Customer Reviews

Stephen Sondheim's Follies in Concert

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a documentary of a 1985 concert performance from Lincoln Center of Stephen Sondheim's 1971 "Follies." A really great cast of Broadway greats was brought together for this concert that was basically put together is a few days. Although the backstage elements of the show are great (e.g., showing actors working through dance numbers, flubbing lyrics, Sondheim talking with the actors), the real interest of the show is in the performaces themselves that make up about half of the 90 minute documentary. The unfortunate thing about the documentary is that we only see about half the concert, mostly in the form of excerpts. It really would have been much better to see a COMPLETE version of the concert. One really wonders why this wasn't filmed and made available in some format. There is, however, a 2-CD album of the whole concert to fill in the gaps.

This concern aside, the concert is a great chance to see the likes of Barbara Cook, Lee Remick, George Hearn, Carol Burnett, Elaine Stritch, and Adolph Green and Betty Comden singing and within the frame of a concert performance) acting their way through one of the great musicals of our age.

This DVD is a definite buy!

Thank God that there is a full recording of this evening available on CD, because this video only shows about 45 minutes of the actual concert. Granted, they are 45 minutes that are not to be missed with this brilliant cast and this amazing show from Stephen Sondheim. This is truly a Broadway event. The documentary, which makes up most of the running time of the video is a lot of fun, but cutting the actual concert down to bare bones is a sin. We who adored Sondheim should appeal to the producers and beg that this magical night be released on video in its entirety.

This is not "Follies in Concert," it is the reader's digest version. Many numbers have been truncated and many omitted, most notably "Waiting for the Boys Upstairs" and "The Road I Didn't Take." While the concert itself ran over 130 minutes, the DVD is made from a 90 minute video tape. Include the fact that they added about 30 minutes of rehearsal interviews, and the concert is basically cut in half. In addition, the DVD is video tape quality and the sound is unstable. All in all, a very disappointing recording for Sondheim lovers.

This is by far my favorite musical, not the concert but the actual musical from the 70's. When i saw Alexis Smith the first time i fell deeply in love. Of course i was only 24 at the time.Even though this is just the concert version minus the terrible cutting and editing it's better than nothing at all. This cast was also wonderful with it's vintage and well polished cast, I gave it the four stars only because it's not as complete as the CD. After all most of the people that would buy the concert version would also have been fans of the original show itself so why not include all the production numbers.Maybe if enough people make compaints do you think they may re-do this DVD?To all those wonderful women who were in the original production,,,Hats off, to those wonderful girls.. The likes of this will never come again.

It has been noted several times that this DVD is not a recording of the famous concert at Lincoln Center, but a documentary of that concert including rehearsals and some of the concert. The concert was used as the platform to make the first full recording of this incredible score. Many may not realise that in order to preserve the show on 1 LP, the original Broadway cast recording had substantial cuts made while it was being recorded. The OBC cd's released later include only one cut song from that original cast recording. The OBC recording of Follies is a crime to be sure.

But back to the DVD. This is an interesting behind the scenes look at the mad house it took to present a full stage concert of Follies in about a week. It is interesting to watch Thomas Z. Shepherd at work here as the record producer. (An interesting comparison would be to buy the documentary of the recording of Company to see a younger Sheperd at work) There are scenes in the rehearsal halls, the terror of opening night and wonderful scenes on stage.

If you are a theater lover, this DVD is a wonderful documentary of how a show like this is put together. And there are wonderful clips of Carol Burnett singing "I'm Still Here" and Elaine Stritch singing "Broadway Baby". And who can ever resist Barbara Cook?

The packaging may be confusing for die hard theater fans. The DVD cover uses the famous David Byrd logo from the original Broadway cast and not the photograph cover from the recording. But dont let that fool you, this documentary is worthy of any serious theater lovers collection.

All that needs to be said about this concert is that there will never be anything like it again.

The only problem with the product is it is not a replication of the concert in whole, it is documentary look at the days leading up to the concert and then several snipets from the actual concert.

If you want to see the whole thing, your out of luck; but you do get to see several great performances by the leading actors of then AND now.

It's great!

In spite of the fact that I am a Follies Fanatic, junkie, and completist, I missed this concert. Back in 1971, I was too young to fully appreciate Follies and although I bought the OBC and loved it, I didn't get to see FOLLIES on stage before it closed.

By the time 1985 rolled around, I was ecstatic at the thought of this revival and planned on buying tickets and attending. It "sold out" within an hour or so and I coudn't get tickets. I should have slept on the ground in front of Lincoln Center.

