"Follies in Concert" Comments — Page 3

BigFatBlonde said: "For me Barbara Cook singing "In Buddy's Eyes" and "Losing my mind" more than make up for the Patinkin's manic Buddy and Remick's less than perfect singing.

My wish is that they had issued the concert recording dialogue and all. "

I agree that Barbara is heavenly but even she doens't QUITE get the character when singing the song--it feels mor elike, well a concert recording. I just find the whole Concert project a mess and it's by far the least listened of the Follies recordings (yes even after the London one). The whole tone of the piece is gone, Mandy is self indulgent but almost worse, way too young, much of the rest of the cast is good but the sound isn't, the idea to allow applause on some tracks and not others is lame. And the WHOLE point of the Concert by Thomas k Shepherd was to finally get a complete version on record. So then why hack up so much of the score!!! Idiotic. It really feels liek a misse dopportunity to me.

i do really enjoy the documentary about it though lol

PalJoey is a real pal.

Follies in Miniature puts me 15 minutes closer to actually being there. Having seen already 30 minutes or so of whatever video is out there of this incredible show (thanks to the wonders of YouTube and fellow BWWers), plus following it and reading about it most of my semi-informed life, it's a treat to have this "passed down" to me. You just made me and my FOLLIES obsessed partner extremely happy (and grateful).

Also, a nice footnote -- not too many of us share much of our personal lives, we can easily hide behind our avatars and spew whatever thoughts come out of our (sometimes) warped little minds...but I knew that my partner was a keeper when I went over to his apartment and saw his copy of "Everything Was Possible."

I'm sure he thought the same thing when I showed him my FOLLIES windowcard.

A match made in BWW Time Machine Heaven.

You're the best, Pal.

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Updated On: 4/29/08 at 11:13 PM

PalJoey,
Is the audio from those "sweetening tapes" I've been reading about in Everything Was Possible?

Ah. The taps in Who's That Woman sound really loud. That's why I thought it might have something to do with the tapes.

I think my favorite part of the concert recording is the audience indeed, especially the rapturous applause after "Who's That Woman?" or even during? I can't remember now but I do remember it being thrilling.

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Ditto that, Norn. Though with the amount of FOLLIES recordings out there, I knew from the start that the City Center production wouldn't get recorded. But wow, was that one thrilling evening out at the theatre! (Victor Garber's throat issues and all)

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I do still hold out the dream that in my lifetime I'll see a truly mind-blowing production, whether on stage or in this continually threatened film version. All dreamers must awake, though, I suppose.

But until then: I have to laugh, I have to love, I have to live. That's my trip.

Maybe Rob Marshall will bring it to the silver screen...

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Vanessa Williams as Phyllis!

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Vanessa Williams could bring a better kind of world-weary glamour than Michelle Pfeiffer. It really needs someone with showgirl legs and an acquired sophistication.

Vanessa has all that effortlessly.

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I also think that my choice for Phyllis a decade or so ago, Susan Sarandon, would be fun in the role of Solange.