Follies 1987 London Production (and general Follies thread =] ) — Page 2

Papermill used "Ah, But Underneath" performed wonderfully by Dee Hoty, who also danced in Who's That Woman as well. She probably could have done Lucy and Jessie, but I guess she doesn't really classify herself as dancer.

Papermill I believe was almost completely revamped in terms of the book, James Goldman worked hand in hand with the production team at Papermill. I never really "disliked" the lead four but in the Papermill version they come across and friendly and cordial to eachother and at least civil with their spouses and eachother.

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"Ah, But Underneath" was used at Paper Mill not because Dee Hoty couldn't dance (she can), but because the creative team felt that in context, there's more of a payoff with "Ah, But Underneath" than with "Lucy & Jessie". Now, "Lucy & Jessie" is a brilliant song, no question. But it has a serpentine lyric that flies by, followed by some terrific hot-cha dance music (courtesy of John Berkman), with the lyric having ended about five minutes earlier. In the original production, the choreography is sensational ... and then, for all its dazzlement, it just ends.

I didn't see the London production, but I understand that the "Ah, But Underneath" staging had all sorts of tricks with Diana Rigg disappearing and reappearing in different spots on the stage. At Paper Mill, "Ah, But Underneath" was staged in the style of a Jack Cole number - leading lady pursued by chorus boys with Phyllis stripping off layers (both psychologically and physically), and finally, when she got down to the payoff, disappearing altogether.

While I missed "Lucy & Jessie," I think "Ah, But Underneath" accomplished a few notable things dramatically: it suggested that Phyllis feels that there's nothing to her below the surface, ending the number with a dramatic payoff and a clear point of view; her dancing with the chorus boys reminds us of the scene we witnessed earlier at the party when she has a fling with the young waiter, Kevin or the "boy half your age in the grass" that she cites in "Could I Leave You"; and it does all this in the guise of a period "Follies" style, a strip tease.

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Updated On: 10/25/08 at 08:39 AM

I view the original Broadway and the London versions of "Follies" rather like having your favorite candy bar available in dark and milk chocolate.

But I prefer the dark.

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I put the Follies in Miniature video back on YouSendIt. PM me for the link.

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Follies fans PM me. The link will be up for 7 days.

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X-posted from a PM discussion with Scripps2 of the videos from the original:

What you're noticing about the ghost of Ethel Shutta and the difference in Who's That Woman is the genius of Michael Bennett's staging, which was even more defining to that production than Hal Prince's work.

The reason no production has equaled the original isn't the script or the score or the sets of the costumes. It is the absence of Michael Bennett's contribution.

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I think that for Michael it was in many ways a ghost story--not a conventional one, but one that he could take in different directions.

First, he could take the long-held theatrical belief that old theaters have ghosts, and show in dance and movement what they would look like--in a way that ghosts had never been depicted before: 7-foot-tall showgirls moving in slow motion, once-colorful costumes rendered only in shades of gray, ghost of ourselves when we were young and optimistic and not-yet-jaded, trailing behind the middle-aged characters or looming over them.

Then he could show people who were so haunted by the ghosts of themselves that they were stuck in the past: that was how he stages the young Sally, Ben, Phyllis and Buddy bursting through, shockingly, into the present-day scenes.

And, finally, in Loveland (and least successfully), he could show how those ghosts of who we were then could help us understand who we are now and who we can still become.

But no other director since has had the Bennettian imagination to tell that kind of ghost story, especially the idiot who directed and botched the Roundabout production.

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Updated On: 10/26/08 at 09:44 AM

By the way, what is this soundboard that everybody speaks of?

As far as I can tell, Marti Rolph only sings part of "Too Many Mornings" in the December 1971 performance. It seems pretty likely, given that Collins sounds slightly rough in a few places, that Collins was under the weather but went on anyway and that's why Rolph sings the high, exposed part of the song. It was a strange solution to the problem.

My guess is that the understudy (Terry Saunders at that time) had been deemed not really adequate (though later she came back as the Phyllis understudy).

Or perhaps Saunders was also sick and so Collins had to go on.

[RobertArmin] "Interesting that Barbara Cook was seriously considered for Sally, too. Of course, she did get to play the role a decade later at Lincoln Center. But Dorothy Collins was heartbreaking in the original."

[TedChapin] "And a wonderful person, great with the cast. And who knew she had asthma and had to use an inhaler often during the run. Marti Rolph told me some nights she had to sing Dorothy's part in “Too Many Mornings” when She (Dorothy) didn’t have the breath."

Here is the full interview:
http://lettersfromtheinside.com/Chapin.htm

Dorothy Collins says the "If you don't kiss me Ben..." line and then Marti Rolph proceeds to sing the entire song.

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I would assume Dorothy would just mirror or mimic Marti's movements, the one picture I've seen of the number shows Ben holding Young Sally with Sally holding onto Young Sally. It seems like a strange idea but I guess it's better than having Dorothy struggle through the song.

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But the genius of Michael was that he could have fun making it a spooky ghost story--but genuinely, shivers-up-the-spine spooky--AND at the same time make it a sophisticated musical drama AND at the same time put in razzle-dazzle musical-comedy dance elements to make it fun in an old-fashioned way.

Aside from him, no one can do all those things at the same time.

No one. And I mean NO ONE.

He knew how to create what the French call a coup de theatre.

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