Musical Monday: The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue

(Originally posted on Minnesota Theater Love)

The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue is a little known musical from 1991 which tells of the life of Will Rogers, as told via a Ziegfeld Follies show. After 33 previews, it opened on Broadway in May of 1991, and closed in Sept. of 1993. It also had a National tour after it closed, and that is when I saw it play at the Ordway. In fact, I was so taken by it that I saw it twice!

The show has music by Cy Coleman, a book by Peter Stone, and lyrics by Comden and Green...all directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune. You really can't get much better than that, can you? The original cast had Keith Carradine as Will Rogers, Dee Hoty as his wife, and Cady Huffman as the lead Ziefeld girl. Costumes by Willa Kim, set Tony Walton, and Jules Fisher designed the lighting. On top of all of that, this was also one of the first places most people saw and heard Jerry Mitchell. He performed nearly naked on a big drum, and that was the start of the Broadway Bares project, as well as a great career directing, choreographing and working on Broadway - even winning a Tony Award for Kinky Boots.

Turning back to the show at hand, this piece has some great Cy Coleman music. The first big number is "Will-A-Mania" - a great upbeat show opener, perfect for a Follies. The one recording (original Broadway cast) is a fantastic recording. 20 songs along with a great booklet giving a nice synopsis. The show travels in time quite a bit so it can be a bit confusing while listening to it, but on stage it made perfect sense. The show has a good mix of big chorus/dance numbers, a few small group numbers, and some fantastic solos. You may not think of Keith Carradine as a singer, though he did release two solo albums back in the 1970's, but he has the perfect easy-going voice for Will Rogers. Check out the song "Never Met A Man I Didn't Like" for further proof of how good he sounds in this part.



And just check out that staging and choreography! You can see why I would want to see it twice! I'm not sure what else to say except this is a really good show with a great recording. I hope at sometime it will be revived, or maybe a local production will be done. I think there are companies in town that could easily pull this show off and make it fantastic visually, and create some new fans of the show.