Posted: 9/4/26 at 5:26pm
Has anybody else read the very early (1968) draft script for Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies, from back when it was still titled 'The Girls Upstairs'? I recently came across the whole thing and was enraptured. I had no idea it was out there in the ether. It's clearly a first draft, but the story is complete with two acts fully written. Several of the songs were already written to completion at this stage, some with virtually no lyrical differences from the final version, but there are also quite a few placeholder titles and proposed ideas for songs that were presumably never written, along with some finished but cut songs that devotees are already aware of.
The general plot isn't radically dissimilar from the final one. Most notably, they had yet to think of the main 'gimmick' of the show, the ghosts! The characters' past selves don't appear at all. Act II also takes a fairly different direction because there's no 'Loveland' fantasy sequence. The writing is (understandably) much less focused, and some of the characters behave pretty differently, having not been fleshed out yet. There are some downright bizarre moments where it almost feels like it wants to be more of a farce than a drama. Still, it's cool to see how many little elements and scenes did survive all the way into the completed product. Some of the descriptions and dialogue are word-for-word in the final script! The original 1971 Follies is one of the most fascinating and legendary productions ever for me, so I would love to talk about the development of it, especially this early, alternate vision for the story.
