Follies
Louise Gold starred, as Phyllis Rogers Stone, at The
Royal Festival Hall, Between 6 to 31 August 2002 (with previews on 3 and 5
August 2002)
Prior to Follies, Ms Gold has had some
experience of Sondheim shows, and compared them as follows:
“There’re all different, but they all share
the characteristic intimacy of music and lyrics. His work is mainly intended
for performers who are both singers and actors. You think that you know the
songs and then you find out that there is much more to them than you first
thought.” Louise Gold to
Besides being an experienced Sondheim performer, she
is also an very experienced performer of songs with a pastiche nature, and
describes the effect of that on this show as:
“Follies is one of Sondheim’s most melodic
scores. It contains the most songs that that stand alone and become imprinted
on people’s memory before they become fully acquainted with the show” Louise Gold to
This particular production restored The Story Of
Lucy And Jessie, which had been replaced in the 1987 revival by Ah
But Underneath). When asked how she felt about that, the performer of
the number in question in this production said:
“I don’t know why Lucy and Jessie was cut back
in 1987. I think that Stephen Sondheim is always looking to re-work things, but
sometimes the original is better.” Louise Gold to
Cast
Sally Durant
Plummer - Kathryn Evans
Young Sally
- Emma Clifford
Phyllis
Rogers Stone - Louise Gold
Young
Phyllis - Kerry Jay
Ben Stone - David
Durham
Young Ben - Hugh
Maynard
Buddy Plummer
- Henry Goodman
Young Buddy
- Matthew Carmelle
Solonge La
Fitte - Anna Nicholas
Carlotta
Campion - Diane Langton
Hattie
Walker - Joan Savage
Heidi
Schiller - Julia Goss
Stella Deems
- Shezwae Powell
Max Deems - Nick
Hamilton
Emily
Whitman -
Theodore
Whitman - Tony Kemp
Young
Solonge - Juliet Gough
Young
Carlotta - Alexis Owen Hobbs
Young Hattie
- Tiffany Graves
Young Heidi
- Pippa Raine
Young Heidi
(vocal) - Phillipa Healey
Young Stella
- Keisha Marina Atwell
Young Emily
- Gabrielle Noble
Dimitri
Weissman - Russell Dixon
Roscoe - Paul
Bentley
Margie - Tiffany
Graves
Kevin - Matthew
Attwell
Chauffer - Andrew
Wright
Major Domino
- Simon Coulthard
Photographer
- Craig Armstrong
Christine - Paddy
Glynn
Production Team
Music
and Lyrics - Stephen Sondheim
Book - James
Goldman
Original
Production - 4 April 1971, The Winter Garden Theatre,
Director -
Paul Kerryson
Set &
Costume Design - Paul Farnsworth
Musical
Director - Julian Kelly
Choreography
- David Needham
Assistant
Choreographer - Greg Pichery
Lighting
Designer - Jenny Cane
Casting
Director - Kate Plantin
Production
Manager - Jonanthan Bartlett
Presented by
- Raymond Gubby Limited
Sound - Autograph
Sound Design
- Terry Jardine
Sound
Engineer - Tony Gale
Click here for a review/account of the show
Louise Gold got a little opportunity
to add something all her own to this production of Follies. In
the change-over between Phyllis’s Folly and Ben’s Folly,
the script calls for Phyllis to look at Ben. Director Paul Kerryson
instructed actress Louise Gold that he wanted to see some kind of
interaction between Phyllis and Ben, but left it to her to work out how to do
that. Thus Louise experimented with various ad-libs ranging from “Good luck
big boy” to “It’s easy, all you have to do is remember the words”.
The words to I’m Still Here, however,
got forgotten by accident; allegedly one night Diane Langton got them a
bit muddled; The following night, 8th August, she was off sick and
her understudy, Myra Sands, with the briefest of rehearsals, did double
duty playing both Emily (her own role), and Carlotta, so perhaps it was small
wonder she had to adlib her way out of trouble when she forgot the words to
Carlotta’s big number.
Given the importance of being able to
sing-dance-and-act in this musical, it is perhaps worth noting that at one time
or another; Craig Armstrong, Kathryn Evans, Louise Gold, Tiffany Graves,
Tony Kemp, Hugh Maynard, Alexis
Owen-Hobbs, and, Andrew Wright (about
25% of the entire cast) all trained at one section or another of Arts
Educational, as did the choreographer David
Needham.
