I'm really enjoying the Follies comments, both pro and con, and please everyone, don't take anything personally if someone disagrees, either yay or nay. This show, even in its original production had audiences divided wildly. You know my feelings, which are similar to elmore's. Especially that every production since has diminished its power and even point. When directors think that Carlotta is all about casting a seventy-plus Golden Age star they should not be directing Follies. Ann Miller, Polly Bergan, both wonderful, and both completely wrong for the role in every way. The original casting for all the Follies people was spot on in every case. In the last revival, Betty Garrett as Hattie (I LOVE the woman) was not up to doing the part - she was approaching eighty at the time. Ethel Shutta was in her early seventies I believe and was a fireball of energy. When I saw the original production, I remember thinking, look how old Alexis Smith and Dorothy Collins are. They were, of course, in their late forties at the time. Yvonne de Carlo was in her late forties, which is the AGE of her character. When you have a seventy-four year old woman playing that role and she's trying to come on to and pick up a twenty-one year old waiter, well, I don't think that's what the authors had in mind. I also remember being astonished at the ending, that they didn't tie anything up. And what I really loved about it was that it DIDN'T conform to anyone's idea of anything.
Again, all these thoughts are tied to its original production. I can't read scripts of musicals, even in conjunction with playing their scores - it's academic, and I miss the elements which make these musicals theater - that is, the actors, the director, the choreographer, etc. I've read Follies many times, I've played its score many times. I've seen badly cast and directed and choreographed revivals. If that's all I'd seen or known I would agree with Noel. But I saw that original production - one of the most perfectly directed, choreographed and acted pieces of theater I've ever seen - probably THE most perfect. Miss Collins made you understand Sally and she broke your heart. Alexis was bitchy and scary and under it all, vulnerable. John McMartin perfectly captured the malaise that Ben is feeling. When he "forgot" the lyrics in Live, Laugh, Love it was one of the most chilling frightening moments I've ever witnessed in the theater, so brilliantly did he do it. The audience literally froze. And Gene Nelson was fantastic, and The Right Girl (a number I never liked on the cast album prior to seeing it) was a revelation, especially the dance section, which is the real character part of the song, where everything comes pouring out of him. And when the four of them (and their younger "ghosts") are all vomiting up their frustrations at the end and the stage starts to morph into the Follies - well, it just doesn't get better than that. It was also very much a show of its era - very much of the late sixties-early seventies, when the country, as well as its people, were disillusioned. Many who saw Follies thought they were going to see a show like No, No, Nanette, which was a big hit then in its revival - that's what they wanted, something to lighten the mood. It's not what they got - they got a mirror instead, and believe me it made a lot of people uncomfortable and a lot of people left the theater disappointed and angry.
