| Absolutely, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES is lighter than air, but, as you say, it has a brilliant score. And it's hard to understate what an absolute spectacle it was. It was eye-popping, the kind of show that we don't really see all that much of these days. Every scene seemed to have something else that made you sit up in your chair and think..."WOW!" It was the perfect antidote to the darkness of MISS SAIGON and THE SECRET GARDEN. And I think you're correct that people didn't appreciate the brilliance of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND during its original run and and thought it was too small, especially when compared to the sprawling operatic MISS SAIGON and the sheer Ziegfeldian excess of THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES. |
