| re: Question regarding 1987 London production of FOLLIES | |
| Posted by: JereNYC (JereNYC@aol.com) 11:55 am EDT 06/19/18 | |
| In reply to: re: Question regarding 1987 London production of FOLLIES - Marlo*Manners 10:10 am EDT 06/19/18 | |
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| Regarding Ben and Buddy, if I remember correctly, the 1941 versions of the characters are very much on equal footing...I think they're both (law?) students together. It's Buddy's car that Ben always borrows and I think Buddy even offers to lend him money at one point if he needs some. In most productions that I've seen, the younger versions of the characters are almost indistinguishable from each other, so, like you, I've never understood why both women make fools of themselves over Ben and ignore Buddy. In 1941, if you had to pick, it looks like Buddy is the one bound for success. It's only looking at the characters and knowing the reality of 1971, something the characters themselves cannot know, that makes Ben the catch and Buddy the goat. Now, what we really don't know is what happens during and in the immediate aftermath of the war (assuming both men served...why wouldn't they have?). At that point, Ben seems to have pulled himself together and put himself on the path to post-war success, while Buddy stalled and ended up in a dead end job. It could be that Ben's love for Phyllis (if you believe that he actually loves her) is the catalyst here, just as her love for him is the catalyst for her self-improvement, while Buddy is "stuck" with someone who doesn't love him, no matter how much he loves her. The difference in their fates could be as simple as that. Buddy hasn't been motivated to be the best version of himself because he doesn't get the support at home that he needs. The irony is that, with all that Ben and Phyllis have going for them, they run off the rails too. That's why I suspect that Ben's attraction to Phyllis is more about her suitability as a public partner in the life he wants, rather than love. Sally loves him, but that isn't what Ben really wants. And I've always thought that, if Ben had had the guts to choose Sally, he'd have had a partner at home who both loved him, and was the partner (in bed and in public) that he needed. All that self-improvement that Phyllis did?...I bet Sally would've done the same. And, of course, that would've allowed both Phyllis and Buddy to find more suitable partners and avoided four lives in ruins by 1971. |
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