Question About "Follies" Lyrics/Lyrics Interpretation

[MadAboutTheBoy]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 8:04am

I have been playing the most recent cast recording on a loop, and I have a question about a couple of the lyrics. I am hoping that someone here can shed some light.

During Ben's final song "Live, Laugh, Love," when the narrative thread starts to break down into chaos, Ben starts to shout some random thoughts like, "The job was there, I just took it. They never found out" and "She threatened to commit suicide. I never knew she was serious." What is he referring to? I don't see these words in any of the published lyrics, so is this an interpretive choice on the part of the actor? If so, what do they mean?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 8:13am

I've seen too many versions to keep them straight. But at some point in the evening, we usually learn that Ben secretly got Sally pregnant but couldn't afford or didn't want to marry her. Sally tried (or faked) a suicide attempt. Buddy stepped in and married Sally and she has resented him for it ever since. Sally's oldest son is probably the bio-child of the "childless" Ben. Ben, of course, went on to marry the more ambitious (and therefore upwardly mobile) Phyllis.

As for "The job was there, I just took it. They never found out", I'm not sure which job Ben means, but the line continues the idea that Ben thinks he is a fraud.

 

Updated On: 6/2/15 at 08:13 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 8:43am

 Gaveston is right.  Ben is saying that no one ever found out he was a phony.

The suicide line refers to Sally.  

For what it's worth, I never thought that Sally had Ben's kid.  

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 8:48am

Phyllis may be right. (He usually is.)

I thought the paternity of Sally's elder son was implied.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 9:06am

It's an interesting thought, and I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out where it might be implied, but I don't think it's there.  I think Ben left Sally for good just before the war broke out.  Ben married Phyllis and went off to war, Sally attempted suicide and Buddy was there to help her pick up the pieces.  

 

[MadAboutTheBoy]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 9:08am

Ah, this all makes perfect sense. I think I'd forgotten some of those important plot details since seeing the show. Thanks so much!

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/2/15 at 9:24am

In the original book's finale, Sally also has those chilling lines about how she "should have died the first time," implying her suicide attempt. All of the versions are mixed together in my head currently, but I think the 2011 revival got the closest to the original finale, but still didn't have the guts to use Sally's suicide lines.