Follies

One criticism I had was that the actress playing Stella looked a bit too young. Whilst her age relative to Sally and Phylis is not specified, the fact that she supposedly pre-dated them and yet looks noticeably younger than Imelda and Janie as actresses did stand out.

Thanks couldileaveyou and others for your responses to my query. If the men in drag in Buddy's Blues was originally instigated by Hal Prince and Michael Bennett in the Boston try-out then that is enough justification for them being included in this production, even though the idea was dropped before the Broadway opening. Actually, to be perfectly honest, from the back of the stalls I didn't realise they were men in drag (I guess because I was concentrating on watching Buddy) but I did register that they were very loud and their coarse performance unbalanced the number.

Back to Follies, but not specifically this production. What do people think of the Paris Opera version out on DVD?

Also, a Mark Shenton interview in The Stage suggests this production may be the last UK stage appearance of Philip Quast, so if you want to hear that glorious voice in the flesh one more time, you know what to do!

Just attended a platform performance at the NT with Janie Dee and Phillip Quast.
Apparently there was never going to be an interval. From day 1 the director said it would go right through. But Janie Dee did say that the first preview was 2.5 hours and said the cast would never have survived that nightly.

It's the Opéra de Toulon, not the Paris Opera.

The orchestra sounds wonderful, Charlotte Page and Liz Robertson (Sally and Phyllis) are excellent, some of the other casting is jaw-droppingly bizarre, and the direction and design are a two-hour-long festival of OMGWTF. And it used the cut-down-and-scrubbed-clean revised version of the book (as published by TCG - including in a new edition with the National production's artwork on the cover, despite the fact that the National are using a very different script), so it's never going to be completely satisfying anyway.

I'm glad I own a copy - as I said, the orchestra sounds wonderful and so do some of the leads - but a lot of it plays like a definitive guide to how NOT to direct a production of 'Follies'. And that's being very, very, very kind indeed.

So you weren’t convinced by the audience member who suggested that the only reason there was no interval was because Imelda didn’t want people drinking in the auditorium?

I wonder if they will record a cast recording? I have a sneaky suspicion they will....

I really hope they do as well. Or even make a video recording of the production.

What does "the old/new thing" mean

That's an interesting way of describing FOLLIES. So you mean "old/young", not "old/new"  ...  

I always worry that I read too much on here before I see a show and I maybe get influenced by other people's opinions, however, I really loved this on Friday. I felt there was a bit of a buzz in the auditorium and especially round me we were obviously Sondheim fans. It did take me maybe 15 minutes to 'get in to it' - that's the only way to describe it really - but once I was in the zone and got used to all the fast-moving action I totally got sucked in.
Loved the direction, staging, casting and as has been said, each song was acted through so strongly. My friend who came with me and had no idea what this was about drank it all in and actually said he would go back and see it again in a flash.
The first time I looked at my watch was 2120 and overall the evening flew pasty so much quicker than I expected.
Just a beautiful piece of theatre, so glad I made the effort.

I saw this on Friday and agree it was well performed. The problem is with the narrative as I don't think it hangs well together as a show. It just seems like a series of performances. Having said that it sounded great and looked fabulous. Not one of his best scores though in my opinion. But that is only my opinion!!