Louise Gold appeared in the Sondheim
musical directed by Paul Kerryson Merrily We Roll Along, she also
appears in the Leicester Haymarket Cast album of Merrily We Roll Along, for which
Julian Kelly was also the musical director
Louise Gold, Henry Goodman,
and Paul Bentley have appeared together, ten years previously in the
Sondheim musical Assassins
Louise Gold has also appeared in Side By Side By Sondheim, and such
Sondheim concerts as: Broadway To Brighton,
Sondheim At The Barbican, Side By Side By Sondheim 25th Anniversary,
and, Side By Side By Sondheim 30th
Anniversary Gala. She has also sung Sondheim in her cabaret act LOUISE GOLD ... By Appointment.
In the course
of her career Louise Gold like so many performers has found herself
singing some of the songs sung in Follies by other characters,
for example in Side By Side By Sondheim
she sang I’m Still Here and in Curtain
Up she got to sing Broadway Baby.
Paul Kerryson also directed Louise
Gold when she starred in Calamity Jane,
which was also choreographed by David Needham, and had musical direction
by Julian Kelly and decor by Paul Farnsworth, Greg Pitchery
also appeared in this as a dancer.
Louise Gold had previously had a
major role in another show produced by Raymond Gubbay Ltd on
Louise Gold and Henry Goodman
have previously appeared together in a BBC Radio production of Let ‘Em Eat Cake and the Lost Musicals
production of Of Thee I Sing
Myra Sands and Louise Gold
are both stalwart members of
Myra Sands and Kathryn Evans
have previously appeared together in the Lost Musicals production
of Sweet Adeline.
On the changes over the years theme, Myra Sands
was one of the cast members of the original production of Cats
(in fact she played The Gumbie Cat, Jennyanydots), twenty one years later, at
the same theatre (The New London Theatre): Matthew Attwell, Tiffany
Graves, and, Alexis Owen Hobbs were all in the London production’s
21 year/final cast.
Myra Sands and Simon Coulthard,
appeared together in Grease.
Louise Gold and Simon Coulthard
have previously appeared together in Mamma Mia
Louise Gold and Anna Nicholas
have previously appeared together in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was also designed by Paul Farnsworth
Louise Gold and Anna Nicholas
have previously appeared together in The
Boys From Syracuse
Louise Gold and Paul Bentley
have previously appeared together in Kiss Me Kate,
which was also designed by Paul Farnsworth
Louise Gold and Paul Bentley
have previously appeared together on the radio in Ned
Sherrin’s Review Of Revue.
Louise Gold and Diane Langton
have previously appeared together in the special Chicago & Company, they did not appear
together in Angry Housewives (because Diane
Langton was one of the three originally cast ladies who were no longer in
it by the time it opened)
Diane Langton has previously appeared
on The Royal Variety
Performance (1982), and possibly Comedy
Tonight. Her recording credits include Defiant
Dames (on which she sang I’m Still Here), Cole Porter - Night And Day, and, The Great Musicals – Laughter And Tears.
Louise Gold and Kathryn Evans
had previously appeared together in Broadway
To Brighton
Schezwae Powell has previously appeared
in Kids At Heart, her recording credits
include: Encore The Very
Best From The Musicals, Cole Porter
- Night And Day , and The History
Of The Musical
Julian Kelly’s conducting can be heard
on Simply Musicals, and, The Great Musicals – Dashing Heroes,
Blushing Maidens.
Autograph also did the sound for Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Touring Production), Anything Goes (Stage Show) and A Time To Start Living.
Henry Goodman, and, Anna Nicholas have gone on to appear in
A Love Letter To Dan.
Diane Langton, and, Julian Kelly’s recording credits
include The Great Musicals - Wonderful Tales.
Joan Savage has gone on to
sing Broadway
Baby in Side By Side By Sondheim 30th
Anniversary Gala.
Louise Gold has previously been
involved in a variety of performances of the song Beautiful Girls
in: Sondheim At The Barbican , Side By Side By Sondheim, and, Side By Side By Sondheim 25th Anniversary
Gala, and subsequently in Side By Side By
Sondheim 30th Anniversary Gala.
