Customer Reviews

The Will Rogers Follies: A Life In Revue (1991 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Desite enjoying this show back in '91, I didn't understand how it beat "Miss Saigon" for the "Best Musical" Tony. The production, cast, and songs were great, but something seemed missing. Maybe it just seemed "small" compared to the British-invasion musicals dominating at the time ("Phantom", "Le Miz"). Tony voters obviously liked the change.

Twenty plus years later, however, the songs in this score continue to shine and make for a great listen! Best tracks include:

Willamania [very peppy & one of my favorite theatre songs ever]
Give A Man Enough Rope
It's A Boy
My Big Mistake
Our Favorite Son
No Man Left For Me
Never Met A Man I Didn't Like [great eleven o'clock number!]

Hopefully, this show will return as a revival on Broadway sometime soon!

While not the greatest musical of all time, Will Rogers Follies is cornucopia of jazz and country hits. It is the story of one of the greatest statesmen of are time, Will Rogers. I would recommend this CD to anyone.

This CD was very enjoyable. The songs were fun. I recomend it to anyone who enjoys broadway musicals.

This is truly a great piece to tap your feet and to find out about a "TRUE Renaissance Man". As I listened to this recording I found myself wondering .. "How could I ever think that "Tony Robbins" Wayne Dyier" or all the others in the "Human field" started these thoughs of Will'isms.. It made me want to research .. Will Rogers, so I did.... And NOW .. I can say .. "I NEVER MET A MAN I DID'NT LIKE.... ENJOY....!!!

THIS IS ONE MUSICAL THAT OFFERS SOMETHING FOR EVERY ONE,EYE POPPING SCENERY,BEAUTIFUL GIRLS,WONDERFUL COSTUMES AND EXCELLENT SONGS,EVEN THE KIDS WILL ENJOY THIS ONE AND KEITH CARRADINE HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER. THE CD AND AUDIO TAPE WILL BRING IT ALL HOME,ENJOY!

Will Rogers was simply a great American. He had his finger on the pulse and understood the zietgeist long before that word had come into popular usage.

Admittedly, doing stage biographies is tough (witness the Peter Allen show from a few seasons back and imagine it without the tour-de-force called Hugh Jackman) and this proved no exception. But, one cannot take these shows literally...that's the magic of the theatre...and if you just hunker down in your seat and take the spirit and the essence of what they're trying to get across, then you'll be both entertained and touched by the show and the man who Will Rogers was.

Several of the on-line reviewers are critical of the material...yet if you give this CD a listen to more than once, it completely grows on you. Coleman, Comden & Green have captured well the times that Will Rogers lived in and brought it into a Revue format that completely works as a vehicle to present the story.

The comic numbers are great, the bluesy numbers given to Dee Hoty (as Betty Blake Rogers) are classic Broadway showstoppers and Keith Carradine gives a tremendous performance as Will Rogers -- conveying the simple truths and down home honesty and observations that were Rogers' trademark.

I've seen many, many shows over the years and have a huge collection of Broadway cast albums. I love the art form. And, perhaps I'm charmed by the oft mentioned "Ah shucks" personality that Mr. Rogers embodied in an age so much less cynical than today, but this show got into my craw and has stayed there since I first saw it. It's a winner. Will Rogers shines again here and when compared to what we have now that are presented as role models and heroes, we could use another one of him any day.

This is a great cast album for a really great show. I saw it in DC with (of all people) Mac Davis, who did a wonderful job. Keith Carradine is the consummate Will, Dee Hoty is tremendous, and the rest of the cast was A-1. A triumph.

I HAPPENED TO BUY "THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES" BY CHANCE, AND NOW IT IS ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE BROADWAY CAST RECORDINGS
(AND I HAVE A LOT OF THEM, AS ANY MUSICAL-FAN WOULD HAVE)!
THE PERFORMANCES ARE GREAT, WITH GREAT ORCHESTRATIONS
AND SOUND. FOR ME THIS IS A CLASSIC! HIGHLY RECOMMENDABLE!

Will Rogers Follies is the brightest, wittiest, cutest show to hit the boards of Broadway in years. Its real Americana, wrapped loosely around the life of one of Americas' last real heros. Will Rogers, America's only Native American (Indian as we used to call um) Cowboy comes to life, finds happiness and romance and finally educates us about his untimely demise, while taking the viewer across the whole gammot of emotions. Everyone one should get off the couch, turn off the tube and come to life, the life of Will Rogers. I just can't say enough about how this show makes me feel. I love it. The music will make you tap your toes and feel great, like I do. Ben Wheeler Pensacola Florida

Great show, two wonderful songs which define him. "I never met a man I didn't like" and "Give a man enough rope"!