Follies (Highlights from the 1987 London Revival Cast) [Cast Recording]

Stephen Sondheim, Julia McKenzie, Diana Rigg, Daniel Massey, Follies (Related Recordings), David Healy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 21, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Cast Recording
• Label: First Night Records
• ASIN: B000024XEC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,230 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Beautiful Girls - Roscoe & Company

2. Don't Look at Me - Sally & Ben

3. Montage: Rain on the Roof - Billy & Wally Whitman

4. Waiting for the Girls Upstairs - Phillis et al.

5. Who's That Woman? - Stella & Phillis et al.

6. In Buddy's Eyes - Sally

7. Country House - Phillis & Ben

8. Too Many Mornings - Ben & Sally

9. I'm Still Here - Carlotta

10. The Right Girl - Buddy

11. Could I Leave You? - Phillis

12. One More Kiss - Heidi & Young Heidi

13. Loveland - Roscoe & Company

14. Love Will See Us Through - Young Buddy & Young Sally

15. Buddy's Blues - Buddy

16. Losing My Mind - Sally

17. You're Gonna Love Tomorrow - Young Ben & Young Phyllis

18. Ah, But Underneath - Phyllis & Company

19. Make the Most of Your Music - Ben & Company

20. You're Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through - Young Ben, Young Buddy, Young Sally, Young Phyllis

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Rewoeked Follies is a Folly, July 15, 2001

By 

Michael Shayne (Boca Raton, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Follies (Highlights from the 1987 London Revival Cast) (Audio CD)

This "highlight" release is exactly the same as the two cd release with the exception of one cut: "Social Opening". It is not really a song, but characters talking with underscore using the music of the cut song "That Old Piano".

The London version was an attempt to make the story more up beat and in this version will never be staged again. Sondheim wrote three news songs and reworked others with new lyrics. The new songs are "A Country House", "Ah, But Underneath" which replaced the equally fine "Lucy and Jessie" (Which in turn replaced "Uptown/Downtown") and "Make the Most of You Music" which replaced "Live, Love, Laugh".

"Loveland" was almost complety overhauled for the London version. Other songs like "In Buddy's Eyes" changes the devasting lie of Sally's life. The most grevious omission from the score was in my opinion was "The Road You Didn't Take"

No one perhaps will match the star power and performances of the original cast, but the London cast comes in a close second. Diana Rigg, Julia McKenzie, Daniel Massey and David Healy do very well as the four leads. The great Dolores Gray does her own take on "I'm Still Here" and succeeds. In fact the whole cast succeeds with the exception of Margaret Courtney as Hattie (Broadway Baby). She was most likely directed to sing it as cutesy little girl and ruins the intention of the song.

This recording is important to anyone who is a Sondheim completist. It is a record of Follies that will never be performed again.

The three stars are for the lyric changes, the omission of The Road You Didn't Take, the uneccesary replacement songs and the performance of Margaret Courtney.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I just wish there was more of it!, November 16, 2000

By 

Donald (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Follies: A Broadway Legend (Excerpts) (Audio CD)

This recording has many of the same problems of the Broadway cast recording in that it is incomplete. However, this is doubely (is that a word?) incomplete in that it cut some numbers from the original production and replaced them with other numbers. In some cases this worked, "Ah, But Underneath" is much better than "The Story of Lucy and Jessie," which it replaced. However some songs, "Make the MOst of Your Music," fall short of their predecessors. It also cut "The Road You Didn't Take," which was borderline criminal. Needless to say, if you were to have one recording of Follies, this would not be it. However, beacause almost all of the Follies recordings (with the possible exeption of the Papermill Playhouse recording) are flawed, it is almost neccessary to buy multiple recordings, and this particular recording does have many merits. The merits are Diana Rigg, Julia Mackenzie, and the two leading males. Their performances are universally fantastic. I would be surprised if you could find a better recording of "Losing My Mind" or "Buddy's Blues" or "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" or any one of the number of standards from the show. (The only song that is not done particularly well is "One Last Kiss"). If this cast sang all of the songs on the Papermill Playhouse recording, then that would be the ideal CD. However, life isn't like that, so buy this CD only if you're a Sondheim nut and want the "rare" songs, or if you're a Follies nut and can't refuse a good cast, even if they don't sing all of the songs.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's all about the first production you get to know, June 7, 2004

By 

keauxgeigh (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Follies (Highlights from the 1987 London Revival Cast) (Audio CD)

I've often found with Broadway musicals, the first version of a production or recording I'm exposed to and get to know is the one I end up liking the best. I familiarized myself with this version of "Follies" after playing in the pit for it in a small, local production, and now when I hear the 1971 Original Cast album, which many other people praise as the definitive best, I still hear, and want to hear, the inflections and phrasing of the singers on this CD. To my ears, the 1987 performances are more emotional and impassioned because of the more syncopated and meticulous and brassy vocal phrasing (and clearer recording). In contrast, the vocal style of the 1971 recording is smoother and more fluid, and executed in a more "classic" Broadway style. Fine performances, but not what I'm used to.

Adding to that, the horrible editing and cutting up of songs in the 1971 release, I prefer this one. Cutting out the extended instrumental section and tap dancing in "Who's That Woman?" ruins it for me (I love the percussion of tap); ditto in cutting out whole verses of "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues". I also miss the ritard during the B sections of "Broadway Baby", which the 1971 version doesn't do, and is faster in general. However, big omissions on this version are "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" and "Live, Laugh, Love", which we did in the production I played in, and was thrilled with when I got the 1971 version, although I think they again shortened "Lucy and Jessie".

Actually, I don't have this CD anymore, the original two-disc release. An ex-girlfriend ended up with it, you know how it goes. Grr. I don't want to buy this "highlights" version, so I want to pick up the New Jersey version to have complete versions of songs. I bet that I will like the 1971 versions of "Lucy and Jessie" and "Live, Laugh, Love" better.