What about Audra and Nicole in Follies?

[binau]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 2:49pm

Audra - Sally

Nicole - Phyllis

Patti - Carlotta

Kecia Lewis - Emily Whitman? 

 

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 3:07pm

As much as I would love to see Patti sing "I'm Still Here" I would like to see this cast:

Phyllis - Patti

Sally - Sutton

Stella - Audra

Carlotta - Leavel

 

JMO

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 3:12pm

uncageg said: "As much as I would love to see Patti sing "I'm Still Here" I would like to see this cast:

Phyllis - Patti

Sally - Sutton

Stella - Audra

Carlotta - Leavel



JMO"


I can’t tell if you’re joking lol

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 3:18pm

TotallyEffed said: "uncageg said: "As much as I would love to see Patti sing "I'm Still Here" I would like to see this cast:

Phyllis - Patti

Sally - Sutton

Stella - Audra

Carlotta - Leavel



JMO"


I can’t tell if you’re joking lol"

 

Not joking! It's just who I would personally like to see in the roles. If I never see the show again, I am perfectly happy with the one time I saw it, the 2011 revival.  I was on cloud 9 when I walked out of the Marquis Theater.  JMO 

 

[BroadwayNYC2]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 4:33pm

Patti as Phyllis would be…the miscast of the millennium. 

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 4:48pm

BroadwayNYC2 said: "Patti as Phyllis would be…the miscast of the millennium."

 

For you, maybe. But you are entitled to your opinion. 

 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 5:39pm

BroadwayNYC2 said: "Patti as Phyllis would be…the miscast of the millennium."

She is also way too old for the role IMO.  I can just see her in Who's That Woman and Lucy and Jessie now.  Better Carlotta if we are going to theorize.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 6:07pm

Jarethan said: "BroadwayNYC2 said: "Patti as Phyllis would be…the miscast of the millennium."

She is also way too old for the role IMO. I can just see her in Who's That Woman and Lucy and Jessie now. Better Carlotta if we are going to theorize."

 

Yeah, I took her age into account but my real reason was just to see her do "Could I leave you"!

 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 6:48pm

I'd worry Patti would steamroll the song unlike Donna Murphy's layered performance during the Sondheim 80th.

[Ke3]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 8:19pm

I say this as someone who has wanted Nicole to do musical theatre since I was 14, you’d have to think very little of Audra as an actress to cast her opposite Nicole. 

[George in DC]

Posted: 8/23/25 at 10:00pm

I would love to see Harriet Harris as Carlotta

[African Queen2]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 1:50am

I would love to see an all black Follies.  
 

Vanessa Williams- Phyllis 

LaChanze-Sally

Jennifer Holliday- Carlotta 

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 7:48am

Audra would of course be a wonderful Sally; Nicole I could certainly imagine playing elegant and jaded but her platinum belt voice would be wasted on Phyllis. Sort of like Audra as Desiree. 

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 12:31pm

Ke3 said: "I say this as someone who has wanted Nicole to do musical theatre since I was 14, you’d have to think very little of Audra as an actress to cast her opposite Nicole."

Nicole did just beat Audra out of a Tony this past season…

[binau]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 12:53pm

If it isn’t obvious, I thought it was hilarious casting because Nicole beat Audra, Patti is involved in that Kecia/Audra thing and I think Patti would enjoy Kecia’s role being a practical non-part. So feels very awkward. 

But I’d still think it’d make for great theatre artistically, regardless. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 1:34pm

My personal favorite version of “Too Many Mornings” is Audra and Nathan Gunn

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 4:01pm

Nicole would be an excellent Carlotta one day, but I doubt she’d take a supporting role anytime soon. 

[Alexander_Nevermind]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 5:38pm

binau said: "Audra - Sally

Nicole - Phyllis

Patti - Carlotta

Kecia Lewis - Emily Whitman?

I really love the Nicole as Phyllis and Audra as Sally suggestion. I highly doubt that Patti would play Carlotta in any production Audra would be involved with. 

 

[Ke3]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 5:40pm

jlindsey865 said: "Ke3 said: "I say this as someone who has wanted Nicole to do musical theatre since I was 14, you’d have to think very little of Audra as an actress to cast her opposite Nicole."

Nicole did just beat Audra out of a Tony this past season…"

Yes, and I think she quite earned it. I still think you'd have to think very little of Audra McDonald as an actress to cast her opposite Nicole in a show that required actual acting. Maybe a War Paint revival instead?

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 6:35pm

This is all so comical...no one would pay top dollar to see Audra and Nicole (two expensive talents) in Follies (an already very expensive expenditure) for a sustained period to justify the overhead.  I'll go out on a limb here and say Follies ain't happening unless a not-for-profit picks it up...and I doubt Nicole would be interested in those rates.   

Audra, maybe.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 7:04pm

I'm still holding out for Kelli as Sally.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 8/24/25 at 10:47pm

jlindsey865 said: "Ke3 said: "I say this as someone who has wanted Nicole to do musical theatre since I was 14, you’d have to think very little of Audra as an actress to cast her opposite Nicole."

Nicole did just beat Audra out of a Tony this past season…"

And Will Rodgers Follies beat Miss Saigon. Guess that show must be a household name everyone can't stop talking about.

[mshetina]

Posted: 8/25/25 at 12:50am

Re: the casting of LuPone and her contemporaries in the role of Carlotta

With all due respect to persistent fabulist and mortal enemy of New York waitstaff Elaine Stritch, I'm Still Here works better (solely in the context of the show) when a woman the same age as that production's Sally and Phyllis sings it. I think it's relevant that Carlotta is meant to be a contemporary of Sally and Phyllis from the same edition of the Follies, and had an affair with Ben. 

Overall, I think that casting the leads as a decade or so older than they were in 1971 makes sense given how we perceive middle age differently than we did in the 70s. For example: Imelda Staunton (61), Janie Dee (55), and Tracie Bennett (56) in the 2017 London revival were all 5-10 years older than the leads from 1971 (except the younger McMartin, who was born taciturn and middle-aged). A Mulholland Dr.-era Ann Miller makes somewhat less sense.

But I'm Still Here, at least to me, speaks of a woman in middle age who is making sense of her life and career. It's not valedictory in nature - she's right in the middle of that career and having to take stock of the way she's perceived ("and then you're camp") and the opportunities afforded her.