Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?- Page 10
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?
Broadway Star Joined: 7/13/08
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#225
Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:38am
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.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#226
Posted: 12/8/14 at 12:15pmWould Bernadette promise not to cry while she sings "Losing My Mind"? Cause that would look embarrassingly amateurish on film.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#227
Posted: 12/8/14 at 12:16pm
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).
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#228
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:13pm
"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"
Bernadette singing FOLLIES in a studio is going to be a lot stronger in voice than many/any of the non-singers listed in this thread. If you want to have a stronger singer than Bernadette you would have to go to Broadway powerhouses like Victoria Clark, which I'm skeptical they'd ever do, to be honest.
"Would Bernadette promise not to cry while she sings "Losing My Mind"? Cause that would look embarrassingly amateurish on film."
I would hope that a director would guide her performance (that's what they are there for, right?) - a few other things should go, most notably the "I. Don't. Have. To. Fight. With. You" Phyl lines - they were just bizarre.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#229
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:16pmBUT WILL SHE PROMISE NOT TO CRY?!?
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#230
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:21pm
She should cry in the appropriate moments. Assuming it wasn't misguided direction I do wonder why directors don't intervene if they notice issues. Is it because Bernadette had the 'power' being the star of the show? In a film-setting if she was ever cast, she would have no power there.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#232
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:52pm
^A little rude.
Bernadette could be a great Sally, but she took the character in an odd direction. I don't know if this was her or the director, but it didn't read the way that they may have meant it to.
I would also like to see her play Sally in the movie. If paired with a different director, she may find the great Sally that she has somewhere in her. I also think that Follies should only star real broadway actors who have lived on the stage and not necessarily infront of a camera. I think that it would add something to the film.
After Chicago and Into the Woods, people will go see a Marshall film without huge stars. Bernadette Peters is already pretty well known and if the film looks good, it could be a success.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#233
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:55pmBernadette is simply not a Sally.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#234
Posted: 12/8/14 at 4:56pmNot to mention that she'll be in her 70s by this time this movie gets made.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#235
Posted: 12/8/14 at 5:03pm
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.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#236
Posted: 12/8/14 at 5:51pm
I also think that Follies should only star real broadway actors who have lived on the stage and not necessarily infront of a camera.
Why is that? Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, now does it? The characters in Follies aren't Broadway stars, and this would be a movie, not a stage show. Should Into The Woods only have cast real-life fairy tale characters?
This movie is only a twinkle in Rob Marshall's eye at this stage, maybe not even that.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#237
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:04pmIt makes no sense at all. Just like saying that "movie folk" have no business on the stage.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#238
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:10pm
The original stars weren't all stage veterans. Two of the leads were movie stars, one was a recording artist, and Carlotta was best known from TV.
The supporting characters and Ben were all stage veterans though.
**Oh my gosh I just became a "Broadway Legend!"**
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#239
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:11pmRight. But it's cool to be against film folk doing anything related to the stage. Even films about the stage.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#240
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:12pm
I'm saying that it may add something special to the movie.
It's a chance to let broadway actors shine onstage in roles where it makes sense to do so.
I just know that when they make this film and cast movie stars, you'll all be complaining that they aren't good enough and should have casted stronger singers.
Can't wait to see that. And many of you DO act like movie actors shouldn't act on stage.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#241
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:16pmI 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.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#242
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:19pm
"It's a chance to let broadway actors shine onstage in roles where it makes sense to do so."
And will you be the person fronting the tens of millions of dollars necessary to back the film since a major studio would never make a film like this without huge stars? It's all well and good to say "I like those there Broadway peoples and they should get work in these there broadway movies" but it's another thing to live here in reality with the rest of us.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#243
Posted: 12/8/14 at 6:57pm
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.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#244
Posted: 12/8/14 at 7:31pm
Getting her to promise that she won't cry while she sings probably won't ever ever happen either, but I can dream that Bernadette will go back to being the flawlessly tasteful performer she was in Sunday in the Park before she gave in to her current self-indulgent histrionics...but I can dream too.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#245
Posted: 12/8/14 at 7:51pmThe 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.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/25/11
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#246
Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:31pm
Phyllis & Ben: K.Z. Jones & Hugh Jackman
Sally & Buddy: Kristin Chenoweth & Norbert Leo Butz
Carlotta: Cher
Hattie: Bernadette
Stella: Madonna
Solange: Grace Jones
The Whitmans: Donnie & Marie (seriously)
...in my dreams.
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#247
Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:47pmYou are asking a brother and sister to play a long term married couple whose whole schtick is kissing on the mouth during a song?
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/25/11
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#248
Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:52pm
...and...
Young Phyllis & Ben: Emily Blunt & Jeremy Jordan
Young Sally & Buddy: Laura Osnes & Matthew Morrison
Heidi & Young Heidi: Barbara Cook & ??
Rob Marshall to Bring FOLLIES to the Big Screen?#249
Posted: 12/8/14 at 11:53pm
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
Videos
