Will Rogers Follies Tour Postponed Until Sept. 23 After Tragedy

By: Sep. 14, 2005
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After a September 12th tragedy involving the driver of one of the tractor trailers on the national tour of The Will Rogers Follies, the show will be postponed until September 23rd.

The tour, which is produced by Phoenix Productions and stars country star Larry Gatlin as the folk savant, was making its way to the Lutcher Theatre in Orange, Texas when the truck tragically fell off a bridge and killed its driver when it dropped into a ravine. The driver had been travelling with Phoenix sets for over a decade, and was a well-liked JANCO Ltd. worker.

The actors in the tour did perform a concert of the show that night with props from some of the other trucks, but other props and set pieces were damaged enough to warrant a postponement of the show. With Lutcher Theatre performances still to be rescheduled, the show will head to the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, WA on September 23rd. Lasting through June 2006, the tour has also come to Austin and Fort Worth, TX.

Gatlin, who is best known as one of the Gatlin Brothers and who is also a songwriter, actor and writer, was one of original star Keith Carradine's replacements in the original Broadway production of The Will Rogers Follies; he also played the quipping, drawling Rogers in the first national tour. The Will Rogers Follies, which opened at the Palace Theatre on May 1st, 1991 and closed on September 5th, 1993 after 981 performances, won the 1991 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as awards for Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green's score, for Willa Kim's costume design, for Jules Fisher's lighting design and for bothTommy Tune's direction and choreography (Tune protegée Steve Minning does both for the current national tour).

Starring Dee Hoty and Tony Award-nominee Cady Huffman alongside Carradine, the original production was a lavish, showgirl-bedecked extravaganza that through the format of a Ziegfeld Follies show, told the life story of humorist Rogers, who "never met a man he didn't like."

The current tour's design team comprises Kim (costumes), Mike Baldassari (lighting), Craig Cassidy (sound) and reprising his original Tony-nominated work, Tony Walton (sets).

To order tickets to the Yakima, WA shows, call (509) 853-2787.
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