FOLLIES Questions

[Solstrom]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 3:19pm

Hi there !

I've some questions about FOLLIES...First, I know that the show has known several incarnations but how is the Encore! version ?
I'd love also some help about a London production of Follies at Landor Theatre (if you have some "special links", please PM me).

Thanks sooo much !

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 5:01pm

Solstrom, if you search back a bit, you can find threads with hundreds if not thousands of posts on FOLLIES and various productions.

I'm not saying this to be snarky. If I had short answers to your questions, I would gladly repeat them here. For example, however, the clips I've seen from the Encores! production didn't vary greatly from other American productions, but that doesn't mean there weren't big changes in other parts of the show I have not seen.

The info you want is all here somewhere, I'm sure.

[Solstrom]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 6:47pm

Thanks....
As I'm not american and not so familiar with this musical(I'm in fact a little bit lost with all the versions), I post this message to have a clear answer and try to not confuse myself reading the previous thread...

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/22/12 at 7:18pm

FOLLIES has gone through so many revisions and re-revisions, I don't know if anybody can sum them up simply. I would if I could, but I'd only confuse you further.

[Charley Kringas Inc]

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:18pm

I don't know HOW the Encore version was, but Wikipedia tells me it used the original text, but used the 1987 London production's version of "Loveland", which has altered lyrics and is kind of weird and bad. Almost every version of Follies is different, usually in various trims to the book, which is viewed as being "faulty" and thus dismissively editable. The 1987 London production was the most radical version, which slimmed the book way down, replaced three of the Loveland songs ("Loveland" got new lyrics, "Lucy & Jessie" was replaced by "Ah, But Underneath", and "Live, Laugh, Love" was replaced by "Make The Most Of Your Music" - of the three songs, only "Ah, But Underneath" is regularly used, mostly as an alternative if the actress playing Phyllis can't dance), and added "Country House" (which is also never used). Except for Country House all these songs, plus several that were cut before the show opened, are featured on the 1998 Papermill recording.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/23/12 at 11:20pm

The Encores! book version still used some dialogue from revised versions, but it was much closer to the original text than the Roundabout or Papermill productions.

The 2011 revival began using the Encores! book in DC. By the time it got to Broadway, they slowly kept adding more dialogue from the original book and even added brand new lines.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 1:28am

Country House essentially takes the place of Road You Never Take in the London version. I don't think the book is really slimmed all that far down, but it's been a LONG time since I heard a live audio--but it definitely is the most re-written (famously, to give it a more optimistic feeling--it also, IMHO, is where the emphasis on the party element was played up, something the later revisions like to do--ie often ending after the Loveland breakdown with brief bits of funny dialogue for the other party guests, who originally were largely forgotten by that point).

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 10/24/12 at 1:39am

This probably won't help much, but here's a thread with a lot of old
Follies footage