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, Gypsy, 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, and, Candide In Concert. 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, The Great Musicals – Laughter And Tears, and,
The Great Musicals - From Broadway to
Hollywood.
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) , A Time To Start Living, Gypsy, and, Candide In Concert.
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.
Lighting
designer Jenny Cane had previously
worked as the Production Electrician on The Pirates Of
Penzance (Stage production) | The Pirates Of
Penzance (Gala Performance) | The Pirates Of Penzance
(Gala Preview) |The
Pirates Of Penzance (Benefit Preview)
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”
“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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