Anyway,the concert gave us a new cast recording with almost all the music restored. And then, there was the VHS of this presentation, half-concert and half documentary. I purchased the VHS and, years later DVD. The DVD is only the VHS material transferred to DVD. There were no new additions but I think I prefer the DVD because the sound and picture are ever so slightly better. The back stage comments and rehearsals are wonderful for any musical theater fan and anyone who has ever been involved in the production of a musical on any scale from Community Theater to Broadway. It's fun to see these big name producers and legendary stars have trouble with their lyrics, squirm and get the jitters just like they were novices. It's still hard work, and it never gets easy. But,as Elaine Stritch says waiting in the wings to go on "It's Fun, Gawdammit!". You get all the excitement of an opening night as seen through the eyes of these performers. I actually met Lee Remick not too long after this concert. She was as beautiful, charming and as gracious as one could imagine. I asked her if there would ever be a release of the entire concert and she said "No, owing to the fact that the concert was a benefit". She went on to say that she didn't believe the entire concert was even recorded on video, so, there's probably nothing "in the vaults" to re-construct. Still, watching Stritch backstage telling jokes and being Elaine Stritch is a howl and finally watching her NAIL "Broadway Baby" shows you why she is a legend. I fell in love with Barbara Cook in this concert. With all due respect to the late Dorothy Collins, Barbara's version of "Losing My Mind" is such perfection that she renders the song almost untouchable by anyone else. Carol Burnett blew this audience away as Carlotta singing "I'm Still Here". As I said, I loved Lee Remick personally but the truth be told, she fell a little behind on "Lucy and Jesse". I love George Hearn too, but I found him a little too "Operatic" for this musical. The only major disappointment came from Mandy Patinkin. I admire his talent but sometimes he goes too far. He was supposed to sing "Buddy's Blues" with Stritch as Comic sally and Burnett as Margie and then decided to do it solo singing all three parts himself. What a missed opportunity! What a Show-off! What a Ham! I had some friends that did see this concert in person. They told me that Mandy "went up" (Forgot his lyrics) and had to start all over again during this song. Good for him! Serves him right!

I finally saw this show in a revival at City Center not too long ago. It was great. It moved me all over again in all the same places. Broadway Baby, One More Kiss, Losing My Mind, You're gonna love tomorrow, I'm Still here. Even with an entirely different cast, the magic is there. There's more to this musical than meets the ear and it deserves to be seen complete in all its glory.

Still, this truncated DVD version is all we have until Rob Marshall or somebody like him manages to get the movie version off the ground.

Hollywood was supposed to film this in the 70's. It would have starred Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Shirley Maclaine. Star turns were to go to Bette Davis ("I'm Still here"), Joan Crawford ("Broadway Baby") and Joan Blondell ("Who's that Woman" I guess). Now, even my contemporaries like Barbra Streisand are too old to play the principals. I think I'd like to see Catherine Zeta-Jones as Phyllis and folks from my generation as the old bags. Can't you see Liza Minelli singing "Broadway Baby", Bette Midler singing "Whose That Woman" and Cher singing "I'm Still Here". How much longer will Hollywood wait to do it?

I hope Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" is a huge hit; then we might hve a chance of seeing FOLLIES done as a movie. In the meantime: 5 STARS for this DVD: what it is, what it represents and the performers it showcases.

if only for the nostalgia! the video is of poor quality. Very grainy! The sound is less than ideal. Someone should have gone through the trouble of remastering the video and the audio before releasing it! Age of the concert is not an excuse! I own DVD's whose program content is older than the follies in concert and they sound better and the video excellent.

"Beautiful Girls". What a fantastic opportunity for lovers of Broadway musicals to see the behind the scenes creation and making of a successful musical in four days. This film is in part documentary combined with hi-lights of the finished performance at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic. The story line of "Beautiful Women" attending a Follies Reunion so many years into retirement is powerful and awakens thoughts of aging. Mandy Patinkin, Carol Burnett, Barbara Cook and Lee Remick lead an all star cast in this Steven Sondheim Classic. You might want to view this film more than once.

We don't get to see enough of it. I went into this knowing that only about half the concert was there, and I would have been ok (though slightly annoyed) with that, if the half they kept had been in tact. As it is, the songs they keep are sometimes cut completely in half. It's a bloody shame, because we only get to see small pieces of the whole. The ones they do keep in tact are of course wonderful. It doesn't make sense, though. After all, this concert was produced for the sake of completion.

The real attraction here is the documentary footage, which provides a wonderful look backstage at rehersals and the workings of the concert (It's amazing that they put it together in only a few days), but it only makes you ache to see more the actual show.

I reccomend viewing this for the interviews and for what little of the show they do have, but be aware that it's not the whole show.

Maybe someday, we'll have the entire concert on DVD.