#26
Posted: 11/10/11 at 1:10am
Oops! Understudies for both of the males were on.
Florence Lacey in Follies tonight — Page 2
#27
Posted: 11/10/11 at 1:21am
Both of the young males? :P
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
#28
Posted: 11/10/11 at 1:22am
Omg. I could swear I had written "young." LOL.
#29
Posted: 11/10/11 at 4:25am
The show could have been over reeeeeal quick:
Phyllis: You married Ben, didn't you?
Sally: Yes.
*curtain*
Phyllis: You married Ben, didn't you?
Sally: Yes.
*curtain*
"I chose and my world was shaken--so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You have to move on"
#30
Posted: 11/10/11 at 7:29am
Not necessarily . . . Phyllis and Sally could have proceeded to switch lines and songs for the remainder of the show . . . might have been interesting!
". . . POP . . ."
#31
Posted: 11/10/11 at 3:02pm
Phyllis: You married Ben, didn't you?
Sally: Yes. In my mind.
Sally sings "Losing My Mind"
*curtain*
Sally: Yes. In my mind.
Sally sings "Losing My Mind"
*curtain*
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#32
Posted: 11/10/11 at 3:33pm
Phyllis would not have lasted long as the wife of a traveling salesman in Phoenix. That marriage would barely have lasted umpteen hours, and there would never have been a Timmy or a Tommy.
#33
Posted: 11/10/11 at 4:46pm
so this u/s list looked something like this:
At this performance this role of....will be played by
Carlotta Campion will be played by Florence Lacey
Sandra Crane will be played by Jessica Sheridan
Young Buddy will be played by Brandon Bieber
Young Ben will be played by Brian Shepard
At this performance this role of....will be played by
Carlotta Campion will be played by Florence Lacey
Sandra Crane will be played by Jessica Sheridan
Young Buddy will be played by Brandon Bieber
Young Ben will be played by Brian Shepard
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
#34
Posted: 11/10/11 at 5:23pm
I wouldn't be surprised if Delcroix's absences have something to do with his impending fatherhood--his fiancee is due right around now, if she hasn't had the baby already.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#35
Posted: 11/10/11 at 5:29pm
Thanks for the info, ACL. What I don't understand is that there's only one swing for all the young men (and one for all the younger women). What happens if more than one ensemble member is out/understudying another role? Were they one man short last night?
Updated On: 11/10/11 at 05:29 PM
#36
Posted: 11/10/11 at 6:46pm
they must have restaged a few things to make up for the missing ensemble male. for a show with such a short run, two swings is legit. if they extend, I would expect more swings to get added.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
#37
Posted: 11/13/11 at 5:48pm
I saw video of Elaine Paige on Theater Talk singing "I'm Still Here" with all her might. On Saturday, I saw Florence Lacey play and sing it with world-weary restraint. It was perfection. A knock-out.
For me, finally seeing Follies for the first time, almost everything is the show is just right, really wonderful. There was only one thing I thought was all wrong. Bernadette Peters sang Losing My Mind as though she were losing her mind. In the perfect Follies in my head, Sally sings the song with feet firmly on the ground as a deeply felt torch song.
And when Ben starts to fall apart during Live, Laugh, Love, it surprised me to hear the conductor prompt the actor/character with his line. I'm not sure what the desired effect was, but for me it was "what the...?"
For me, finally seeing Follies for the first time, almost everything is the show is just right, really wonderful. There was only one thing I thought was all wrong. Bernadette Peters sang Losing My Mind as though she were losing her mind. In the perfect Follies in my head, Sally sings the song with feet firmly on the ground as a deeply felt torch song.
And when Ben starts to fall apart during Live, Laugh, Love, it surprised me to hear the conductor prompt the actor/character with his line. I'm not sure what the desired effect was, but for me it was "what the...?"
#38
Posted: 11/13/11 at 5:58pm
The conductor always yells out "SOME BREAK" to prompt Ben during his breakdown , it's in the script.
