FOLLIES - The Intermission is Back — Page 3

I have been reading the book Everything Was Possible, and I just got to the first preview part. It is interesting how Steven Sondheim was convinced they could cut 25 minutes, when Hal Prince was dead set on having an intermission.

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seeing the show next week - and not familiar with the it - but think anything over 100 minutes can get rough when you gots to take a leak.

HappyPhantom--THANK YOU! Honestly, the only reason this is a discussion is because it's the theatre. For some reason, sitting in the dark for two hours really seems to make people think about their bladders, for some reason. But most people sit at their desk at work all day and maybe get up to pee once or twice. Ridiculous.

Seriously: if you can't go 2 hours without peeing you need to see a urologist.

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I am so bummed I didn't get to see it without the intermission. I was so looking forward to watching it straight through.

I've seen A Chorus Line without the intermission, and frankly, didn't notice anyone get up to use the restroom. I think audiences tend to be less disruptive when there is no intermission, because when you let them get up, they're always inevitably late getting back from the restroom or concessions/bar area. (And they bring those stupid souvenir cups back with their ice that they proceed to shake and rattle for act 2.)

Maybe a deal could be struck where it's only for the matinee performances or something? I didn't get up for the intermission the last time I saw it. (In fact, my companion and I didn't want to talk very much-we wanted to see what came next.)

Apparently there was an intermission tonight.

I think it's fan petition time, folks. Let's tell the creative team to stick to their guns. They should at least release a statement about it.

...wow....

As in their creative instinct to keep the show focused on it's original intent and not succumb to blue-hair complaints.

I think we should be appreciative that this production is actually using its preview period to full advantage.

I totally agree. They really seem set on improving the production since DC, and I think it shows.

For cripes sake, I sat through NICHOLAS NICKELBY and that was something like 8 hours long. There were some intermissions, but I was prepared was able to make it through the whole show without changing my Depends.

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I was prepared was able to make it through the whole show without changing my Depends.

Yes PollyDop but were the people around you prepared to sit with the fumes?

A little bit of a Follies tie-in with my comment on this topic. Jane Houdyshell, who's in the cast, played Lisa Kron's mother in the play "Well." Lisa is frustrated at her mother's inability to make herself feel physically better from the chronic ailments that plague her. Lisa somehow overcame a chronic physical malady that she had in her adolescence, and so has little patience that her mom seems unable, (or is it unwilling?) to do the same. Her mother finally says to her, "LISA! Not everybody has the same resources as you."

So I think it's great that people who are prepared to skip the breaks in Nicholas Nickelby had the physical resources to do so -- or at least thought they did -- but everybody does not have the same body.

I think comparing a long movie to a lengthy intermission-less musical is somewhat foolish. For one thing, people get up and go to the rest room during movies fairly often once they go over the two hour mark. Also, movies are not the special occasion for most people going to a show is. Often, they kick off the special occasion with dinner and/or drinks before the show. Beer is, famously, the drink you don't buy, but rent. A large dinner out often gets things moving for people about 45 minutes after consumption. Secondly, getting up and slipping out to the restroom at a movie theater is in no way as disruptive as having to climb over cramped rows in a Broadway house, and it's rendered even more of a challenge when the seasons change and outerwear becomes bigger and bulkier.

Some people have inflammatory bowel disease. Some are cursed with small bladders. In other words, not everybody has the same resources as the camels who think if they can stay put for two and a half hours then EVERYBODY can. Everybody's different and it's not just complaints of the so-called "blue-hairs," who have just as much right to see a show about the distant past as anybody.

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"So I think it's great that people who are prepared to skip the breaks in Nicholas Nickelby had the physical resources to do so -- or at least thought they did -- but everybody does not have the same body."

I spit Diet 7-UP on the screen reading this. Thanks for the last laugh of my day, Namo.

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