The Official Kennedy Center FOLLIES Thread — Page 9

Bolt Bus is a great option- always reliable with good dropoff points & free wifi. I use it all the time traveling back and forth, and if you book early enough you can get a seat for around $20.

Fantastic review, Finch! So exciting to see it get its first stamp of approval from someone who saw the original.

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Updated On: 5/11/11 at 11:32 PM

Vamoose Bus -- it departs at 7th and 31st [one block past the Garden] or
Bolt or
Greyhound or
Tripper

Usually between $1 to $30 each way [depends on when reservations are made] -- about 4 hours

JPF

Ok here goes.

Took Bolt bus (15 dollars) at 730 am....got us in at 12. Pretty smooth sailing. Went to the Kennedy Center about a 5-10 minute cab ride.

The Show-1:30pm Matinee

Wow. I read Everything Was Possible by Ted Chapin last year and it changed my life, so naturally I was so ready to see a full production of Follies in all its glory. The set took OVER the theater. It was so stunning and beautiful. Then the Prologue began and the ghosts began coming in and I just started to cry...it was beautiful.

Bernadette was sick, but she was still on top of it. She was a great Sally. The casting on a whole was great. They really hit the mark on so many levels and there were a lot of moments that overwhelmed me to tears when I didn't expect it to....namely the moment where the drop...drops and reveals Loveland.....took my breath away.

My MINOR issues. Regine sang Ah Paris! and I didn't know a single damn word of what she said.....a single word. Also, I LOVE Dee Hoty's Could I leave You ...its bitter, strong, impassioned and in your face....Jan Maxwell's was different...not necessarily BAD at ALL...just different...breathier, more hurting...I think we see the hurt lover in Sally and we need a strong female moment with Phyllis. Danny Burstein was GREAT in this straight-man role....but he came off as a bit younger than the other 3.

I loved this production so much. If I can I'll make the trip back. It was well worth it and I think its only going to get better....let me know if you have any questions.

Somehow I feel that I am a curse to BP's health durning a performance. When we saw Annie Get Your Gun in DC tryout, she had one hell of a cold--yet she went on; at Gypsy, it was the height of NY allergy season--she went on and was great[not as reats as Merman or Lupone or Landsbury, but better than Daly -- yes, I'vwe seen all 5 (plus the Middler TV version, and the elementary schoiol . . Russell movie)-- and Today, she had a runny nose--she went on. Hey, but cold or no cold -- We're both still here!

JPF

Jordan, where is that view from?

Whoa! Looks like an amazing view for the balcony.

i tried to get a picture but i couldnt you got one! I was second row balcony its a great view!

" Crap. Thanks PJ.

This will be my first time seeing a physical production of Follies and I'm very excited, even without Bennett's choreography.

any reason as to why the choreo is not tied to this production as it is "A Chorus Line" and other Bennett shows?"

I have to say, even though I'm one of those obnoxious people who think the original choreography should nearly always be used, particularly when it's Bennett, the clips of choreography and the description of Who's That Woman make it sound like they did a good job. As I think PJ said, Who's That Woman has never been the great number it should be in any other production I've seen (Kathleen Marshall's version particularly comes to mind which misses the point completely) but...

As PJ said Avian when he choreographed the London production used some of Bennett's work, most notably Who's That Woman which was *almost* complete. The Papermill production was I believe choreographed by Mitchell, but it did use the *full* (ie slightly more complete than the London) Who's That Woman, though I've no idea who did the reconstruction--if it was Jerry, Avian, or? You can see both versions on "that site" I think.

As to your later question--I always try to get specifics on that. Robbins is one of the few choreographers who does have his work protected, at least for his last three major shows, WSS, Gypsy and Fiddler... Which I think is great, though I admit it gets silly when people try to do a different take on any of these musicals, like some recent Fiddlers, and still have to shoe horn in his choreography, which really most suits the original direction. I don't believe this is required with any of his earlier shows (many of which like On the Town have had their choreography lost anyway), although most times they do try to use his Uncle Tom's ballet for King and I.