#39
Posted: 11/13/11 at 6:38pm
Caught the matinee yesterday. Very well sold, and a great performance.
Raines has lost some considerable weight, and is still sounds wonderful. Burstein is still a heart-breaking Buddy. Peters is still a bit overcooked, but vocally sounding a lot more sure in her upper register. And Maxwell is taking the Tony and the audience knows it.
I also agree Lacey was fantastic. Simply thrilling. Such a beautiful voice, and a strong interpretation of the song.
Raines has lost some considerable weight, and is still sounds wonderful. Burstein is still a heart-breaking Buddy. Peters is still a bit overcooked, but vocally sounding a lot more sure in her upper register. And Maxwell is taking the Tony and the audience knows it.
I also agree Lacey was fantastic. Simply thrilling. Such a beautiful voice, and a strong interpretation of the song.
#40
Posted: 11/13/11 at 7:05pm
I saw the matinee too. Danny Burstein as Buddy was so lovable, it made Sally seem all the more crazy and cruel not to appreciate him. And I loved how Young Sally was played as a hard-edged girl, just the type who eats candybars for breakfast and doesn't make the bed and chases unavailable men.
#41
Posted: 11/13/11 at 7:13pm
It is interesting (and because of my bias, a little bit sad) that reactions to Bernadette's performance are still quite mixed. Do you think people who aren't 'theatre fans' feel the same way about her performance?
What is the word of mouth even like for this show outside of BWW?
What is the word of mouth even like for this show outside of BWW?
Give me claws and a hunch, just away from this bunch.
Updated On: 11/13/11 at 07:13 PM
#42
Posted: 11/13/11 at 7:14pm
Raines has lost weight since starting Follies or since Guiding Light? Interesting...but good for him!
#43
Posted: 11/13/11 at 7:20pm
I think it comes down to the fact that Bernadette doesn't have a showy role. I prefer the role of Sally, but Phyllis is practically a guaranteed scene and show stealer. It's not hard to mess up Phyllis, but in my opinion, Sally is the much harder role to successfully play. And I think Bernadette is doing a DAMN good job. Her performance changes quite often, but as long as she isn't overacting, it's a very satisfying performance. Her final moments/exit are unbelievably chilling.
Updated On: 11/13/11 at 07:20 PM
#44
Posted: 11/13/11 at 8:00pm
In the perfect Follies in my head, Sally sings the song with feet firmly on the ground as a deeply felt torch song.
Interesting point.
The other 3 Follies clearly represent epiphanies for the other characters: Buddy comes to realizes he loves a woman who will never love him, Phyllis realizes that she would be fine "if Lucy and Jessie could only combine," and Ben realizes that he a sham.
In the original production, it WAS more like it is in the perfect Follies in your head: Dorothy Collins's still, tortured torch-song rendition communicated Sally's acceptance that for all the years she had been with Buddy, she has been losing her mind while doing all the things enumerated in the song (drinking coffee, talking to friends, standing in the middle of the floor, dimming the lights), all the while losing her mind. But all those things were private madnesses she was admitting to, things Sally had kept from Buddy and her friends. Whether or not she would go on losing her mind was left unsaid, but the song was a song of psychological insight and clarity--and of acceptance.
For the past few years, however, we have seen the steady pathologizing of the supposed mental health of Sally's character. It started with the astonishing performance by Victoria Clark in the Encores presentation. But Clark's Sally was at least functionally psychotic: She got through the days bearing her burden...everything fell apart only when she got to the Weismann and actually saw Ben again and kissed him.
Bernadette's Sally is certifiable, from the moment she comes in and first opens her mouth. She seems like the chorus girl who went batty, the one everyone in Phoenix whispers about: "Poor thing, she used to be a dancer in New York." "Her husband cheats on her, you know." "Poor thing..."
