I'm Obsessed With This FOLLIES Poster On eBay

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 5:15pm

Triton is selling this poster of the show from a 1973 Summer Stock production and I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with it. I wish to God I could buy it but with Christmas so soon, I need to save m'pennies. But I hope this finds a good home because it's just so cool!




eBay Link

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 5:46pm

Who did Selma Diamond play?

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:10pm

I just Googled around for a cast list and found this program, signed by all the principal players. Very cool!

I still want to know who played what. That's a great cast!


Signed program for sale

[geudupe]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:22pm

I love that poster! Here's the answer to who played who:
1973 Touring Stock Production

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:29pm

You may also find some information about the tour at the link below. I believe Julie Wilson played Carlotta when the production was at the Mill Run Playhouse in Niles, Illinois.
Follies Stock Tour

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:47pm

My cousin Arlene and I saw it there! (That was the 6th time I saw it--5 times on Broadway and then we went up to the Westchester County Playhouse!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:53pm

We were excited to see it--to see Vivian Blaine (who was less than exciting) and Selma Diamond (ditto) and Jane Kean (who was certainly NO Dorothy Collins).

The Michael Bennett staging was re-done by Steven Boockvor and Jayne Turner, both of whom had danced for Michael in the original production, but it had none of the trappings and mystery of the original.

We left, profoundly depressed, because we knew that Follies WOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER BE GOOD AGAIN.

Updated On: 10/30/13 at 06:53 PM

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 6:56pm

Wow. Good luck getting it!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 7:27pm

I never tire of Pal Joey FOLLIES stories!

[justoldbill]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 8:10pm

You're right, PalJoey, I saw the original production four times including the New York closing (Yay, Kurt Peterson!), and in the last forty-one years- with the other productions I've seen and been in- it has, indeed, never, ever, ever been as good. But the poster on ebay is cute, if too costly. I remember the production's playbill with Vivian Blaine's face superimposed on the Byrd logo. Mmmm, sweet.

Updated On: 10/30/13 at 08:10 PM

[evic]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 8:44pm

Floating heads on posters- yuch. Selma Diamond was a chain smoker- did they let her smoke in this production?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 8:56pm

A lot of Broadway stars were/are chain smokers -- I can't think of any examples where that meant they let them chain smoke on stage (unless it was part of the role...)

[justoldbill]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 9:14pm

Ah, the scent of herbal cigarettes wafting over the footlights...

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 9:27pm

I used to love Lynn Bari back in her 20th Century Fox days. She had a very nice voice (in Sun Valley Serenade), and was awful purdy.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 10:37pm

We walked in assuming the Follies magic would unfold all over again. It hadn't occurred to either one of us that there could even BE a Follies that would not enrapture us.

But we walked in and it was not the same set. And the atmosphere was not as eerie. And then the ghosts started to enter. And they weren't as tall, and there weren't as many, and the music sounded different.

And then Jane Kean ran out. Jane Kean from the Honeymooners! But she wasn't as warm and she wasn't as luscious as Dorothy Collins. And then Vivian Blaine entered with Robert Alda (they were both in Guys and Dolls!)...but she wasn't as sharp or as stunning as Alexis Smith and he was...well, boring.

And then the show unfolded, but it wasn't the same--and, ugh, that awful intermission! Arlene and I could barely look at each during the intermission. How could our Follies be so...mediocre?

And as we drove back to the city in Arlene's Volkswagen, we realized that what we had seen at the Winter Garden would never be re-created. Ever.

The ladies old enough to have performed in the Weisman Follies would soon be dead, producers would stop spending money on such lavish productions...

Any Follies ever mounted would be nothing more than a pale imitation of the Follies that we saw, the Follies we had loved, despite its faults, despite its excesses...because of its faults, because of its excesses.

It hadn't dawned on us, until we saw Follies at the Westchester County Payhouse, that the very idea of the show--that the past is at once gone forever and never gone--would actually be true about the show itself. It was gone forever but it would haunt us until the days we died.

Updated On: 10/31/13 at 10:37 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 10/30/13 at 11:04pm

Thanks as always for the terrific insight, PalJoey.

[jemjeb2]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 11:25am

I just love Follies - one of my favorites. I saw the original production in Boston prior to its Broadway run, so didn't get to see Yvonne deCarlo perform the showstopper "I'm Still Here" - she did a lesser number called "Could That Boy Fox Trot". But what a show - everyone excellent - especially loved Alexis, of course, but Dorothy Collins and Gene Nelson too but then enjoyed the whole cast so much it feels wrong to single out individuals.
I did see a production in Long Beach, Ca years ago that, while maybe not as stunning as the original, was still a good production. The cast included Juliet Prowse as Phyllis, Shani Wallis as Sally also Dorothy Lamour, Yma Sumac, Denice Darcel, Karen Morrow, Billy Barnes among others in the cast. The production went all out and looked beautiful.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 12:03pm

Every time I see a new FOLLIES thread I anticipate a bit of nostalgia from our own Pal Joey, and he never fails to disappoint.

@ jemjeb2: Juliet Prowse, Shani Wallis, Dorothy Lamour, Yma Sumac...all on the same stage?!!! Would have loved to have been old enough to have seen that production.

FOLLIES has been done with some pretty amazing talent over the years with varying degrees of success.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 12:06pm

First off, buy the damn poster. It is why God has given you a credit card. Don't postpone happiness.

Second, that production was ghastly. Don Liberto and Mary Small were the only ones in that list who came off well. Jayne (who I later knew) and Steve who danced the Bolero were wonderful, but the rest of the production just laid an egg. The audience thought they were going to see a revue and instead saw this serious disillusioned musical. Believe everything you read about this production. Awful.

This was also the only tour the show has done. It played almost a year doing one week stands from Westchester to Sacramento. I saw it at Valley Forge Music Fair in the round.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 12:16pm

Can I borrow someone's time machine, so I can see Selma Diamond play Hattie? I'll bring it back as soon as the show's over. Thanks.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 12:51pm

The poster sold! I hope Jordan receives it as a Christmas present this year.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 1:32pm

Selma Diamond was good, I think. You could barely hear her. No body mikes.

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 2:20pm

I recently purchased this photo on eBay. I think I might have some more items from this FOLLIES. Let me know if you want to see them.

[beaemma]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 3:13pm

When I saw this production at the Mill Run in Niles, Illinois in September of 1973, I thought Selma Diamond (Hattie) and Hildegard (Solange) were the weakest links in a VERY weak production. I knew that the lavish original Broadway production couldn't be duplicated in the round and didn't consider that a big issue, but the production was disappointing in almost every other way. The audience was expecting a completely different type of show and was outright hostile. By this time, Terry Saunders was Sally and Julie Wilson was Carlotta. In the playbill cast list, there is no Weissman. Heidi (Jeanne Grant) is listed as Heidi Schiller Weissman. I don't recall how any of that played out. I was dumbfounded by how something so unbelievably great on Broadway, where I saw it twice, could be so unbelievably not great in another production.

Updated On: 10/31/13 at 03:13 PM

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 10/31/13 at 6:22pm

Here's a photo of Vivian Blaine and Robert Alda in character (and costume) for FOLLIES.