

C, what is your favorite Dorothy Collins moment?

[C is for Company]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:30am

Oh gosh. Listening to the Soundboard as much as I have, there are so many touches she'd throw into all of her line readings that become my favorites. I feel like she never just said something, she left a distinct stamp on each word. Hearing her inflections on certain things sound so childlike and it can be so effective!

edit: "Listening to the Soundboard as much as I have" <-- not meant to sound condescending or "Ugh"-ish, just making fun of myself for how much time goes into this musical in my life.

So although I can't pick out one moment, I must say that each line carries something I admire when she is saying it. I still can't even decipher her "Phyl, do you remember it?" Watching some footage from that part, she says it so innocently and yet after the scene before, you know she'd mean it with an undertone of mockery. Anyway, she delivers it and stands frozen in the position even after Phyllis responds and the way she turns is so indignant. Then she goes right into the perky exterior for "WTW?" seconds later and it is just so crazy how she goes from bitchy to all smiles.

I think she must have been pretty skilled with that. Even in Everything Was Possible, Chapin notes that as opposed to Alexis sitting in her dressing room waiting silently and alone most times before she'd have to go on, Dorothy could stand in the wings and chat it up right until the moment she had to go on for either a happy or sad scene. I think the woman is genius and what I would give to have seen her in real life

Updated On: 7/23/07 at 02:30 AM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:33am

I personally love when she says "I still do sometimes!" in response to Ben's question about the Baby Ruth's for breakfast.

Great thread Ray!

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 2:39am

I think my favorite parts are her scenes with Alexis Smith simply because of the contrast between these two fantastic actresses. It's like watching a tennis match between the two best players, they just play so well against each other.
Something I hadn't noticed in the soundboard that I noticed watching the footage is how poisonous Dorothy's reading of the line "you were homesick and you cried a lot" is. I felt that with Dorothy you weren't sure what to feel about Sally, she was heart-breaking, innocent, and yet a big bitch at times (sorry if I can't find a more eloquent way to say it).
What I truly admire is the way she sounds in actual shock after the whole Loveland sequence, she sounds like she woke up from a 30 year coma and does not know what to do with herself. Such brilliance.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 6:18am

i love her too!!

i love when she tells Phyllis that shes "like a queen", when she realizes she's boring Ben with her checkbook talk, & of course, her "TA-DAAA!"

she looks so cute & cuddly in those clips!

....which makes her zombie-like repeating of Buddy's spoon-fed affirmations at the end all the more heartbreaking.

i read that she was married to Raymond Scott, the nutty composer who'm we've all enjoyed, whether we know it or not!!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 7:38am

You remember me? The 15-year old who was obsessed by the original production and saw it 5 times?

As much as I wanted to BE Alexis Smith--a fabulous bitch with great legs--inside I knew I was Dorothy Collins: vulnerable, completely deluded, more than a little crazy and luscious and delicious and huggable and dangerous.

I fell in love with my first bf, a ballet dancer, at summer-stock camp that summer. I was 15; he was 17. It ended tragically when he broke up with me for the choreographer, an evil queen who directed a Fosse-esque Threepenny Opera that even at 15 I knew was ludicrous.

When my ballet dancer broke up with me, I wandered around the camp for days in a very "Losing My Mind" mode, gaining the sympathy of all of the female members of the company, who had thought we were such a "cute couple." In no time at all, I made the choreographer and my ex pariahs.

Dorothy Collins taught me the power of maudlin self-pity.

Updated On: 7/23/07 at 07:38 AM

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 7:41am

I didn't know you liked Follies, PJ!

I love hearing your stories about the show. They're fascinating.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 7:57am

You are as old now as I was then. That's what I love about BroadwayWorld.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 8:02am

And I think I'm getting to know Follies pretty well. It's such a interesting show to look at, study, and analyze, and I think Dorothy's portrayal of Sally adds to it, her Losing my Mind is flawless.

And I still need to get the book.

PJ, since you saw both Alexis and Dorothy, who do you think deserved the Tony that year?

Updated On: 7/23/07 at 08:02 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 8:31am

Oh, Alexis! You have no idea how dazzling her performance was!

And more than Dorothy, she embodied the "I'm Still Here" spirit of the original production. These people were survivors not victims, something that AWWWWWWWWWWWWWFul Roundabout production failed to understand: Follies is about survival, not about how pathetic old people are.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 10:59am

Omg, her "Ta-Daaaa!" makes my life!

Her Sally will never ever be matched.

[Kringas]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:03am

This makes me think of the story in Chapin's book about how ten or so years later Dorothy and Alexis went to see a regional production of Follies and during intermission (or was it after the show?), Alexis apologized to her because she hadn't realized just how good Dorothy had been in the role until then.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:11am

It's hard to imagine the impact today because the poignancy of Dorothy Collins's performance comes through so well on the recording, but it was Alexis Smith's legs they put on the cover of Time magazine.

[Kringas]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:15am

It's so shallow of me, but every time I see a picture of Alexis in Follies I wish she had a better hairstyle. The poofy helmet thing just doesn't work for me.

Updated On: 7/23/07 at 11:15 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:20am

Oh please. It was 1971. You should have seen MINE.

[Kringas]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:22am

I still think something more upswept and regal would have looked smashing on her. I even liked it better on that Tony clip of her from a few years later when she's wearing in a longish bob.

[mattrob]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:28am

Slightly off topic but....How Does one come about the soundboard recording of Follies? I would love to hear it, the original cast is incredible but the original recording does not do the score justice. Dorothy Collins is fantastic though and her "Losing my Mind" is breathtaking

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:43am

In EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE don't show Alexis with a long wig they were considering? It looked pretty sexy. But it wasn't "Phyllis."

[Kringas]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 11:45am

I think that was just for "Uptown, Downtown," just like Dorothy originally had a wig for "Losing My Mind."

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 4:11pm

Whoa, I didn't think this thread would survive past last night.
PalJoey, that story about your first love was as fascinating as all your stories, keep 'em coming :)
There's something about Dorothy's performance on the soundboard and the aforementioned clips that simply stands out for me. She had vulnerability with an edge, seeing her running around to stand next to Ben before "Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs" starts is just genius. I particularly love her yelling "He took me in his arms and kissed me! I know every word he said;" you can hear a mixture of illusion, hope, and strong denial in her voice...simply fascinating.
I like Smith (this is all based on recordings of course) but Collins simply blows my mind away.

[ljay889]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 4:27pm

I like Smith (this is all based on recordings of course) but Collins simply blows my mind away.

- Amen, Brotha! I love she sounds so much like a little girl through out the show. But during her finale dialogue with Buddy - she really sounds deranged/mentally ill. Especially with her infamous "I should have died that first time" line.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 4:33pm

I know, ljay, she does sound like she is in some kind of mental shock. I think it is a brilliant shift though, her somber voice, and I can just imagine what she must have looked like, what a chilling moment!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 4:39pm

..& also when she says "i should have died that first time", it feels like its the first time she's RELAXED in the whole show, & you realize that all that bubbly sweetness & self-delusion was an awful lot of work.