Which Follies Album Should I Get?

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 3:35pm

I got an iTunes gift card, and I decided that I want to get an album of Follies. Which one should I get? Here are my choices:

-OBC
-London cast
-London Theater Orchestra recording
-Concert recording

I am really clueless about which one I should buy. I own the concert DVD, but that is my only exposure to the show, so if one of those recordings has dialogue or gives a better understanding of the plot, I would like that because I could not follow what was happening in that concert. Thanks in advance for your help!

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 3:55pm

The Papermill Recording is the most complete. It's not on itunes but is definetly the one to have if you're looking for completeness and congruity. While the OBCR has those wonderful performances, it is truncated and features some painful cuts to the score. I can never make it though the London cast because of all of the song changes (including "Country House", one of my least favorite Sondgeim songs). That London Orchestra recording is one of the cheap, badly orchestrated affairs worth staying far away from.

And prepare for the "OBCR Soundboard" as an answer, too. This question comes up often, and there's always an array of opinions.

The concert DVD may be hard to follow because it's intersperessed with the documentary footage of the making of the concert. The CD doesn't have that, it's just the concert, so many be your best choice if your limited to a purchase off of itunes.

Still, I'd definetly get the Papermill recording eventually. It's a beauty and has most of the cut material at the end of Disc 2.

[mshetina]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 4:00pm

This old thread will probably answer most of your questions:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1017727#4031573

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 4:09pm

Are we allowed talk about the soundboard recordings here?

[musicalfan3]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 4:35pm

I'd say get the Papermill one if you can, if only for Dee Hoty's Ah, But Underneath, which is sublime. Though, having never seen the show, I thoroughly enjoy the OBC as well, especially for tracks such as "How could I leave you" and "Loosing My Mind".

[binau]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 5:18pm

"Are we allowed talk about the soundboard recordings here?"

BWW.com actually post video bootlegs here. I don't understand how it is a problem to talk about the existence of a sound board considering boot legs are actually posted here.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 5:23pm

^^Ok. To everyone : What is the best soundboard recording of the original production?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 5:26pm

Read this thread and you will know:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=982568&dt=179&boardid=1

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 5:48pm

Thank you PalJoey. I've read that thread a million times and every time your story about the crazed collector and the demented queen saddens me and scares me (probably because of the crazy and demented names). But it does not answer my question, in fact that google page about Follies recordings makes me doubt about the dates of my recordings.

EDIT: I didn't notice your new reply on the Follies thread.
Updated On: 8/15/10 at 05:48 PM

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 7:24pm

I guess I'll get the Papermill recording from Amazon. If anybody is wondering, I used the iTunes card for a recording of Candide.

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 7:33pm

Which Candide? That's another can of worms.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 8:02pm

I got the 1999 recording of Candide because it seemed to be the most complete.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 8:10pm

I hope you already have the original .

[pinoyonbroadway]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 9:05pm

@JOak

This is my own personal opinion, but out of the recordings I have of the OBC, I would say the December 1971 Recording. While they are all fantastic, that one is the only recording I have where Gene and Yvonne don't flub Buddy's Blues and I'm Still Here respectively. The biggest downside of this recording however, is that Ethel's understudy, Helen Blount, is Hattie. Though she is good, she is no Ethel Shutta.

But like PalJoey said. You must listen to them ALL.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 9:24pm

Yvonne and Gene don't flub on April 1972. (Unless you want to count Yvonne's "Wally and Windsor's affair" instead of "Windsor and Wally's affair.") Nor do they flub on the partial Los Angeles recording.

It should be mentioned that while the August 1971 sound-system recording (if it is, indeed, from August 1971, which I'm not completely convinced of) is, basically, a "soundboard" recording, the other Broadway recordings that I know of (December 1971 and April 1972) are audience recordings so shouldn't be referred to as "soundboard" recordings. And the Boston preview is also an audience recording.

The Los Angeles recording is sound system.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 9:35pm

I "know" two, Boston and opening night (I have doubts on this one PM me) . How many recordings are out there ?
Updated On: 8/15/10 at 09:35 PM

[pinoyonbroadway]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 9:50pm

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clear up on the recordings, nobodyshome. I don't have April 1972 but I don't know why i didn't count the LA Production.

As far as recordings of Follies (soundboard and audience), I have absolutely no idea how many there are. This is what I have:

The Boston Try-Outs
Two of the OBC (They are not dated so who knows)
Opening Night OBC (The date is very questionable)
December 1971 Broadway
Closing Night London
The 1996 BBC Broadcast
Two of the 2001 Revival (Again dates are questionable)
The 1995 Seattle Production
The Encores Production

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:02pm

How many recordings of the Boston try-out exist?
Updated On: 8/15/10 at 10:02 PM

[pinoyonbroadway]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:07pm

I could be wrong on this but I believe there is only one recording of the Boston Try-Outs.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:16pm

The one I have seems to be audience recorded.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:35pm

I'm guessing that the recording people are referring to as opening night is the sound-system recording on which Nelson has major problems on "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues."

If so, I'm pretty sure it's not opening night. Still, I'm not 100-percent sure when it was recorded. I've been told that it's from August 1971, What confuses this is that on some copies, there are bits that are definitely from a preview performance. If the story I was told is correct, someone added those bits to the August 1971 recording and then everyone got confused about the actual date as that version got passed along, in addition to the version that's only August 1971.

If a complete recording of the preview from which those bits were taken still exists, I've never found it.

So, pinoy, do you have four different recordings altogether that are from Broadway?

I've never found a complete recording of the Boston tryout. Just the version that has all the musical numbers and some bits of dialogue.

But I've heard that at least parts of another performance exist.

If anyone has more info on any of this, please post it.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:48pm

What major problems are you referring to?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:53pm

Where Nelson messes up the lyrics, jumping to Sally's section in the middle of Margie's section. If that's not on the recording you're referring to as opening night, then I guess it is a different performance than the one I thought you were referring to.

[JOak]

Posted: 8/15/10 at 10:59pm

Yes, that's the one.

[pinoyonbroadway]

Posted: 8/16/10 at 2:22am

Ok I listened to all of my recordings of the original Follies Just to make sure about everything... And I guess I jumped the gun on a couple of things.

It turns out I have three that are from Broadway not four: The Opening Night or August 1971 or what ever it is, the one from December 1971 and one with an unknown date.

The fourth one which I thought was a different recording was also the presumed Opening Night. One was labeled Opening Night while the other was labeled Preview Bootleg. I haven't listened to these recordings in a while nor have i listened to them consecutively, I automatically presumed they were different so I do apologize on that.

Also the one where I have no idea on the date, Buddy and Yvonne sings their songs fine. So it might be possible that this recording might be the April 1972 recording.


Now as far as the Boston recording is concerned, I'm not sure what I have. Here's the track list on mine:

Opening Sequence
Dialogue
Beautiful Girls
Dialogue/Underscoring
Don't Look At Me
Dialogue
Waiting For The Girls Upstairs
Dialogue
Rain On The Roof Broadway Baby
Ah, Paris!/Montage
In Buddy's Eyes
Bolero D'Amour
The Road You Didn't Take
Dialogue/Underscoring
Who's That Woman?
Dialogue
Can That Boy Foxtrot!
Too Many Mornings
Dialogue
The Right Girl
Instrumental
One More Kiss
Dialogue
Could I Leave You?
Dialogue
Loveland
You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through
Buddy's Blues
Losing My Mind
Uptown/Downtown
Live, Laugh, Love
Curtain Call

And nobodyhome, I really have to thank you for bringing this up, otherwise I would have still thought I have four recordings. Plus this gives me the missing info on my other Follies recording.