- - - - -
I'm not usually much of an artist. Granted, I don't pursue being one, but I'm usually more one to observe and appreciate art than make my own. Once in a while, though, I manage to have a whole lot of fun attempting it.
Anyone who knows me knows I have a passion for the theatre, both plays and musicals. Perhaps my favorite work of musical theatre is Stephen Sondheim's 1971 Follies. Currently enjoying a wildly successful revival on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre, Follies is essentially the story of middle to latter-aged women reuniting in the theatre where they once sang and danced as cast members of the Weismann Follies. The show is written as a one-off occasion as the former Weismann Theatre is to be torn down the next day.
Encountering the ghosts of their younger selves, the lovers lost, the roads not taken, the women and their husbands/companions gather to converse, drink, and, in the case of a few, recreate their signature numbers of decades before.
It's a story of loss, of love, the folly of youth, and the deceptions of age.
It's definitely representative of the time period it was designed in - 1970 - with raucous fields of red orange topped by a flowing mane of cerulean, violet, and periwinkle blue.
But it's the face - the jaw that evokes the late Dame Joan Sutherland, the sad eyes of Gloria Swanson, and the distant, pleading look of Mary Pickford - all tarnished by the gaping crack beginning in the crowning "E" of FOLLIES.
I have, to my knowledge, the poster artwork from every major production - and even a few minor ones - ever to play the stage. The original sketch in a limited edition by Byrd. The 1971 Broadway. 1987 London. 1990 Long Beach CLO. 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse. 2001 Broadway Revival. 2002 London Royal Festival Hall. 2002 Los Angeles Reprise Series. 2007 NYC Encores Concert. 2011 Kennedy Center/Broadway Revival.
I am incredibly proud of my collection, but often it sits in storage, securely pressed flat and kept dark to preserve the images.
A few years back, I looked to those beautiful images for inspiration when I needed to create a little piece for myself. What that leads me to is this:
Like I said, not much of an artist, but I try. I created this collage faceplate back in the spring of 2008 at the height of the Guitar Hero video game craze for my guitar game controller.
I printed off images of the various posters, arranged them around a faceplate that I'd cut out of thick paper to fit over the guitar and the necessary holes for buttons and the Wii remote. From there, I trimmed them to allow for maximum presentation of each piece while maintaining a diverse, representative field of the art.
The lower left end begins with the 2007 Encores image, which happens to also be by David Byrd. His first concept sketch for the original artwork back in 1970, it finally came to life almost forty years later.
To its right is the third sketch Byrd made for the original. Printed in a signed limited edition sold by the Triton Galley of New York City, I own No. 3 out of 50. Needless to say, it's an acquisition I'm pretty amazed by and proud of.
To the lower right, in pale blue, is a sliver of the 2002 London RFH production. How I came to own this piece is truly a fluke. I'd seen the piece posted online by the RFH's website. Yet there was no merchandise to buy. So I just emailed a contact I found on the Hall's website to see how I might go about getting my hands on a poster. Might as well go the source, right? Well, for the cost of shipping only, I received an enormous tube in the mail one day while at college. Inside was a rolled up piece about four feet wide by six feet tall - an Underground-sized advertising poster. It's truly a treasured piece in my collection.
Counterclockwise from that image is the 1990 Long Beach CLO poster, a newer image by Byrd, not among the original 1970 set. Truly, the girl's face is haunting, set beneath the plumed headdress crowning the famed shattered lettering.
One more spot to the right - at the very end of the guitar - is the font for the 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse of New Jersey production. The artwork that accompanied the piece was a photograph of a young woman who, to my best knowledge, was a real Ziegfield girl. However, the poster featured text of the cast billing over the image, rendering it unusable for my purposes.
Above that, in the upper right corner, is the image from the 2001 Broadway Revival. That summer, in July, my mother and I saw the show from the very cramped mezzanine of the Belasco Theatre, itself crumbling from years without renovation and alterations that left it, in places, in ruins. The production, while critically faulted, was magical and tragic. Stars - real ones - Blythe Danner, Gregory Harrison, Polly Bergen - met their ghosts onstage each night. It truly got me hooked on this legendary piece of Broadway Theatre history.
Finally, at the middle-top of the guitar, is the original.
It's a simple collage that's been preserved by a thick shellacking of Mod-Podge, but it's representative of both my love for this one musical and the fun I had an using that to put my own stamp on a pop culture phenomenon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment