Follies last night

[evic]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 4:06pm

Saw the show the third week of previews- I loved it then and love it even more now- there were some minor changes in the Lucy dance and some other blocking bits that worked better. Audience went crazy for all of the show stoppers- cast was impeccible. Jan had one slip during Leave You after her groan she got behind in the music but covered well and got one of the biggest hands of the evening. On a side note- there was a group of shrews behind me who were chattering before the show and the witch behind me kept kicking my seat before it started. I asked her to stop and she said she didnt even realize she was doing it. One commented how ugly the theater was and wondered how they could have it in such awful condition (she was referring to the covered walls)-totally clueless. Then as soon as the Prologue started, they started whispering and I turned around and told them to shut up and one told me to take a valium- a 28 piece orchestra playing gorgeous music and they talk- Stupid hags. Other than that- a perfect performance and evening.

[Just_John]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 4:23pm

I cannot STAND when people think they can talk during a performance and when you let them know they cannot, they feel the need to talk back like you're the one being annoying. ugh, the storied I have about that.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 4:39pm

I made the mistake of seeing Follies on a Wednesday afternoon. It was like being on the geriatric ward. Before the show started, the woman next to me actually turned to me and said, "Shouldn't you be in school?"

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 5:01pm

You need to read these boards moar often. Don't you know that if people talk during a show, it's the show's fault for not holding their attention? And that is certainly the case with this unpleasant monstrosity.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 5:11pm

What a shame! When I saw the original production, the geriatrics at the Saturday matinee only made noise when they cheered for each of the stars as they entered, and then again when the ladies promenaded to "Beautiful Girls."

Since Yvonne De Carlo (from TV's "The Munsters") was the only one I'd heard of (outside of press for the show), the reactions of the matinee ladies gave me a sense of what it meant, for those who knew them, to have so many famous figures on stage.

***

themysteriousgrowl, 40 years ago I would have agreed: if an audience was restless and preoccupied, it was the fault of the show. But since then, people have become so conditioned by TV, the internet, and rock concerts (all terrific media in their own rights and ones I enjoy) that have discouraged the kind of concentration necessary to enjoy serious work in the theater.

Attempts to compete by overamplifying stage actors and using mixed media and special effects to keep audiences dazzled have only made attention spans shorter, I fear.

Nowadays, I'd just as soon see theater in a black box with 99 seats. The intimacy tends to make audience members behave better.
Updated On: 9/29/11 at 05:11 PM

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 5:52pm

I'd say the "geriatrics," so decried here and on other threads, show more astute judgments about this show than many of their juniors who are in a perpetual swoon even before the first note is played.

Nothing wrong with matinee audiences. Yes, the theatre is ugly. Yes, the show plods resolutely to nowhere.

[binau]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 6:05pm

After Eight, you're really scraping the barrel trying to find a segue between this topic content and bashing FOLLIES. This thread has nothing to do about the elderly not enjoying the show (although, I always thought that being close to death if anything they'd have a greater appreciation :P)...and you obviously know that your meaning of the theatre being 'ugly' is different to what they meant. Can't you wait until there is, or come up with, a more ideal transition to bash the show?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 6:13pm

If I live to be 105, I'll never understand where people get the idea that "geriatrics" are mean and miserable and rigid and maybe just a little sad, too.

I'll just never understand it.

I'll just never, never, never understand it.

I'll never, never understand it.

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 6:14pm

Yeah, AfterEight, it is such a horrible thing that younger people are excited about THEATER. That really upsets you?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 6:31pm

Then again, if I live to be 105, perhaps I will understand it.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 7:56pm

Qolbinau,

Did you read the original poster's entire post? If you did or do, you found or will find the following statement.

"One commented how ugly the theater was and wondered how they could have it in such awful condition"

I was responding to that statement, as well as to several derogatory comments in the thread regarding "geriatrics" at the matinees.

Ljay,

I'm thrilled that young people are excited about the theatre. That's what the theatre needs to survive. And I'm thrilled by your excitement about Follies, and qolbinau's as well.

