The Story of Lucy X and Jessie Y Question — Page 3

If "Lucy and Jessie" confuses you, then you're going to be confused by any brisk wordy song with a lot of rhymes, including "What You Don't Know About Women" (City of Angels), "Let's Not Talk About Love" (Let's Face It), "Both Sides of the Coin" (Mystery of Edwin Drood), and "Ya Got Trouble" (The Music Man), not to mention many, many more.

Sometimes, you just have to pay attention (which may be too much to ask in an ADD culture).

I'm on Team Uptown/Downtown. Though I think Lucy and Jessie is fun, I find the imagery used far less effective than that used in Uptown/Downtown.

From the beginning, 'Lucy is juicy' puts me off cause I just start thinking of p*ssy juices and then I'm done. I'm being glib, but I've always found the imagery in Uptown/Downtown to be infinitely clearer while still displaying dazzling wordplay.

I just don't think Ah! But Underneath works for the character's problem as presented through the course of the evening.

I apologize to the OP (who, BTW, successfully answered his own question).

I was speaking in general. I do not believe most audience members who are paying close attention are confused by "The Ballad of Lucy and Jessie".

If anything, the lyrics to "Buddy's Blues" and "Live, Laugh, Love" are more complicated. And to my ear, the rhyming in "Uptown/Downtown" is more self-consciously clever: let's don't give After Eight a stroke!

All of the Loveland numbers (well, forget the quartet for a minute) are challenging because they don't arise from a literal dramatic context, they comment rather than advance the plot.

"Losing My Mind" is easiest because Sally has been saying the same thing all evening.

"Buddy's Blues" is easy because Buddy told us precisely the same story in "The Right Girl" ten minutes earlier.

Both Phyllis and Ben add an extra level of meaning in their final numbers because they speak sardonically rather than literally.

So we have to pay attention, but it can be done.

Updated On: 4/9/13 at 07:14 PM

Mine, too, Ray. And I agree about the length. Though I miss Alexis Smith, I do like the recent revival recording. Jan Maxwell is also good and the recording includes the dance music, extending the song to a more satisfying length.

Yeah, I hate how edited the version on the OBCR is. (Anyone know when Sondheim changed it from "tell her that she's sweeter than apple pie" to the internal rhyme "sweller than apple pie?" Or was one a mistake?)

"If anything, the lyrics to "Buddy's Blues" and "Live, Laugh, Love" are more complicated. And to my ear, the rhyming in "Uptown/Downtown" is more self-consciously clever: let's don't give After Eight a stroke! "

I think it basically boils down to--again--some people just hear about how it's about two ladies and one is called Lucy and one called Jessie--whereas Uptown/Downtown goes on about hyphenated Harriet, who's so schizo and does this opposite things and can't make up her mind, but is still just Harriet. If you listen to the lyrics, Sondheim does make Lucy and Jesse clear, but, from other musical boards where this has come up (even the Sondheim board,) that's the hook that some peopl get confused by--full stop. Not any of the later rhymes or anything.

Actually, two screenplays drafted in the 1970's exist at the Performing Arts Library in New York- both rather dismal affairs (Margie is present as a studio tour guide, stuff like that). And that's not even mentioning more recent film-version chatter. Having seen the original production four times myself (I'm older than I look), I say flatly that the effect of that original production can never be replicated or even approached. But it never hurts to try.
And if you've never seen the dance section of the original "Lucy And Jessie", look for it on YouTube. The best!

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Updated On: 4/9/13 at 09:19 PM

"but thank God that Sondheim has not found it necessary to write down to the level demanded by A8."

Ha, Ha, Ha! Yeah, the level of Hart, Gershwin, Porter, Coward, Harburg....

If only he could write UP to that level!

I'm a big fan of "Uptown/Downtown". It's definitely the most clever of the three songs, and it's just as succinct as "Lucy and Jessie"- but more clear. I've had numerous discussion as to who Lucy and Jessie are, despite it (seemingly) being obvious from the song. "Uptown/Downtown", it's never in question. The "It's so schizo" section is one of my favorite verses of any song, ever.

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Oh, Follies, you make me glad to be alive.

^^ I do much the same thing, save that in my case, I look at it and think "How can I really turn this into a frightening little ghost story?" Because cut through it all, that's what it is. The opening of the 2001 (2002?) revival, with the flashlight, was the only brilliant moment of that production, but at the same time, it was freaking brilliant. And I look at the script now and think Wouldnt it be cool to incorporate modern projection technology (in a very subtle way) to make the ghosts — especially in the opening and in numbers like the ballroom dance specialty — honest to God ghosts. It could be marvelously chilling, all the while emphasizing that whole theme of lost opportunities.

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I think SeanMartin and Pal Joey are BOTH right on the money for this one. The success and failure of "Follies" throughout the years has been that it flirts with genres but never really falls into any of them.

It has elements of a ghost story- without ghosts or hauntings.
It has elements of murder mystery- without murders, or mysteries.
It has elements of psychological horror- but the horror is of how mundane life is.
It has elements of David Lynch-like "psychotic magic realism-" without anything truly psychotic or nightmarish.

From the clips I have seen and the essays I have read, Bennett and Prince decided to skirt this issue and, for lack of a better word, "make it a Fellini thing," and bend the rules as they saw fit without ever settling too hard into any genre.

The adaptation possibilities throughout the years have always had one thing in common: genre exploration, attempting to pinhole exactly what they want Follies to be, and turn it into more of that. If I remember, one of the big concepts for a film was to age up the main characters from middle age into being mostly elderly, having been members of the vaudeville-meets-MGM studio crossover era, and have the film as a "psycho-biddy" piece in the Baby Jane tradition.

Cole Porter was fond of songs that told the story of someone's sad story, comically rendered, like this song, here sung by Tammy Grimes, of an upwardly aspiring shellfish:

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