Follies in Concert DVD

I got it for christmas. Was anyone else really disappointed? Really ridiculous cuts and not too spectacular performances.... No Road You Didn't Take??? However I did think Mandy did a good job in Buddy's Blues. But why all the cuts? I suppose the documentary was enjoyable, but it certainly didn't make up....

Yeah, I remember being TREMENDOUSLY disappointed by it.

I'd tried to get tickets for it. I don't live in New York, so when they went onsale, Sunday at noon, I sat and did nothing but redial the number for three hours! When I finally got through, I said "I can't believe it! I finally got through!"

And the person on the other end of the line said, I kid you not, "That's because we're out of tickets."

And you mean that in the past TWENTY YEARS since then, they couldn't have released the entire concert on video? I mean, they had to have filmed the entire thing! You can't tell me that the camera person just sat there, just filming snippets of each song!

Though, with all of the bootleg people I know, NO ONE says that they have it. So, maybe that's what the camera man did...

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In future you can always read amazon reviews before purchasing :), it is usual helpful in preventing disappointment. But I'm sure anything Sondheim is better owned that not owned. (Especially if a video recording).

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The reason the full concert has not been released is that BBC didn't film all of it. They were only allowed/able to film highlights. For me the documentary part leading up to the concert is much more interesting. Sondheim said at the time that the BBC/PBS broadcast was unfairly maligned because it was promoted as if people would see the whole concert.

PalJoey, what you feel about the concert is in line with what every person who sees a major revival feels. I think partly because our memories tend to distort to good and the bad. With FOLLIES the original cast was so legendary that no subsequent production - no mater how good - cannot live up the "memory" of the original even among those who never saw the original. Like MY FAIR LADY with Andrews and Harrison or GYPSY with Merman or even CHICAGO with Verdon and Rivera - they were all of a moment and nothing can ever bring them back. That's why the best and most successful revivals (CABARET, and even this year's SOUTH PACIFIC) find ways to make the material shine without trying to mimic the originals. I'd a love a really creative directors have a chance to remake FOLLIES into something new for the 21st century.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGRa-s5qrOs


Is that also off the silent footage? I just found it for the first time