I thank you for all your reports on the show's progress.

But I'm definitely not thrilled with the bashing of seniors. I assure you that there are many who are as excited about the theatre as any young person, and who, just by the circumstance of their age, know a great deal more not only about the theatre, but about life in general.

[binau]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:15pm

The context of that quote and the importance of it, was that the shrew in question didn't realise that the theatre was intentionally 'dressed down', not that the Marquis Theatre is ugly, which it may very well be. (I.e. it isn't relevant to assert that her comments were justified by saying the theatre is ugly because it doesn't capture the meaning behind what she was saying).

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:19pm

I don't see where the OP mentions geriatrics, though I'm aware someone else did.

I also don't see where the people the OP mentioned, whatever their age, expressed any opinion of the show, much less showed discernment about it. I just saw stuff about kicking his seat and saying the theater was ugly and talking during the show.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:40pm

Qolbinau,

The woman referred to by the op, so charmingly referrred to by both you and evic as a "shrew," was obviously referring to the ugly mortuary drapes inadvisably hung up in the theatre.

And yes, the woman was absolutely right. It was ugly, hideously ugly.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:42pm

Do you approve of people talking one the performance has begun, then snippily telling the OP to "take a valium" when s/he asks them to shut up? Does age matter, in that case?

[binau]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:49pm

I feel like I'm really beating a dead horse here, so I'm sorry to drag this on because it isn't that important. But obviously the notable part about her comment is that she thought the theatre was in genuinely bad condition. This is different from the kind of ugliness you think it is, I think.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 8:50pm

AC,

It's bad to be rude at any age.

Ageism is bad, at any age.

Calling people shrews, witches, hags, and scornfully, "geriatrics," is bad at any age.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 9:18pm

^^^^^

And, hence, my defense of the geriatrics when I first saw the show. But, then, they actually liked FOLLIES, so I'm sure you dismiss them out of hand. LOL.

[After Eight]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 9:30pm

Uhhh, Gaveston2, you actually don't understand that your very use of the expression, "the geriatrics,", is itself derogatory?

I expected better from you.

[AC126748]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 9:38pm

It's really not, unless you choose to read the term in such a way.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 9:48pm

Not to speak for Gaveston, but I took his use of the phrase--even without the scare quotes--to be as ironic as After Eight's.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 10:05pm

Thank you, Reginald, and, yes, of course.

In fact, at age 57 I assume I am considered one of the "geriatrics" by this board.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/29/11 at 10:52pm

I'm so disappointed. I thought, from the subject line, that this thread was going to be about Follies.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 9/30/11 at 6:24am

I turned 70 last week, a significant dividing line to me. I don't really feel old, but when I look into a mirror, I definitely look old. At any rate, I guess I am now part of the geriatric set and may be looked upon as such by younger theatregoers. Well, the hell with them. I do not talk during shows and am very annoyed by those who do, regardless of their age. A device that I have used in the past goes like this: I turn around and say to the guilty party, "I'm sorry, but the people on stage are making so much noise that I can hardly hear you." This usually works, at least for the time being.

I am seeing FOLLIES in December and am looking forward to it. Since I am a long time member of this Board, I am aware of the draping of the already ugly Marquis Theatre, so I won't have to comment on that aspect of the production. I am reading EVERYTHING WAS POSSIBLE by Ted Chapin which dissects the preparation of the original production with flair. Like Pal Joey, I came to this thread hoping to hear the latest about this critically acclaimed show. So, let's get on with it. And please stop looking at me as if I were old. I have to be some age, so I may as well be 70.

[redmustang]

Posted: 9/30/11 at 7:01am

Gypsy9 - what a great line to use on talkers at the theatre, but I doubt that most of today's theatre-goers would appreciate the wit. They'd be whispering to each other: "What did he just say?" for the next five minutes. I, too, was misled into thinking this thread was about the show. OP, talk about the show.