Original dancers talk about Follies and Company, and Bennett clips

[EricMontreal22]

PalJoey's Henry Sweet Henry post reminded me of these clips from the youtube video of the Dancers Over 40 Michael Bennett presentation posted a couple of years back, that I don't believe were mentioned in any of the long Follies, or Company threads. I posted them in his thread, but thought I'd bring it out to its own for anyone who missed it. The entire presentation is on Youtube and worth watching (it's disheartening that for clips, they seemed to have to use what was on youtube, but the stories are great).

I'll just post the chunks that are relevant to these two shows, but for any Bennett, or dance on Broadway fan the whole thing is worth watching sometime you have a few hours to kill. (Thanks PJ for making me think of them! And I had no idea Margot Sappington left Promises Promises, before she could be one of the three Turkey Lurkey girls at the Tonys because she went to choreograph Oh! Calcutta! and dance the nude pas de deux in it, after Bennett recommended her when he finally decided to turn down choreographing it.)

This is from part 8 which is largely about Coco (some good stories about Hepburn)--note that the man on the left--beside Bob Avian and Baayork Lee is Evita, etc, choreography Larry Fuller who Bennett persuaded to move onto choreography. At the 5 minute mark Carolyn Hirsh talks about learning Tick Tock for the national tour of Company and taking over from Donna McKechnie and just how difficult and great the number was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOFytXEiCeA

which continues here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpXJDrhd-mg where she shows her original costume.

(McKechnie did some of the choreography for the Company anniversary concert which was after her health issues so obviously it's not danced full out--and has no swinging down poles--but you do see some of Music and the Mirror in it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhzU49_IO2o )

The Follies stuff starts here with much praise for Bolero D'Amour (I still think it should never be cut), and working on the show. Everyone seems to think the staging was the best they've ever seen or been in, and the score brilliant (Avian calls Sondheim the modern Mozart), but everyone seems to side with Bennett that the libretto was just too depressing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfwRR61UO2A

and continues here (I didn't know it was Michael's idea to join the three numbers at the end of the montage) ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdjrYD1o-a0

(It goes on from there to Seesaw, Chorus Line, etc)

[EricMontreal22]

*bump*

[TheatreDiva90016]

No need to g bumping your own thread...

[DAME]

I had never seen this Diva. Sometimes one just needs a good bump.

[EricMontreal22]

The brief Seesaw bit fascinates me (because that show has an odd fascination over me). I had always read that Bennett, out of kindness, kept Grover's name on as co-choreographer when he replaced him, but Grover left, but the cast says he remained on and did some of the numbers himself (I guess because of the rush, they had a lot of people choreographing different numbers)

[PalJoey]

I just love how complicated his relationships were.

[EricMontreal22]

Right wasn't Fuller actually his boyfriend and not just roomate as mentioned? I'm sure they didn't wanna get too into all of that out of respect, but...

[Hest88]

Oh Eric, thank you!

[EricMontreal22]

You're welcome! I know it's been online for a while, but it seems to have flown under the radar, and I think is pretty fascinating (I've watched some of the other videos from the same source--on the men of Fosse and the Peter Gennaro and they are worth checking out, but I think this is the one I found the most fascinating--it's too bad they didn't ask Avian about Scandal! though).

It's interesting that they put so much emphasis on Tick Tock, and Bolero D'Amour--two moments that are so often cut from their respective shows and I think are all too often now considered as being somehow redundant, or at least not important, to the shows, when I think here they make a strong case for, at least in Bennett's choreography, being so integral to the show (as one of the dancers says, Tick Tock basically sums up Company completely in under five minutes). Also had no idea Avian did the original Losing My Mind staging (they probably mention that in Everything Was Possible, and I've forgotten).