Favorite Roscoe/ "Beautitul Girls?"
Favorite Roscoe/ "Beautitul Girls?"
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#1Favorite Roscoe/ "Beautitul Girls?"
Posted: 10/25/11 at 10:31pm
"Beautiful Girls" is my favorite song in Follies, and Roscoe my favorite character in the show, along with Dimitri Weismann, Young Heidi, and Margie.
I was wondering whose version of the song people here prefer.
My own favorite is Arthur Rubin's, of Lincoln Center and Encores.
Now this is one amazing performer.
#2Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/25/11 at 10:42pmI favor Vahan Khanzadian and the Papermill Cast.
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#2Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/25/11 at 11:00pmMy favorite characters are Kevin the waiter, Dee Dee West and Max Deems.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#3Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/25/11 at 11:13pm
"My favorite characters are Kevin the waiter, Dee Dee West and Max Deems."
Mmm.... Interesting.
So who's your favorite Roscoe?
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#5Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 12:48am
I have to admit that in all my forty years of obsessing on Follies, I have never once paused to consider who my favorite Roscoe was.
Never once.
#6Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 12:55amMy favorite character is Weismann's girlfriend from the Chicago production.
#7Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 7:46am
Here's a strange one from the Berlin production...with a young Roscoe and a the kind of endless staircase they used to have in MGM movie musicals:
http://youtu.be/fnAneQudLxQ
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#8Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:30am
Pal Joey,
Thanks for the clip. Strange is indeed the word.
This Roscoe has overtones of the MC in Cabaret. A little creepy. But the ladies and set look great. The orchestra sounds great, too.
#9Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:37am
best thread ever.
My favorite character is the waiter that Sally hands her invitation to after she makes her entrance.
#10Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 8:52amThis is going to be a lovely thread. I'm so glad I came. What we need...is a drink.
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#11Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 9:07am
My favorite character in Follies is Harry the doorman. He's not actually in the show, they just sing about him.
"Big"
"Fat"
"Young"
"Bald"
"HARRY!"
"YEAH!"
BroadwayFan12
Broadway Star Joined: 4/17/10
#13Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:13amMy favorite character is a toss-up between Tom and Tim.
#14Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:28amI also love Tony, the owner of the dancing and dining establishment that the foursome would frequent back in '41.
#15Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:39amI want to see/hear more from that German production!! I love hearing scores sung in other languages...
#16Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:42am
In a show filled with stilted and awkward dialogue, Weismann's dialogue is particularly stilted and awkward, and rarely is it more stilted and awkward than when he refers to "the inevitable Roscoe."
...
It's mad awks.
#17Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 10:49amI have a question--when was the line "there's a band, free food and drink" changed to "there's a band, food and drink"? It's in the original, but not sure after that (all my Follies stuff is in NY, while I am at the moment in DC)...
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#18Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:21pm
Probably for the latest revival. They seem to have gone back to the original script and excised every other line.
That German production is cuh-razy. Stella Deems is split into two characters, played by twins, the order of the Loveland songs is all different, Eartha Kitt always speaks English while everyone else always speaks German. Cuh. Razy.
I forgot to mention my other favorite character is Eddie, the son Phyllis and Ben never had.
#19Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:39pm
I want to know what happened to Hattie's 11-year-old nephew Jerome, who reads all of Ben's speeches. What kind of 11-year-old reads a foundation president's speeches?
And what about the book that Ben wrote on "Wilson," which Buddy hasn't read yet. Woodrow, presumably...was Ben for him or against him?
#20Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:50pm
And this stage direction and single line from the 1971 script:
WILL WHEELER, sixtyish and portly, does a cartwheel for a photographer.
WILLY WHEELER: I keep my hand in. I keep working.
===
The part was played by Fred Kelly, who was Gene Kelly's brother.
#21Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:55pmI've always really admired Jack, the drummer that Phyllis has a fling with.
#22Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 1:56pm
And jack, Phyllis's drummer-lover who loved the birthmark under her left breast. When he kissed her there, "one" felt it difficult to breathe.
What happened to Jack?
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#23Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 2:01pm
He tried to make off with the silver (once valued at $30,000, but now known to be valued as high as $60,000) but apparently took Phyllis's birthmark instead, since she hasn't mentioned it since the 70s.
What happened to Phyllis's wringing wet panties? Why does she no longer talk about those?
#originalscriptstillthebest
Updated On: 10/26/11 at 02:01 PM
SondheimFan5
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/20/10
#24Favorite Roscoe/
Posted: 10/26/11 at 2:02pmthey changed it to "there's music, food and drink" for this revival for Broadway (because there's a 'piano' onstage for Beautiful Girls). Also changed "my wife, she's a cute blonde" to "strawberry blonde" and Carlotta's "and 1800 people just fell apart" to "and 1800 people laughed their arses off." Don't understand the last change -- why??
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