From Jp – Things You Won’t Be Seeing (in Follies)
December 6, 2017
The cast of Follies XVIII and the idea wall, first day of rehearsal (October 4, 2017)
At the beginning of every Follies process, the cast and crew start by sharing all the ideas they’d like to work on for consideration in the upcoming production. We put all these ideas on sticky notes and put them on the wall. Generally, there are a LOT of sticky notes! By the time we are ready to do the show, there are only about an eighth of those left on the wall, and they are what make up what you see on the stage. Some of these ideas go away because they don’t fit with the other stuff in the show; some go away because we don’t have the time, resources, or know-how to pull them off; and others go away, well… because they’re just duds. In honor of the cutting room floor, I offer you a sampling of things you won’t be seeing this holiday season.
- A Wisemen and camels Doo-Wop group.
- Something that involves stilt walking.
- An homage to CATS! the musical.
- Real Reindeer
- A dance number with costumes that light up.
- The Old Guy and Little Red in a Gift of the Magi scenario.
- Little Red and The Old Guy running for office.
- Santa and Mrs. Claus running for office.
- Vaudevillian style hat tricks.
- Christmas STOMP.
- A parody of the Muppet Show theme.
- Tap dancing puppets.
- Caddy elves at a wedding.
- A piece in the style of Samuel Beckett.
- Dixieland Christmas music.
- Sock Puppets.
- The Jakopa’s Punch puppets.
- Penguins in tutus.
- A robot ballerina dinosaur
- A scene in the cockpit of a bomber during WW2.
- The story of how Santa and the Mrs. met.
- A Very Tolkien Christmas.
- The Polar Vortex looking for a new job.
- A medley of songs about stars.
- A parody of Smooth Criminal.
- A number of ideas that involved unitards.
- The school for special snowflakes.
- Someone coming out of a coma.
- A Cajun Night Before Christmas.
- The Old Guy filling in for Santa.
- Family meals throughout the ages.
- A Western radio play.
- Christmas square dancing.
- A scene about fruitcake.
- Feng Shui Christmas.
- Christmas in space (a movement piece)
- Santa’s kids learning to drive.
- Shakespearean Christmas.
- Viking Christmas.
- A crocheted hat dance.
- Panda
The list could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with these for now so you can imagine the Follies that might have been. In the meantime, we look forward to sharing the stuff that did make it with you, playing through December 22nd! See you there!
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