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

#1

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

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?

#2

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

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?

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

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

#3

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

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

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

#4

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

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.

#5

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

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

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

#6

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

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

Thanks ljay! I'd greatly appreciate it.

#7

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

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.

#8

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

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.

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"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian

#9

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

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

Well done all!

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#10

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

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

#11

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

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?

#12

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

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.

#13

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

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.

#14

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

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.

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"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#15

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

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

#16

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

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.

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

#17

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

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."

#18

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

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

Ah, that what was what I suspected with PLK.

#19

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

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

#20

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

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

Sondheim singing the follies demos

Follies Demos