PJ, I agree Sally should never wear red in a prodction of "Follies." When i saw it in DC I almost spit venom when I saw her enter in that. However, she COULD have worn red the last time. or blue, or white, or pink, or teal, or black. Lots of one syllable colors to choose from.
Re: Ben's breakdown - you're supposed to be unsure if it's Ben or the actor breaking down. That was the original intention, a Pirandello kind of moment.
Re: Ben's breakdown - you're supposed to be unsure if it's Ben or the actor breaking down. That was the original intention, a Pirandello kind of moment.
That's all well and good. But the point is that the way it was done originally, we had no reason to even think it might be Ben. Personally, I was just young and shocked that Broadway actors forgot their lines; the possibility had never occurred to me as a kid.
As I said above, I think it's clearer the way it is done now.
I didn't go. Stage Door labeled Artists Entrance is easy to find. Go out thru the orchestra level exit on the east side. Turn left and at the end of the street it's there on the corner of Temple and Hope Streets.
A minority opinion offered, and why not? I liked the red dress in DC. I thought it made her entrance a point of access for the whole show, i.e. "this night will be about this woman's journey..." And indeed, that's Schaeffer's stamp on the staging. Most people disagree with me, vociferously, but I find the strength of this production is its focus on Sally. The red dress struck me as very period-specific, and something a woman in Arizona might've bought to stand out as a sophisticate. I thought the pink dress in NYC was fine, but the red one had a certain power, it suggested a kind of stubborn refusal to give up on Ben, curiously. To arrive as the evening's siren allowed Sally to announce her intentions. People have literally screamed at me since first stating this opinion, but I thought it artistically bold and worth the risk.
See, it's funny that the director's approach to this production was to make it "Sally's story" because for the first time in my FOLLIES experience, I thought this was the "Buddy/Phyllis story" and sympathized with them the most more than the other two, who have always been my favorites. It could be just because Danny and Jan were just so damned good?
The obsession on the part of some Follies fans that Sally shouldn't wear read is just plain baffling. If the color of the dress were that important, it would be somewhere in the text.
Also, you guys didn't create these characters -- James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim did. If wearing red were so damn contrary to her character, why would Sondheim even let it happen?
joey, I agree that "I should have worn green" is an especially poignant lyric and I doubt Sally ever wore red. But she could regret not wearing pink or blue. I just don't think those colors have the same pathos. Of course, red is Phyllis' color but Sally is rather known for her delusional regrets.
I really hope they don't have her in a green dress and singing that she wore green BECAUSE she wore it the last time. That's not at all the same thing to me.
I love that lyric precisely because it is unrhymed and therefore so seemingly heartfelt in the middle of all the wonderfully clever lyrics.
Could someone post the theatre website to buy tickets? My brother lives in Palm Springs now...though I have NO idea how far that is from LA.
I live in Palm Springs and it is 110 miles from downtown LA. It's normally a 2 or 2-and-a-half hour drive, but we will leave at 1pm on Tuesday for the evening show, simply because traffic in LA is so unpredictable.
Also, you guys didn't create these characters -- James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim did. If wearing red were so damn contrary to her character, why would Sondheim even let it happen?
Maybe Sondheim "let it happen" because he has a long history with Bernadette Peters and she was determined to wear red. Maybe he was busy writing something else and didn't go to the costume parade. Maybe he like to be open-minded about interpretations of his work (he has said as much in various essays).
Of course, James Goldman might have pulled the rights over the red dress, if he'd ever seen it. We'll never know.
But because we didn't write the show we're not allowed to have opinions about interpretations of the script? That rather makes this forum useless except for exchanging info on who signs what at the stage door, don't you think?
Pink is the perfect color for Sally because it's the traditional color of "girlishness". Sally has been stuck for decades and still thinks she's 19.
But maybe pink looks terrible on Victoria Clark. Frankly, I thought and have said that Dorothy Collins was an awfully good sport to wander around the stage for 2 hours in her drab, pink ensemble--but it was perfect for the character!
The official program lists Frederick Strother and not Obba Babatunde as Max Deems. Was Babatunde a last minute replacement? Also in the program, Jessica Perrizo, not Angel Reda, is listed as young Solange. Did the tracks get switched around? I'm not doubting you, Wicked Fanatic. I'm just a little confused.
We had an insert with an updated May 3rd cast list. One side listed the actors with the characters they now played. At the bottom was THE FOLLIES COMPANY WELCOMES OBBA BABATUNDE with his credits. The other side was the new Follies page with Obba Babatunde listed first in Also Starring.
The website probably hasn't changed it yet and won't until after Opening Night just in case they have other casting changes or track changes which must have happened with Angel Reda. Hopefully, they'll add an older player to cover Roscoe because it was really sad to see a young person playing what should have been done by an older actor besides not having the terrific voice that Michael Hayes had on the OBC revival recording.
This show is not really selling well at all. Except for opening night... I would buy the $20 hot tix and then move. Look at the interactive seating charts. Really kind of weird.
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joined:3/15/07
Posted: 5/4/12 at 04:49pm