GavestonPS said: ...
As for the true "Sondheim musicals (music and lyrics)", I'm with Jarethan that the single greatest 2 hours in a theater I ever spent was the Saturday matinee when I first saw FOLLIES. That the experience has never been fully repeated has mostly to do with money and isn't a reflection on the show itself, IMHO.
I'm not sure any of his scores can touch that one, though I don't think I can say FOLLIES is, objectively, his best overall show. (I do often defend the book, but it's hard for even James Goldman to compete with Hugh Wheeler.)
Interesting observation re the real issue being financing. That would certainly factor into the sheer grandeur of the show...I think that Aronson set may be the greatest set I have ever seen in any show (although the original Sweeney Todd was pretty incredible also), and I have always assumed it cost a king's ransom (and was probably one of the reasons the show did not return its investment).. While there have been good attempts to capture the grandeur of the original costumes, clearly a lot more money would have been required, plus more imagination.
I think there were a couple of other factors that may apply more to Follies than other shows. Seeing that original production provided a sensation that there was never going to be a show as great and as grand and as profound and as sheerly entertaining and as heartbreaking as that one. I don't think that feeling was possible in any subsequent production unless you were seeing it for the first time (although I do admit that I felt the same way when I saw it 4 other times in the original run). Other factors:
First. The entire original cast was perfect. I don't think I have seen a subsequent production in which that was the case. The last one, for example, had several really inferior performances in key roles, as did the original London version, the Belasco version (three out of four IMO). I thought the Papermill version fared better, but no cigar. In the featured roles, no-one has ever come close to Ethel Shutta, Mary McCarty, or IMO Yvonne DeCarlo. YDC seemed like she WAS Carlotta...a good part of that due to her actual career. Of the four leads, the only one I think has been surpassed (exactly once) was Alexis Smith. Donna Murphy did it for me, but Donna Murphy is one of the (non-prolific) greats to me.
Second. The novelty of the staging will be hard to ever replicate. For example, the first time I saw Waiting for the Girls Upstairs, I was so amazed by the sheer brilliance of the direction, that I could not stop thinking about it for quite a while...the sheer intricacy accomplished so much and dazzled. All subsequent productions pretty much replicated that staging, losing that excitement factor for a repeat viewer. (On the other hand, I still got goosebumps during Put on Your Sunday Clothes in every production of Hello Dolly I have ever seen...it didn't earn those goosebumps because of its originality, but because of its choral arrangements and perfect execution). Nothing has come close to the original Loveland staging and, again unless you have seen it, the staging was so 'go for broke', especially Ben's breakdown, and etc. (Dollars do play a role in that..the Loveland stein the last production was so cheesy that it impacted enjoyment of the entire sequence).
Third. And I admit that this probably applies to me more than most people. Greatness does not require perfection. And Follies was never perfect. Since the very first time I saw the show, I have been bored for very short periods of time during the Ben and Sally sequences. Repeat viewing makes them LESS appealing.
Sorry that I went on too long; but, while I do think money plays a major role in mounting a production of Follies that can approach the greatness of the original one, I do think there was an alignment of the stars factor that will always be hard to beat.
Finally, I have to say that I never even liked Oklahoma until the current production, which I loved. I purchased tickets for WSS after reading the first previewers comments, because it sounds so different from the same old stodgy version that I am sooooooo sick of (and never loved in the first place, because I really didn't like a lot of the choreography and felt that certain episodes slowed it down...but, oh that score). Maybe the next production of Follies needs to take a really fresh look at the material, cut a song or two, tighten the Ben / Sally dialogue, etc. Who knows?
Updated On: 12/12/19 at 12:35 PM