The night after the curtain came down on Follies
(and the cast had cleared out their dressing rooms), Louise Gold and Paul
Bentley were on top form in Regents
Park 70th Anniversary Gala.
Pippa Raine who played,
but did not voice, Young Heidi in this production, went on to play Young Stella
in a revival of Follies in Northampton in 2006.
Louise
Gold, Paul Bentley,
and, Diane Langton have gone on to
appear together in Mary Poppins.
Critics Comments
“But
Louise Gold as his [Ben]’s spouse Phyllis can be magnificently bitter” Kate
Bassett, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 18 August 2002
“Louise Gold never really finds the
brittleness of Phyllis, though the Act Two toe-tapper "Story of Lucy and
Jessie" does play to her strengths.” Sarah Beaumont, WHAT’S
ON STAGE.COM, 7 August 2002
“My personal favourites included Louise
Gold’s fantastically slick and sensual ‘The Story of Lucy and Jessie’, Henry
Goodman’s manic clown in ‘The God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues’, and Kathryn
Evans giving ‘Losing My Mind”. Tim Connor, TALKING bROADWAY, 1 October
2002
“Here you find Louise Gold’s wonderfully
acerbic Phyllis rhyming hara-kiri with dearie and singing of girls who want to
be juicy” Maddy Costa, THE GUARDIAN, Thursday 8 August 2002
“’Waiting For The Girls Upstairs’, ‘Who’s That
Woman’, ‘Too Many Mornings’ and the ‘Loveland’ sequences are brilliantly
stages, and the individual performances could not be bettered: Kathryn Evans
singing ‘In Buddy’s Eyes’ and ‘Losing my mind’ or ‘Louise Gold in ‘Could I
Leave You?’ and ‘The Story Of Lucy And Jessie’ are just perfect.” Michael
Darvell, WHAT’S ON, 14 August 2002
“Finally Louise Gold's Phyllis, The
“I'm so glad I came -- if just to hear Phyllis
say "I can't expect to die until 1995," a line dropped from many
subsequent productions.” Peter Filichia, THEATRE MANIA
“All four principals - Kathryn Evans, Louise
Gold, Henry Goodman and David Durham - draw you into the drama of their
characters’ lives.” John Gross, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, Sunday 11 August
2002
“Louise Gold is acidly funny as the bitter,
disappointed Phyllis” Sarah Hemming, FINANCIAL TIMES, 12 August 2002
“Louise
Gold's Phyllis is versatile and formidable: injured queen one moment, vamp the
next.” Kate Kellaway, THE OBSERVER, Sunday 11 August 2002
“As for the principals, Evans and Gold are
far too young to be portraying aging chorines such as these - but both sang
well. So too did
“This show is about middle-aged heartbreak,
emotional fatigue and endurance, and like all serious musicals, it needs real
acting and actors who are not afraid of pain. Kathryn Evans, Louise Gold, David
Durham and Henry Goodman oblige fearlessly. Kerry Jay is the best of the young
actors as Gold’s younger self.” John Peter, SUNDAY TIMES, 11 August 2002
“Louise Gold, Ben’s equally unhappy wife,
Phyllis, storms savagely through the bitter Could I Leave You” William
Russell, HERALD, 13 August 2002
“The
acting honours are spread evenly across the cast. The urbane, acid and disillusioned Phyllis
(Louise Gold) plays off the provincial, insecure and unstable Sally (Kathryn
Evans). “Tell me, who made your dress, or did you make it?” she taunts Sally” Ian
Senior, R CUBED, Issue 44, 23 August 2002.
“But Louise Gold and David Durham as
loveless couple Phyllis and Ben Stone are the outstanding cast members, having
most of the emotional meat of the script.”... “The outraged sarcasm of Could I
Leave You is the most scathing song of breakdown since Bob Dylan’s Positively
“Louise Gold, by contrast an experienced
Sondheim performer, made the best of her opportunity as Ben’s frustrated and
childless wife Phyllis, who has seemingly sacrificed all to further his career
and lived to regret it. Miss Gold certainly put up a fine show with her
interpretation of The Story Of Lucy And Jessie, a song that explores another of
Follies’ main themes, namely the effect of the transition into middle age upon
women.”
