Sondheim "Follies" Very First Boston Preview "Prologue" Live Alternate Remastered

This is the very first preview of "Follies" in Boston, the prologue. Not only very different from the eventual Broadway prologue, but a completely different, much sparer show with almost no story, more of a simple event (which is what the London "Follies Lite" as Sondheim called it moved back towards). I cleaned this from a dodgy audience tape. From this I would say they started in Boston with a sketch of a show, and filled it in.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Sondheim
• Follies
• Prologue
• Live Broadway
• Hal Prince
• Michael Bennett

[Walbrook48]

Sondheim put "Bring On the Girls" into the score of Alain Resnais' "Stavisky"

[geneb4]

I remember this opening vividly - from the eerie taps as Dorothy Collins crossed the empty stage to the weird background sounds as each character and their ghost entered. Saw the Boston previews 6 times (even saw DeCarlo do "Can That Boy Fox Trot") and miss a lot of the dark ideas that never made it in to the final production.

[jjarndyce]

Wow. I'd read the 'Possible' book (disappointing, I thought) and knew about all the prologue/structural problems. But to think that this dilemma inspired ATBAB, maybe the most extraordinary song he ever wrote...

[MrJohnLaLo]

This is pure GOLD! Thank you for posting. Its amazing how different the show would have been had they kept this opening. Thank goodness they changed it to All Things Bright and Beautiful.

[VRNProductions]

Have you read the book Everything Was Possible? It's about the development of Follies, and goes into some detail on the changes in the Prolouge, among many things.

[penti77]

Wonderful stuff !  Again, a big thank you!

[MDSCFALNM]

This is one of my favorite of the Follies audience tapes. It's amazing how much the show changed between Boston and Broadway. Thanks for cleaning it up!