I think she's one of those actresses (whom we love) who has become un-direct-able. She revs up and does what she does, and it's so-so-so-Bernadette that everyone says "Oh-it's-so-wonderful!" but no one is able to help her exercise taste and restraint: no one is able to stop her from sinking into overacting, over-pausing and maudlinly crying instead of making the audience cry.
Interesting point.
The other 3 Follies clearly represent epiphanies for the other characters: Buddy comes to realizes he loves a woman who will never love him, Phyllis realizes that she would be fine "if Lucy and Jessie could only combine," and Ben realizes that he a sham.
In the original production, it WAS more like it is in the perfect Follies in your head: Dorothy Collins's still, tortured torch-song rendition communicated Sally's acceptance that for all the years she had been with Buddy, she has been losing her mind while doing all the things enumerated in the song (drinking coffee, talking to friends, standing in the middle of the floor, dimming the lights), all the while losing her mind. But all those things were private madnesses she was admitting to, things Sally had kept from Buddy and her friends. Whether or not she would go on losing her mind was left unsaid, but the song was a song of psychological insight and clarity--and of acceptance.
For the past few years, however, we have seen the steady pathologizing of the supposed mental health of Sally's character. It started with the astonishing performance by Victoria Clark in the Encores presentation. But Clark's Sally was at least functionally psychotic: She got through the days bearing her burden...everything fell apart only when she got to the Weismann and actually saw Ben again and kissed him.
Bernadette's Sally is certifiable, from the moment she comes in and first opens her mouth. She seems like the chorus girl who went batty, the one everyone in Phoenix whispers about: "Poor thing, she used to be a dancer in New York." "Her husband cheats on her, you know." "Poor thing..."
I think she's one of those actresses (whom we love) who has become un-direct-able. She revs up and does what she does, and it's so-so-so-Bernadette that everyone says "Oh-it's-so-wonderful!" but no one is able to help her exercise taste and restraint: no one is able to stop her from sinking into overacting, over-pausing and maudlinly crying instead of making the audience cry.
#45
Posted: 11/13/11 at 8:10pm
I think people less "into" theatre who are not vivisecting Bernadette's performance or career history are probably more moved and haunted by her emotional performance than hardcore theatre fans who have to compare her take with the nuances of every Sally predecessor and recording.
Its a shame what we lose sometimes.
Its a shame what we lose sometimes.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#46
Posted: 11/13/11 at 8:13pm
PalJoey, that's such a spot-on assessment. There's nothing anyone can do to stop Bernadette from doing what she does.
I've love to hear what you think about Susan Moniz's Sally - at first she comes across as winsome and girlish, but as the evening goes on, it's clear she's batsh*t crazy. Her "Losing My Mind" also ends with a weird sort of acceptance and pride, rather than Bernie's breakdown.
I've love to hear what you think about Susan Moniz's Sally - at first she comes across as winsome and girlish, but as the evening goes on, it's clear she's batsh*t crazy. Her "Losing My Mind" also ends with a weird sort of acceptance and pride, rather than Bernie's breakdown.
#47
Posted: 11/13/11 at 8:22pm
Hi Raker:
That's exactly the effect Ben's forgetting of the words is supposed to create:
"What the...?"
But in the original, Aronsen's set started jerking and convulsing and the cast started roaming around the set and the ghosts started reprising their numbers, so the effect then became:
"Oh...my...God!"
That's exactly the effect Ben's forgetting of the words is supposed to create:
"What the...?"
But in the original, Aronsen's set started jerking and convulsing and the cast started roaming around the set and the ghosts started reprising their numbers, so the effect then became:
"Oh...my...God!"
#48
Posted: 11/13/11 at 9:31pm
Speaking of forgetting the words, I shed a little tear for adorable Emily Whitman who seems losing it to Alzheimer's. It was a nice, if heartbreaking detail.
#49
Posted: 11/13/11 at 10:52pm
I would have loved to have seen it. Thank you for the details.
#50
Posted: 11/13/11 at 11:59pm
PalJoey, I see where you're coming from, but she certainly made me cry!
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