"Who's That Woman?" in the FOLLIES Revival

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 2:49pm

This is sort of a small thing to take issue with, but did it bother anyone else that they switched the actress playing Young Sally for "Who's That Woman?" with someone else?

For almost the entire show, Lora Lee Gayer portrays Young Sally, but, for "Who's That Woman?," Bernadette Peters is mirrored by (I think) Jennifer Foote. This is the only time any of the ghosts are "switched" throughout the show, other than in "Buddy's Blues."

I understand that Gayer was probably cast because of her uncanny resemblance to Peters, regardless of her lack of dance ability, but I still found it a somewhat odd development, especially since Kirsten Scott (who plays Young Phyllis opposite Gayer) remains opposite Jan Maxwell in the same number.

Updated On: 9/14/11 at 02:49 PM

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 2:56pm

Gayer was excellent and uncanny in her Bernadettishness. Most people, like me, didn't even notice it wasn't her in the number.

More to you point, though, had I noticed it would have been a distraction. My wondering about it would have definitely taken my focus away from the show.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:18pm

Interesting. I didn't notice that at all. You must've been sitting very close, somethingwicked! I was only nine rows back and I didn't see. Of course, I was paying less attention to the ghosts than to the older actresses in that number. But I'd say it's worthwhile to have Gayer play Young Sally even if she doesn't dance in that number because her physical and vocal resemblance to Bernadette is unreal.

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:23pm

I Didn't notice either. However, I was in mid mezz.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:25pm

This is the only time any of the ghosts are "switched" throughout the show, other than in "Buddy's Blues."

Those aren't ghosts in Buddy's Blues.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:27pm

It's a changeling ghost! Eeek.

Curious what they would do if the show ran long enough for replacements, since you mention this uncanny likeness to Bernadette.

Would they replace a ghost if she didn't resemble the new older woman enough?

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:36pm

I meant actresses playing other versions of the characters in a broader sense, Phyllis.

I also wonder what would happen if the actress who plays the ghost of Stella, Erin N. Moore, was ever out of the show. She's the only African-American female cast member other than Terri White, so would they force White to call out too so both white understudies could go on together?

You can't exactly do the mirror number without Young Stella, and you also can't have White's ghost being played by a white actress.

Updated On: 9/14/11 at 03:36 PM

[newintown]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:38pm

I didn't notice it either, I was too busy wondering why the ghosts and the living were doing entirely different things for so much of the number.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:42pm

I would imagine they'd just do the number with a white young Stella and hope (probably wrongly) that most people could just deal with it. I would find it highly unlikely that Terri White would (or rather COULD) be forced to not do a show because of something like that.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 3:48pm

Ever hear the term "White as a Ghost"?

I noticed Jenn Foote in the mirror number because she is quite beautiful and had made an appearance as Young Hattie, and I was very close.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 4:31pm

I noticed switchings, but I didn't pay attention to them, just didn't think it was important as the older characters were always the focus.

Was it "One More Kiss" that was the gorgeous operatic number? I loved that. That great dame can sing it to the rafters. Is it Rosalind Elias, is it the Heidi, young Heidi number? Both had terrific voices. It was a mind-blowingly terrific duet, or echoing.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 4:46pm

Yes, it is Elias and that is such a magical moment in the show, and I believe the only time a ghost sings with her future self.
Is it because Old Heidi is the closest to death?

Posted: 9/14/11 at 5:13pm

I think it has something to do with her turban.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 5:27pm

"I would imagine they'd just do the number with a white young Stella and hope (probably wrongly) that most people could just deal with it."


Well, it would certainly give the lyrics to "Who's That Woman?" extra meaning.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 5:52pm

I didn't think of the young Heidi as a ghost. More as a memory of the past in which the audience was allowed to share.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 6:26pm

"I didn't think of the young Heidi as a ghost. More as a memory of the past in which the audience was allowed to share."

That's the way I've thought of all the Follies ghosts. Follies isn't exactly The Sixth Sense.

[FrauleinKost]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 6:34pm

from the twitter of Terri White...love this!

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 7:49pm

Thank you, Henrik. It never crossed my mind that anyone thought the ghosts were literal. Yes, they are thematic/theatrical devices.

Haunting, nonetheless.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 8:55pm

You guys are right, and since no one is dead, they aren't literal ghosts. Memories, yes, but at times they seem to have minds of their own.

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 9:00pm

JoeKv99, please, it's a 'do-rag. Not a turban. Jeez.



<--------------------------- (my profile picture)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 9:02pm

As others have pointed out on the countless FOLLIES threads, in the OP at least there were moments when "ghosts" and present-day characters almost seemed to see one another, as if the past were bleeding through into the present.

But basically the "ghosts" (Damn! Now I'll always feel I have to put the word "ghost" in quotation marks) do have minds of their own because they are functioning on their own in the past.

Arguably, Prince perfected this technique in "Someone in a Tree" in PACIFIC OVERTURES. I love it because it's something the theater can do that film never really can. All the split-screen action in the world doesn't really convey simultaneous times and places the way theater staging can. All characters on screen are essentially "ghosts"--just flickers of light--so the distinction between Patrick-Swayze-as-ghost and Demi-Moore-as-living is more announced to us than really shown.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 10:13pm

There are just certain elements of Follies that I can accept, without having to come up with a big convoluted explanations, and that's how I've felt about the ghosts. I know that "ghosts" is something of a misnomer as, they aren't ghosts in the dead people haunting a house sense, but referring to them as ghosts is a lot less clumsy than having to say variations on "younger counterparts."

So what are they? Are they bursts of energy left behind in time, reanimated by the return of their living, breathing counterparts? Maybe Are they strictly literal memories there for the benefit of the audience? That seems unlikely - the younger folks do seem to be aware of the older folks returning to the theatre immediately (and the script itself makes this explicit, even if certain productions do not) and of course, EVERYONE sees everyone else in those moments just before Loveland.

Is there an actual answer? I don't know. I certainly can't articulate it, but I've never had a problem getting past it. It's a conceit of the world of the show. Maybe that's a pat, cop-out kind of answer, but in all my years of loving the show, the exact circumstances that allow us to see the younger versions of the characters has never been something I've focused too much on.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 10:18pm

Not a cop-out, at all. There is such a thing as a "theatrical conceit" and the ghosts of FOLLIES are one.

Well put, PRS.

[best12bars]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 10:22pm

Don't know if this helps, but in A Christmas Carol the Ghost of Christmas Past says to Scrooge that "these are but shadows of the things that have been. They have no consciousness of us."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/14/11 at 10:23pm

We should all stop calling them ghosts and call them "younger versions" or something like that.

We can do that after we stop calling Madame Rose "Mama Rose."