Editing Follies (section)

==Analysis==
Hal Prince said: "''Follies'' examines obsessive behavior, neurosis and self-indulgence more microscopically than anything I know of."<ref>Hirsch, Foster. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sbc8AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Follies+examines+obsessive+behavior%2C+neurosis+and+self-indulgence+more+microscopically+than+anything+I+know+of.%22&pg=PA95 "A little Sondheim music"]. ''Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre'', CUP Archive, 1989, {{ISBN|0-521-33609-0}}, p. 95</ref> [[Bernadette Peters]] quoted Sondheim on the character of "Sally": "He said early on that [Sally] is off-balance, to put it mildly. He thinks she's very neurotic, and she is very neurotic, so he said to me 'Congratulations. She's crazy.{{'"}}<ref>Gamerman, Ellen.[https://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/09/03/bernadette-peters-on-follies-and-puppies "Bernadette Peters on 'Follies' and Puppies"] ''The Wall Street Journal'', September 3, 2011,</ref> [[Martin Gottfried]] wrote: "The concept behind ''Follies'' is theatre nostalgia, representing the rose-colored glasses through which we face the fact of age&nbsp;... the show is conceived in ghostliness. At its very start, ghosts of Follies showgirls stalk the stage, mythic giants in winged, feathered, black and white opulence. Similarly, ghosts of the Twenties shows slip through the evening as the characters try desperately to regain their youth through re-creations of their performances and inane theatre sentiments of their past."<ref>Gottfried, Martin. [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/19/specials/sondheim-flipping.html Flipping Over 'Follies{{'"}}]. ''[[The New York Times]]'' (books), April 25, 1971</ref>

Joanne Gordon, author and chair and artistic director, Theatre, at [[California State University, Long Beach]],<ref>[http://www.csulb.edu/depts/theatre/StaffDirectory/Faculty "Faculty, Theatre Arts, California State University, Long Beach"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012071604/http://www.csulb.edu/depts/theatre/StaffDirectory/Faculty |date=October 12, 2011 }} California State University, accessed September 30, 2011</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z03LEC1gFOIC&q=%22Joanne+Gordon%22&pg=PA107 "Joanne Gordon"] ''Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook'' (1999), Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|0-8153-3586-5}}</ref> wrote "''Follies'' is in part an affectionate look at the American musical theatre between the two World Wars and provides Sondheim with an opportunity to use the traditional conventions of the genre to reveal the hollowness and falsity of his characters' dreams and illusions. The emotional high generated by the reunion of the Follies girls ultimately gives way to anger, disappointment, and weary resignation to reality."<ref>Gordon, Joanne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z03LEC1gFOIC&dq=Sondheim+%22Pacific+Overtures%22+Wheeler&pg=PA107 "The Art of Illusion"] ''Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook'' (1999), Taylor & Francis, {{ISBN|0-8153-3586-5}}, pp. 109-110</ref> ''Follies'' contains two scores: the Follies [[pastiche]] numbers and the book numbers.<ref name="sond2">[http://www.sondheim.com/shows/follies {{"'}}Follies' analysis and summary"] sondheim.com. Retrieved August 29, 2010.</ref> Some of the Follies numbers imitate the style of particular composers of the early 20th century: "[[Losing My Mind]]" is in the style of a [[George Gershwin]] ballad "[[The Man I Love (song)|The Man I Love]]".<ref>Swayne, Steve. ''How Sondheim Found His Sound'' (2007). University of Michigan Press. {{ISBN|978-0-472-03229-7}}. p.105</ref> Sondheim noted that the song "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues" is "another generic pastiche: [[vaudeville]] music for chases and low comics, but with a patter lyric... I tried to give it the sardonic knowingness of [[Lorenz Hart]] or [[Frank Loesser]]."<ref>Sondheim, p. 235</ref>

"Loveland", the final musical sequence, (that "consumed the last half-hour of the original" production<ref name=" liner">Kirkeby, Marc (released April 1971). "Liner notes to original Broadway cast recording". ''Follies'' (p. 14). [CD booklet]. Capitol Records, 1971. Angel Records, 1992. Middlesex. EMI Records, Ltd.</ref>) is akin to an imaginary 1941 ''[[Ziegfeld Follies]]'' sequence, with Sally, Phyllis, Ben and Buddy performing "like comics and torch singers from a Broadway of yore."<ref name=BWWRoundup/> "Loveland" features a string of vaudeville-style numbers, reflecting the leading characters' emotional problems, before returning to the theater for the end of the reunion party. The four characters are "whisked into a dream show in which each acts out his or her own principal 'folly{{'"}}.<ref name=liner/>