The Official Kennedy Center FOLLIES Thread — Page 22

Does Tune want to do anything but cruiseship shows from now on--staging wise? I'd love to see what he'd do with it (and it would be somewhat ironic given the way his and Bennett's relationship ended up), and even though I was only 11 or so, the tour of his production of Grand Hotel still haunts my memory--much more than the music for the show. But I wonder if this material is maybe too much for him. I know I'll get some flack for that comment--but he seems to do better with slight material (maybe a harsh term for Nine, but...) that he can really imprint his style onto. Some think Follies' libretto is slight, though I don't, but there's definitely a thematic richness, among other things, that I could see him having trouble addressing. Or not--in some ways the themes do seem like--like with Grand Hotel--they could suit him.

Even Busker Alley? (Actually I can't remember if he staged that or just played the lead...) I definitely would be interested to see anything Tune does--I think Will Rogers Follies is an utterly mediocre show, even Coleman, a fave of mine, only gives a handful of songs I care much about, but his staging is still always a pleasure to watch.

Re In Buddy's Eyes--I'm confused by your statement. Isn't the whole point of the song, put rather simplistically, that she's trying to convince herself of the lyrics but the subtext is it's not really true at all? (Of course the lyric "I feel liek crying" which doesn't really sound like she feels like crying out of joy, makes that pretty clear). Or do you mean something else?

In regards to "In Buddy's Eyes" this is interesting:

"Jonathan [orchestrator Tunick] is also very aware of subtext," Sondheim points out. In FOLLIES there was a song called "In Buddy's Eyes" which was Dorothy Collins's lie to the John McMartin character, in which she says that everything is just wonderful and she's having a terrific time at home, she's so happily married. Nothing in the lyric, not a word tells you that maybe it isn't true. Nothing in the music tells you, although there is something in the orchestration. The actress has to tell you, and if you had watched Dorothy Collins deliver that song with intense anger because she feels she has been had, because she had been jilted thirty years before, the whole song takes on a very peculiar quality. It isn't quite what it seems to be. Jonathan has orchestrated it so that every phrase in the song which refers to her husband is dry, all woodwinds. Whenever she refers to herself it's all strings again.."
-Sondheim & CO.

Morosco--I haven't read Sondheim & Co in over a decade, but that's great! Tunick oten has done some clever little, almost subconscious things like that especially in his Sondheim orchestrations (the Someone is Waiting quote in Being Alive for instance--which Sondheim has been quoted as both saying he doesn't really like and that he loves--go figure).

PWB I think when you asked if it was all of the above, you nailed it. IMHO anyway--she is trying to convince herself in a way, trying to make Ben jealous, etc, all at once. It's as much sung to herelf as to him.

Busker Alley I think closed out of town when he broke his foot or something. It had a troubled past--and of course before that his last show on Broadway (which he co-directed) was Best Little Whorehouse Goes public...

ericmontreal,

The question is: who can handle a big canvas in this day and age? It's sad to consider that even the directors known for their command of spectacle (like Trevor Nunn) have been forced to find smaller and smaller ways to stage the great shows of the past, a la Night Music. And even Tommy Tune's glory days were in bare-bones shows like "Nine" (a show basically taking place on a bunch of tiled cubes except for the Grand Canal diversion), or Grand Hotel, which was basically an empty stage, a revolving door and a stack of chairs (though beautifully so).

So who should attack Follies in its next incarnation? I vote for Stephen Daldry and his designer Ian MacNeil. If they could bring to Follies the same sense of reality married to poetry that they brought to Billy Elliott and The Inspector Calls, that's a production I'd welcome.

Updated On: 6/1/11 at 11:15 PM

^I was just going to say...

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I saw the matinee today. Honestly, I pretty much loved it. There are things I didn't care for and would have done differently if I'd been in charge, but I found it to be a really satisfying production, more so than I would have thought going in. I knew beforehand that they were using the blasted Encores book, that weird amalgam of the original, the Roundabout and the Paper Mill books. Many of what I think are the best lines inexplicably neutered or cut completely. Since I already knew going in what book I was getting, I was able to get past that hurdle early on, and knew that that wasn't going to be what my opinion of the show had hinged on.

I didn't love Bernadette Peters. I don't think her performance sinks the show, but she's really just not right for the role. I don't think there really is a role for her in this show. That said, I did like some moments of hers very much, although I felt that she started "Losing My Mind" at one level and was never really able to go anywhere else with it. Her red dress didn't bug me when I saw it contrasted with the other women's outfits, plus I thought it seemed kind of ill-fitting in the bust when she was in profile. I still wouldn't have clothed Sally in that kind of dress, but it was the least of Bernadette's problems, I thought.

I thought Burstein, Maxwell and Raines were all pretty great. I liked Linda Lavin, even if she didn't look to me like I think Hattie should look; she was a little too put together for my taste. She sounded great, though. I don't love that the montage doesn't end with the Whitmans and Solange singing with Hattie, but I'll live.

I loved the Young Four and thought their Follies number was a highlight. I have very little to quibble about the entire Loveland sequence. I thought it was kind of a cheat to have the drops come into place behind the curtain instead of seeing them come in. The nylon flowers didn't annoy me near as much as they seem to have annoyed other folks.

Other random thoughts -

I thought Elaine Paige was pretty wonderful. She looked and sounded great.

I didn't like that Sally's line to Ben after he sings "The Road You Didn't Take" ("I remember him. I even think I loved him once") comes AFTER the song and the applause.

Regine bungled a little of "Ah Paree!" early on, but made it through the rest of the song more or less without incident.

It really irritated me that after Phyllis and Sally have the "Let's dish" conversation prior to "Who's That Woman" Phyllis was smiling and chatty with Sally as they were getting into the song. I also could have lived without the mylar curtain dropping down at the end of that number.

Speaking of "Who's that Woman," I did enjoy it, but I agree with ljay that it was better at Encores, truncated version and all.

So yeah. All in all, I'm happy with the show. I've read some folks' comments and I can understand the issues that people have had with it. Honestly, I'm truly surprised that I'm not more critical of it than I am. As some of you know, I was pretty ill for a good portion of the past year and a half and for a while I wasn't sure I was even going to get to see it at all, so part of me thinks that I'm cutting it some slack because I'm just glad I got to see the damn thing at all. I know there are other things that irked me here and there and I'm still processing the entire experience, but personally, I think the good of the production outweighs the not so good.

Updated On: 6/2/11 at 12:50 AM

It's that way in all versions.

And wow, what I looker I was!

pj, you're point about MAGIC is the same as mine-- did you not see the magic and poetry that cascaded through Billy Elliott and An Inspector Calls? Flights of pure theater that burst the walls of realism wide open. We agree here.

Of all the ideas mentioned throughout this thread, this is my favorite: "Hattie: Angela Lansbury" Just imagining it makes me smile.

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I must say that this production is still haunting me since seeing it on Sunday. I cannot imagine anyone (for me anyway) topping Jan Maxwell's rendition of "Could I Leave You?" it was BRILLIANT! Bernadette's "Losing My Mind" had me sobbing. We were witnessing a woman having a nervous breakdown right in front of our eyes. Watching the ghosts clinging to the walls of the theatre as everyone was exiting still gives me chills.

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