Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen? — Page 10

I love Bernadette and loved her Sally, but her voice was taxed in that role more than I would want to see captured on film. Just watch some of it on YouTube.

I know Carlotta would get star casting, but I thought Hollis Resnik knocked it out of the park in the recent Chicago Shakespeare Theatre production.

The older they go with the cast in general the less likely they are to pull in a wide movie audience. And a FOLLIES movie would cost too much money to not consider that. (And by consider, I mean not get a "green light.")

They shouldn't cast Jennifer Lawrence as Phyllis, but I bet (if it ever actually happens) they will cast it as young as possible without being too young for the part.

In other words, 40s to late-50s for most of the roles. Not 60s to 70s or 80s (with one or two exceptions, maybe).

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BUT WILL SHE PROMISE NOT TO CRY?!?

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Girl, let it go.

Bernadette is simply not a Sally.

Follies, much like Company, is a show about age, but age at the time it was written. Much like Bobby, being 35, is suddenly realizing he is middle-aged, the characters in Follies, ages 45-55 for the protagonists, are realizing that they are elderly. They are old and have grown somewhat stout and worn out as they left middle age behind.

In the 1970s, this was a thing that made more sense than it does now, because 35 and 50 were different, medically and socially, than they are today. Lifespans are extending. People are younger longer. (Look at Pippin for another example: 66-year-old Berthe was a "feisty relic" in the original, but an "active, athletic and vibrant senior" today.)

You can either cast older and have them claimed to be younger, cast at the age and just go with the fact that people won't think about it, or cast older and make the stated or implied ages older than they are. But to leave it unstated is to risk an irony that doesn't belong in this particular piece.

It makes no sense at all. Just like saying that "movie folk" have no business on the stage.

Right. But it's cool to be against film folk doing anything related to the stage. Even films about the stage.

I do think that it should be like the original production. Get starry (but competent) names for the four leads and Carlotta but fill out the rest with at least people who have some stage background.

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I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any movie stars casted. I'm saying that you could easily throw Bernadette in the mix as Sally alongside a nice mix of broadway and movie stars.

This probably won't ever happen but I can dream.

The crying was low on my list of issues with her performance as Sally. She didn't look the part, her characterization was all wrong, and her voice didn't suit her the score at all. She's just not the right age or type.

You are asking a brother and sister to play a long term married couple whose whole schtick is kissing on the mouth during a song?

I would rather have Victoria Clark as Sally over Bernadette, she's the closest to get the role as much as Dorothy Collins did in 1971.

Casting update:

Phyllis and Ben: Kate Winslet and Kelsey Grammer
Sally and Buddy: Amy Adams and Nathan Fillion
Carlotta: Nicole Kidman or Meryl Streep
Stella: Kathy Bates
Hattie: Jayne Houdyshell
Salonge: Marion Cotillard
Heidi: Shirley Jones
Emily and Theodore: Debbie Reynolds and Carleton Carpenter
Dimitri: Christopher Plummer
Roscoe: Nathan Gunn