Otherwise Chorus Line seems to be the only other show that has this rule. Bob Fosse never really cared (just like he didn't even much care about having film records of his choreography--that aspect of the legacy just didn't seem to matter to him), although I wish the last Sweet Charity had been forced to use his choreography considering what we got... Lots of people use Agnes DeMille's work for Oklahoma but it's not required, and her other work is barely used at all... Same for most of the big names, Kidd, etc...

As for Bennett--again I wish that Promises Promises had had to use his choreography--check out the new Turkey Lurkey to see how lacking it was--not to mention what was done to Dreamgirls in the last production even though most of Dreamgirls' original choreography was actually by Michael Peters, and I'd love to have his Side By Side, Drive a Person Crazy and especially Tick Tock in every Company, but Chorus Line seems to be the only one held to that rule...

And yes that was an exceptionally long ramble that's pretty off topic, so sorry--back to the topic.

And for the record, I agree that a non dancing Buddy, while not essential, does diminish his role. The Right Girl isn't a full on book song and isn't meant to be literal or realistic (just as many moments before Loveland goes all out, aren't meant to be)--so the dancing doesn't seem out of place as some suggest at all IMHO (to say so would be to say so does I'm Still Here, or even many of the ghost/memory moments).

Updated On: 5/12/11 at 01:32 AM

I get that point, and while I find these choreographers' work as important and exciting as the scores and books for these shows, and arguably as important, I think there's room for both approaches. But where do you draw the line? Certainly I think choreography IS the key to Sweet Charity--if you track down a recording of the 80s Fosse revival which was mainly a reconstruction of the original, you see that every single scene change, and over 3/4 of the show is choreographed by him. But Fosse didn't seem to care about his legacy (Reinking's Chicago choreographydone in his style uses some of his original--and the Hot Honey Rag is a complete reconstruction as a tribute, but otherwise it's just using his vocabulary--)/

With Follies the dance numbers were often, as described in Everything was Possible written to accomodate choreographic ideas (Lucy and Jesse being a keyexample).

Michael Bennett (the poster here, not the choreographer )raised a great point that the productions that are known to keep their original choreography in every major production were all massive hits (though that doesn't explain why Dreamgirls doesn't--but Bennett estate only seems to care about Chorus Line).

I don't agree personally though that you couldn't reuse elements of Bennett's production in future productions cuz of smaller casts--Who's That Woman is almost always done with the same number of older and ghost women, for example and most of his other major dance pieces are either intimate (The Right Girl, Bolero D'Amour) or could be done easily with a few less dancers as they're mainly unison numbers (Lucy and Jesse, Love Live Laugh).

Jordan C I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts--but that photo alone makes me really wish I could see this!

Updated On: 5/12/11 at 01:57 AM

So the most important question this week obviously is Peters still wearing the slinky red dress?

I too want the answer about Bernadette's party dress!

The answer to why some choreography is tied to the productions is contractual. Jerry Robbins (actually, his lawyer, Floria Lasky) was able to negotiate a percentage of the writers' revenue and copyright on West Side/Gypsy/Fiddler. That's why the "Jerry Robbins box" that says "Entire Production Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jerome Robbins" rankled Arthur (and other writers) so much. It was seen by Arthur as an incursion onto the writer's creative space, an insult in terms of billing as well as in terms of money.

Sometimes I think that Arthur hated Jerry more for taking writing credit than for naming names at the House Un-American Activities Commission hearings. But calling Robbins a snitch got Arthur more support than complaining that Jerry didn't deserve credit.

Bennett had a similar arrangement on Chorus Line and Dreamgirls, but he wasn't powerful enough to negotiate for that for Promises, Company or Follies. I think it was his work on Follies that gave him that clout. Hal Prince gave him co-director status and everyone knew those tall, gray slow-moving ghosts were Bennett's.

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Updated On: 5/12/11 at 09:54 AM

Great choreography discussion youse guys.
Don't get me started on Gower Champion...