If Follies was a movie...

[Boq101]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:17pm

I think they would need to cut the songs the characters sing in real time that are not performances. This includes:

Don't Look At Me
Waiting for the Girls Upstairs
The Road You Didn't Take
In Buddy's Eyes
Too Many Mornings
The Right Girl
Could I Leave You?

My point for this is that (as much as I love the songs) there are so many types of songs in the show that it owuld confuse the audience. The show has the real time songs, the pastiche performances, and the follies numbers. I think on stage the difference is easier to see, and no matter how cinematic Follies was, that always concerned more the blocking and choreography. It would ground the male characters (who aren't meant to sing except in the Follies)as apart from this reunion and it would just seem to make more sense on screen.

I do realize this is a way of making Follies the movie in the way Chicago was made into a movie, giving songs reasons for being there besides the character's urge to sing. This is just an idea, what do you think?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:19pm

Losing My Mind is one song that cannot go

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:22pm

I think WHO'S THAT WOMAN would make the cut. Because they could brilliant flashbacks with that number.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:22pm

I really wouldn't like to see this made into a movie and for multiple reasons.

And if all those songs you listed had to go, then I'd definitely never want to see that movie made.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:23pm

I can see Losing My Mind Too Many Mornings both working fine. And also, if done well, Waiting for the Girls Upstairs could translate fine as well.

I'll agree about the others though.

[Julian2]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:23pm

Wait, is this a musical movie or a movie with songs?

BIG difference.

[jewishboy]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:24pm

What is the point of making a movie musical of Follies if you are going to cut out all the songs that have to do with what little plot there is? Why not just do a movie about a Ziegfeld reunion and use real Ziegfeld Follies songs?

[Boq101]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:26pm

Julian2, you're right. I think I pictured it more as a movie with song performances.

Guys, I never said I'd cut Losing My Mind, that's a number in the loveland section, so it's justifiable. Who's that Woman is performed, so it's also justifiable under the circumstacnes I presented. I suppose that if songs like Too Many Mornings and Girls Upstairs were done instead with the characters in the past only then they'd make sense in this format. That way the younger selves can inform the plot without just phasing in and out.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:27pm

Nearly every single one of those songs listed as needing to be cut are either necessary to establish backstory, characterization, or plot development. I'd never be able to imagine any version of Follies cutting those.

[Tom148502]

Posted: 6/21/07 at 10:27pm

Bog101, I suggest you try to write your own original movie and not screw around with someone else's material.