The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue
Once upon a time, in a theatrical galaxy far, far away, there used to be a musical revue almost annually produced by a man named Florenz Ziegfield. From 1907 through 1927, he presented spectaculars in which audiences would see showgirls in exotically skimpy costumes doing little more than walking around to music. There'd be tablaux set on such fanciful places as the moon. The first act would almost always end with a number celebrating a wedding. In between came vaudeville acts, singers like Sophie Tucker and Eddie Cantor, and comics like Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields, and--from 1922 through 1927--the rop twirling, folksy philosopher Will Rogers.
"All I know is what I read in the papers," he'd say, before launching into pointed observations like "We have the finest politicians money can buy." (What's interesting is that many of the observations that he made in the 1920s prove that old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same.) But Will was most famous for making a much more affirmative statement: "I never met a man I didn't like." The show follows Rogers from his humble Oklahoman roots to his stardom in the Ziegfield Follies, through his difficult marriage to Betty Blake, to his untimely death in a plane crash.
Synopsis (c) Peter Filichia
"All I know is what I read in the papers," he'd say, before launching into pointed observations like "We have the finest politicians money can buy." (What's interesting is that many of the observations that he made in the 1920s prove that old saw that the more things change, the more they stay the same.) But Will was most famous for making a much more affirmative statement: "I never met a man I didn't like." The show follows Rogers from his humble Oklahoman roots to his stardom in the Ziegfield Follies, through his difficult marriage to Betty Blake, to his untimely death in a plane crash.
Synopsis (c) Peter Filichia
