Follies: Rewrites in London — Page 2

Updated On: 2/22/15 at 07:29 PM

Updated On: 2/22/15 at 01:59 AM

"Thank you so much! Though the set isn't as spectacular and beautiful as the original, it still looks really nice (according to the quality of the video).

I found the dialogue at the beginning interesting, especially because they are actually talking *with* the ghosts... "

I had seen the show 5 times in NYC and considered it the best show I had ever seen (that production still is). I was in London on Business, traveling with work friends, who I convinced to see the show, citing my personal views.

I arrived at the theatre and saw all that plastic surrounding the stage...I suddenly realized it wasn't a recreation, but I figured it was still Follies. I looked at the program and confirmed that. When I saw that Lucy and Jessie was replaced, I was disappointed, but figured that I had also seen Uptown Downtown in Boston, where I had gone to college...and loved it. I also remembered that I loved Boy, Can That Boy Foxtrot, which was also replaced by a better song.

So, I figured that it might be the next phase, further improvement of a flawed masterpiece. Boy, was I wrong. In every way, the changes were inferior. The script was never good, here it was awful...I was actually thinking that my friends must be assuming I'd lost my mind in praising it. It was clear that Diana Rigg couldn't sing, but was stil sexy...solution: Ah, But Underneath. Had it not been replacing Lucy and Jessie, I would have said it was a fun number. To me, it screwed up the whole Loveland sequence...after two solos, you needed a Follies production number, instead of another solo.

Had I never seen the original Follies, I would probably have loved it (minus the awful script), but I did...and it was in every way inferior to the original.

I know the script was a complete rewrite and never again used--but I always wondered if Goldman incorporated any of it into the significant changes made for the currently used script--the ending scene involving not just the four main characters, for example.

Follies in London really does feel, even from the CD, like a true nostalgia piece. There's a bit of bickering but ending with Ben's positive song and then adding the older characters singing a reprise of "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" in a style that comes off like "Well we had some issues, but man we've had a good life, eh pal?" in particular seems to emphasize that. That, plus some fairly big stage names in the cast and a big elaborate CamMac production all probably added up to why it was a success in London.