| I saw Follies twice, when I was 19, 20, about five months apart, August 1971 and January 1972. People ask: "Did you know it was special?" I must say, it's one of the few times I knew. I was in college, and had one desire that fall: to return to NYC and see it again over holiday break. And so I did. I saw the full original cast both times, other than Virginia Sandifer, who if memory serves had left to play Eve in Applause with Bacall on the road/LA. Young Phyllis was then Alexandra Borrie. And both performances were matinees, a steamy August Saturday, the NYC heat reaching the upper 90s, and then a Wednesday in early January, frigid (I saw Dorothy Collins hurrying into the Winter Garden, bundled up in a camel coat, and met Fifi exiting, after the matinee. She was in full make-up, and lovely to me.) What's powerful about that original production: every one since has the ability to remind us -- at odd moments -- of the first. |
