Carlotta Campion, played by Carol Burnett, became the role many famous women would go on to covet. An important reflection on the recent history of showgirls, Follies, and the culture behind making starlight out of people, marked a rare examination of celebrity life. The Follies musical first hit the bright neon lights of Broadway in 1971 and enjoyed 522 performances across New York.Written by Stephen Sondheim, one of America's most renowned musical theatre composers, Follies resulted from a successful collaboration with producer Harold Prince, and novel writer James Goldman. Los Angeles ran Follies in 2002 for 11 performances at the Wadsworth Theatre. Stephen Sondheim was 41 when he wrote Follies, and had a strong track record, having written for West Side Story aged 26, and for Ethel Merman; the star of Gypsy, in 1959. This pastiche production enjoyed 522 Broadway performances, winning seven Tony Awards in 1972, including Best Original Score, Best Direction, Best Leading Actress, Best Choreography, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Lighting Design. Videos. Though gorgeously costumed by Gregg Barnes, the spectral showgirls don’t really seem to know why they’re there. Her Phyllis (the part for which Alexis Smith won a Tony) is the show’s most dazzling embodiment of someone trying both to reclaim and to move beyond her receding past. The shows' producers were turn-of-the-twentieth-century producing titans Klaw & Erlanger. This got me hooked on Sondhiem 30 + years ago as a LP. New songs written for this production include; Make the Most of Your Music, Social Dancing, Ah, But Underneath, and Country House.

Marion Davies, Ziegfeld girl, by Alfred Cheney Johnston, 1924, Fanny Brice, Ziegfeld Follies photo, 1910s or start of 1920s. Phyllis and Sally, who were best friends in their Follies days, have married Ben and Buddy, respectively.

[21] Official versions of the song include a 1972 recording by the Fable Singers, who recorded most AFL club songs, and a 2018 recording including Richmond legends Matthew Richardson and Kevin Bartlett. The cast performs an excellent show with great tunes that leave you humming them afterward. The original production was a financial and critical disappointment, though quickly the musical gained a cult following thanks to the cast album that was left behind. This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. This Broadway run continued to Los Angeles' Ah Manson Theatre, and then in 2013 to The Toulon Opera House in France. Click here to buy Follies tickets today! Vocal Selections Vocal Score. Follies Overview - The BEST Broadway source for Follies tickets and Follies information, photos and videos. Most importantly, there is a real urgency in everyone's performance, an edginess so right for this controversial landmark in modern musical theatre. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 5, 2009. These later efforts failed miserably. Carlotta's song "I'm still here" has been sung in many Hollywood and stage productions since this time. The musical uses flashbacks, as characters explore feelings of nostalgia for the past glory they experienced as famous showgirls. [1], During the Follies era, many of the top entertainers, including W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Josephine Baker, Fanny Brice, Ann Pennington, Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, Bob Hope, Will Rogers, Ruth Etting, Ray Bolger, Helen Morgan, Louise Brooks, Marilyn Miller, Ed Wynn, Gilda Gray, Nora Bayes and Sophie Tucker appeared in the shows.[2].

[citation needed] The show-stopper was the Irving Berlin-composed "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", which, by itself, cost more to produce than one of Ziegfeld's entire stage shows. The biggest female star of the early 20th century Folies Bergere was African-American star, Josephine Baker, famous for wearing a skirt made of banana skins, and not much else. FOLLIES is one of the grandest of Broadway musicals. The Ziegfeld Follies inspired Sondheim to commission James Goldman to write the story of the Follies, with the musical action set in a crumbling theatre, named the Weismann's Theatre.

CD arrived quickly and was in the condition described. Yet fame was fickle, and short-lived for most, and the musical Follies re-visited past glory-days, and uncovered the damage done when stardom waned. Only two cast members were changed from the original line-up, and this outdoors production had a reach of 11,000, per performance, during its one week run in the summer of '72. Follies Performances since Broadway Follies enjoyed extraordinary success considering its content was a story about showgirls. Books. But there’s another, happier computation to consider. At the Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, at 45th Street; (877) 250-2929, ticketmaster.com. If it still has a few soft spots, it is by and large a taut creation, one that finds a white-hot here and now in the shadows of lost time. Showgirls originated in Paris as far back as 1869, and the Folies Bergere, meaning the Extravagant Shepherdess. The producer Dimitri Weismann (David Sabin) is giving a farewell party for the grand old theater, about to be razed for a parking lot, where his Follies were staged between the World Wars. You see, the girl who fell in love with Ben still lurks anxiously beneath the glossy veneer that Phyllis has since acquired. Sondheim's polyphonic melodies combined with Goldman's portrayal of celebrity, to show how men lose their heads. Follies received the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Musical in 1972. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Audio CD, Cast Recording, January 1, 1971. It is 1971 and the former stars of the Weissman Follies are reuniting on the stage of the now-decrepit theater that was once their professional home, the night before it is turned into a parking lot.

Where this “Follies” excels is in its psychological portraiture and character-defining use of Mr. Sondheim’s intricately layered songs. So I had to order this one again.......anyone want a "used only once" different version???? The colours of Jonathan Tunick's masterful orchestrations are beautifully captured, and the stereo panning is creatively done, conjuring actors actually walking across the stage whilst singing.

So glad I did.

(James Moore is the sensitive musical director.) The Ziegfeld Follies was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936.