How do the cut songs from Follies fit into the plot?

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:40pm

Lately I've really fallen in love with some of them, especially Pleasant Little Kingdom, which I believe is suppose to be sung by Ben and Sally?
Others I'm curious about:
Bring On the Girls
All Things Bright and Beautiful
That Old Piano Roll
Who Could Be Blue/ Little White House
Can That Boy Fox Trot
Pleasant Little Kingdom

And I think I'm right to assume Uptown and Downtown would just replace Lucy and Jessie, right?
Also, does anyone know of productions where any of these songs were used?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:48pm

This is what I remember:

Bring on the Girls was replaced by Beautiful Girls
That Old Piano Roll was replaced by Buddy's Blues
Can That Boy Fox Trot was replaced by I'm Still Here

I don't believe the others ever made it to Boston rehearsals.

Uptown Downtown was replaced with Lucy and Jessie, which was later replaced in the 1987 London production by Ah, But Underneath, which was also used in the Papermill production, but reverted back to Lucy and Jessie for the Broadway revival.

How did I do, PalJoey?

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 02:48 PM

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 2:52pm

Sondheim tells you in the liner notes of the Papermill recording.

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:04pm

Thanks!


"Sondheim tells you in the liner notes of the Papermill recording."

Unfortunately I bought it off of itunes, something I've regretted.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:10pm

Oh! I'll try to to type them up for you in a little bit.

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:11pm

Thanks ljay! I'd greatly appreciate it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:15pm

I'm pretty sure that Little White House/Who Could Be Blue was an earlier version of the Young Four's Follies number.

I don't think that That Old Piano Roll was a precursor to Buddy's Blues, but I could be wrong.

Pleasant Little Kingdom was (I think) a song intended for Sally.

All Things Bright and Beautiful was (I think) a song for Sally and Ben.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:21pm

Yes, I believe All Things Bright and Beautiful was sort of a precursor to Too Many Mornings, but I may be wrong.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:24pm

Well done all!

[Scripps2]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:25pm

I read somewhere that That Old Piano Roll was a predecessor to The Right Girl.

Buddy sang it while dancing with a broom because Sally (who is stood watching him) refused to dance with him. The song finishes with him hurling the broom through a window.

So Sondheim.

Funny how the same people always flock to a Follies thread. I bet EricMontreal shows up too.
Updated On: 2/17/09 at 03:25 PM

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:35pm

"Pleasant Little Kingdom was (I think) a song intended for Sally. "

On the Papermill recording it sounds like Ben and Sally... was this also replaced by Too Many Mornings? Or perhaps placed right before Too Many Mornings?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:48pm

I just did a google on Pleasant Little Kingdom and read a book excerpt that said it was originally a separate song, then it was going to lead into Too Many Mornings. I don't think it was ever in the script when it got to rehearsal stage, though.

[ljay889]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:49pm

I have time to type of the linter notes for PLK real quick

This was the verse to "Too Many Mornings," when the latter appeared earlier in the show When we placed "Too Many Mornings" later in the plot, it made "Pleasant Little Kingdom," a getting-acquainted song, unusable.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 3:52pm

I may be wrong but I believe "Pleasant Little Kingdom" was in the "The Road You Didn't Take"/"In Buddy's Eye" moments that happen while Ben and Sally are catching up. Eventually, the number was cut, and Sondheim wrote the two solos for that moment. I don't think it was to stand in for "Too Many Mornings."
I love both "Pleasant Little Kingdom," "All Things Bright and Beautiful" (which we can still hear in the Overture), "Uptown/Downtown," "Ah, But Underneath," and the haunting number that's not in the Papermill album but it's in MARRY ME A LITTLE called "It Wasn't Meant to Happen."
Does anyone know who was supposed to sing "It Wasn't Meant to Happen"? I imagine it was Sally. I wish it had been recorded for the Papermill cast recording.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 4:03pm

Yes, "It Wasn't Meant to Happen" was originally a Sally song, also from the days when it was "The Girls Upstairs."
Updated On: 2/17/09 at 04:03 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 4:13pm

"Pleasant Little Kingdom" can be heard on the Scrabble album as a lead-in to "Too Many Mornings," but I think they were just joined for that benefit. There's a verse for Sally and a verse for Ben.

I first heard "All Things Bright and Beautiful" in Marry Me a Little, recognized the music from the Follies prologue and immediately started sobbing.

It's one of Sondheim's most yearning melodies.

Updated On: 2/17/09 at 04:13 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 4:18pm

Here's something I never knew, from Sondheim's Broadway Musicals by Stephen Banfield:

"In Buddy's Eyes," in its original guise as "In Someone's Eyes," included a part for Ben pitted contrapuntally against Sally's and covering some of the sentiments that, it seems, were later siphoned off into his solo "The Road You Didn't Take."

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 2/17/09 at 7:10pm

Ah, that what was what I suspected with PLK.

[Carrie White Trash]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 9:04pm

Sondheim singing the follies demos

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qX-HQ4BDuJM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://youtu.be/qX-HQ4BDuJM

[Carrie White Trash]

Posted: 5/10/15 at 9:08pm

Sondheim singing the follies demos

Follies Demos