“Louise Gold splendidly captures the bitchy
despair of Phyllis, trapped in a prosperous, loveless marriage, and brings a
bracing fury to the scorchingly sardonic Could I Leave You?” Charles
Spencer, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Thursday 8 August 2002
“But it is the two girls who steal the show.
Louise Gold gives a fine acting performance as the acerbic Phyllis (and then
warms our hearts with her great song and dance number Lucy and Jesse)” David
Thomas, in The SMASH magazine CURTAIN UP, September 2002
“Katherine Evans was a superb Sally and Louise
Gold (although dressed by someone who, seemingly, did not like her) was an
excellent Phyllis.” Lynda Trapnell, MUSICAL STAGES, Issue 35/36, Winter
2002/2003
“But Durham simply stares impassively
ahead, as he does through most of the show, which has the effect of leaving
Louise Gold's uninflected gorgon of a Phyllis growling in a vacuum. And must
Phyllis really make her way scornfully down the stairs during first-act opener
"Beautiful Girls"? For all her emotional privations, Phyllis is a
Links about Follies
Show’s page on the Royal Festival Hall site: http://www.rfh.org.uk/main/events/69554.html?section=dance&file=index&month=2&week=7&view=
Gold
On Stage: Louise Gold In Follies (TheatreNow.Com interview with Louise Gold
because of her appearance in Follies): http://www.theatrenow.com/asp/link.htm?news.asp?art=3430&cat=1
Bio
for Louise Gold, and other principle cast members on the RFH site: http://www.rfh.org.uk/follies/cast.html#gold
Review
from The Observer: http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,772485,00.html
Review
from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4477680,00.html
Review
from The BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/reviews/2180974.stm
The
Daily Telegraph: http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/08/08/btchas08.xml&sSheet=/arts/2002/08/08/ixartleft.html
What’s
On Stage.com review of Follies: http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=greenroom&story=E8821028720239
Review
from The Evening Standard, somehow they managed to get the name of an actress,
Louise Gold, and her character, Phyllis Rogers Stone, muddled up: http://www.thisislondon.com/dynamic/hottx/top_review.html?in_review_id=661561&in_review_text_id=632618
Review
from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=322246
Review
from The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-245-377813,00.html
Review
from London Theatre Guide Online: http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/amandahodges/reviews/follies02.htm
Review
by Peter Filichia from Theatre Mania: http://www.theatermania.com/news/peterdiary/index.cfm?story=2556&cid=1
BBC
site, Have your Say reviews: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/reviews/2181017.stm
The Daily Telegraph interview with Paul Kerryson: http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/07/30/btpaul30.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=160989
and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/07/30/btpaul30.xml
Review
from:
Review
from This London: http://metro.thisislondon.com/dynamic/hottx/theatre/review.html?in_review_id=654338&in_review_text_id=626344
Review
from London Theatre Tours: http://www.londontheatretours.com/news/fullstory.asp?news_id=57
Review
from Talking Broadway: http://www.talkinbroadway.com/westend/10_1_02.html
Crazy-For-Musicals
Diary Of A Mad Theatre-goer’s ‘s review of Follies and other shows on in
An
Italian Musical site’s review of Follies (Trasnslated by Google): http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.musical.it/box237.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Louise%2BGold%2522%26start%3D60%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN
and the original article (if your Italian is up to it): http://www.musical.it/box237.htm
The
London Season Hot Spot’s archive: http://www.thelondonseason.com/LShotspotarchive.htm
The
Stephen
Nottingham Operatic Society’s article about “recent” productions of Sondheim shows (this appears to have been a ‘background’ to their own production of follies): http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nottmopsoc/sondheim.htm
Raymond Gubby’s website’s page for the show: http://www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/displayEvent.asp?eventid=192
R-Cubed’s review of the show: http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:e6vcjtN8XZoJ:rcubednews.com/RCubed044%252023%2520Aug%252002.doc+%22Louise+Gold%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=98&gl=uk
Theatrepro.com’s review of the show: http://www.theaterpro.com/pl_sondheim.html
Follies page on Matthew Cammelle’s official site: http://www.matthewcammelle.com/credits/follies/
A review, by Emma Shane, of seeing another
production of Follies (
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