Follies: New Edition

The widow of the bookwriter, James Goldman, has blocked any viewing of "Follies" held by libraries. You need special permission. I guess that means you must be Stephen Sondheim! So you must buy the book should you be interested in the actual story line, plenty of CDs available....this is fine, and of course it is nice to have the libretto....but i cannot help wishing that Mrs. Goldman will change he mind and lift her restriction... theater is so fleeting, and now it CAN be recorded for future generations..I urge you, Mrs. Goldman, to lift your restrictions and allow those of us who were not old enough at the time to appreciate/afford a show like "Follies", now have a chance to see it on tape... This surely cannot harm anything!

I absolutely agree with the reviewer here who said that this edition of the book Follies has weakened the original play. Let me first reiterate what this book is, exactly - it is the published libretto (script, stage directions and song lyrics) for the 2001 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's landmark musical, Follies. There is no sheet music in this book, just the complete dialogue and song lyrics - of the 2001 revival.As another reviewer has pointed out, Mr. Goldman apparently became disenchanted with the play Follies as originally performed and previously published by Random House. For some reason I cannot fathom (because there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with the original) he chose to revise and re-write his play several times. No one has ever declared a "definitive" version, but the publishers of the current book have chosen to present the show as revised and performed in the 2001 Broadway revival. I saw the 2001 revival; I thought it wasn't bad, but I left the theatre with the uneasy feeling that it was vastly different (and far less satisfying) than the show that captured my imagination and became my favorite Broadway show, back when I saw it three times in its original run between 1971-72. Since I own a copy of the original play as published by Random House in 1972 (at the time I paid $2.95 for the hardcover!) I decided to acquire the new publication and compare the two published versions, line for line.What I found shocked me. Not only did the changes that Mr. Goldman made completely change and weaken the character of Ben, several of my favorite speeches were completely excised from the new book. Gone is Phyllis' exchange with the chorus girl who shared her dressing room, (PRS: "I remember you. You never liked me." Chorus Girl: "What a thing to say!" PRS: "That's OK, I never liked you, either.") Also gone are some of the more provocative and interesting lines that Phyllis had (both her wonderful speech about how much she wanted Ben when they were first married, "I used to come home with my panties wringing wet" and her speech about the lover who loved to kiss the birthmark below her left breast - silly today, maybe, but amazingly candid for 1971 - are gone from the revised edition). Dialogue for other characters has also been moved or deleted.Worst of all, the ending has been completely changed. Buddy and Sally's heartbreaking final exchange (Buddy: "Come on kid - let's go home and make plans for tomorrow" Sally: "Oh dear God, it IS tomorrow") has been deleted, changing the tone of the whole show. In the original published version, Sally's line - "Oh dear God, it IS tomorrow" had a piece of stage direction that I will never forget as long as I live - it said simply, "There is no hope". A far cry from the revision, where Ben offers a simpering apology to Sally and she contends, "I'll be fine". In short, some of the most witty, funny and poignant moments from the original show have been altogether deleted, all for the sake of proffering a show that could be more easily digested by middle America. The revisions produced a musical that is far more banal and nowhere near as touching or tragic as the original that was so beautifully presented to Broadway audiences 34 years ago. My understanding is that Mr. Goldman was never happy with the fact that the play didn't have a "happy ending" and he needed to revise the characterizations substantially to give us something that mainstream audiences would be more comfortable with. I wish he had been able to leave it as it was. He never found any reason to tamper with his other masterpiece, The Lion in Winter (it's a funny coincidence that my favorite film of all time - The Lion in Winter, and my favorite Broadway show of all time - Follies - should both be written by the same man). The bottom line is that I firmly believe that this piece has suffered terribly from Mr. Goldman's inability to simply leave well enough alone. Fans of the show who want a complete rendering of the lyrics to Stephen's Sondheim's glorious songs will not be badly served by this edition. But if you are lucky enough to find a copy of the original Random House edition, you will also have a much better libretto for Follies in your library.

FOLLIES is one of Stephen Sondheim's greatest Broadway musical achievements. This publication reworks the original and matches the script of the recent Kennedy Center and Broadway revival that starred Bernadette Peters, Ron Raines, Danny Burstein and Jan Maxwell. Though not as raw and searing as the original libretto perhaps, it still bites and hits home hard with nostalgic fervor. It's great to have this, if for no other reason than to have the song lyrics on paper to enjoy and treasure. Highly recommended.

It's nice to own the original script of FOLLIES. It's always been one of my favorites and it's great to see what was written by the author, then knowing what was added by the director.

As another reviewer has commented this is merely the already extant 2001 edition of the script, repackaged with a new cover that reflects the most recent revival's poster art. This is NOT the text and libretto as used in the 2011 Broadway Revival. This is the text of the 2001 Broadway Revival which has been noted in by several reviewers as a weaker production.The "changes" made to justify this as a "2nd edition" are impossible to find, other than the new cover art. I have compared this with the 2001 edition and cannot find any differences.The text of Follies has been revised every time by its author, James Goldman, with the most complete version of the text being the original publication from the 1970s. This is still available second-hand on Amazon (yes it can cost a lot) but every now and then a copy shows up at an affordable price. I highly recommend buying that edition.It is a shame that the publishers could not be bothered to source the text from the latest production, which from many accounts had a very vibrant text.

The product matched the description upon arrival. Very fairly priced. Great for anyone who is interested in the musical theatre world.

One of Stephen Sondheims best musicals ever. If you loved A Little Night Music, you'll love Follies as well. Heartbreaking. Groundbreaking work.

The script has been very hard to find. When I found and ordered it, the script arrived in perfect condition and it arrived early!