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
Louise Gold, Henry Goodman, and
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.
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
Louise Gold and Anna Nicholas have previously appeared
together in The Boys From Syracuse
Louise Gold and
Louise Gold and
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, The Great Musicals – Dashing Heroes,
Blushing Maidens, Magic Of The Musicals,
and, The Best Of The Musicals.
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
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,
Shezwae Powell, and, Myra Sands may have previously taken part in Thing A Thon.
Louise Gold, and, Myra Sands have gone on to appear together in Oliver!. They can also be heard on the cast album: Oliver!
(Recording)
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.”
“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
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
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