My biggest wish for the Kenendy Center's FOLLIES...- Page 4

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 11:55am

Excellent post, PJ. The only part I disagree with is what you say about Sally's "It is tomorrow." I think even the script has the note "there is no hope" before she says it. Buddy is telling her to pull it together and they'll make plans to get back on track tomorrow and she's overwhelmed by the fact that tomorrow is already here.

However, I can see what you mean if I look at it in the grand scheme of things, because we can see things in a way that Sally can't. Yes, she has survived, yes, she has persevered and yes, she's still got Buddy to love her and take care of her.

Posted: 10/13/10 at 12:23pm

I've always thought "It is tomorrow" bookends "Tomorrow is another day" from Gone With the Wind; Scarlett always has hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Sally knows that's a pipe dream. It IS tomorrow.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 3:47pm

I know the stage direction you refer to. I've always loved the startling quality of it. Nevertheless...I remember always being relieved when Loveland ended and the sun came up.

Dorothy Collins's her performance had dark colors, shockingly dark colors, but there was something so essentially sweet about her persona that you kinda thought Sally was going to be all right somehow.

And Alexis Smith was so dynamic that she would end up looking good, even if her world had crumbled.

That point of the original production seemed to be about surviving, not about nihilism or hopelessness.

It wasn't just Dorothy's sunniness and Alexis's dynamism, it was the virtuosity of the staging, the magnificence and grandeur of the sets and costumes, and the various peak levels of excitement that Yvonne DeCarlo/Mary McCarty/Ethel Shutta and some of the others brought to the show.

Those women were not old crones who had lost their magic. They still had it. They were "still here." They may be fat, they may be old, they may walk with a cane, they may be bitter, they may be disappointed by life, but three cheers and damn it they're still here. That's the show I remember.

But, as Reginald Tresilian frequently reminds me, my memories frequently take on lives of their own. (Like the characters in Follies, no surprise.) So I remember feeling that we've been through the storm and we've come through the other side.

But then I would look at the faces of most of the people I dragged to the show and they would look thoroughly depressed.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 4:03pm

"But, as Reginald Tresilian frequently reminds me, my memories frequently take on lives of their own. (Like the characters in Follies, no surprise.)"

I generally wouldn't have it any other way.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 4:05pm

That point of the original production seemed to be about surviving, not about nihilism or hopelessness.

Perfect. As for your memory taking a life of its own, lord knows at least YOU were there!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/13/10 at 6:38pm

"I've been through Brenda Frazier" is my mantra.