Park City Follies’ creative team calls pianist Shelle Jennings “the glue,” the member that pastes scenes together, accompanying brave souls, often amateurs, as they strut and fret upon the stage, sometimes for the first time in their lives.
Next week, for the third year in a row, Jennings will return to her spot at the ivories on the Egyptian Theatre stage for “Follies on the Roof,” which focuses on the irreverent year-in-review, loosely based this year on the structure and songs from “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The theme of the production is Park City tradition, some lost to development and time; others just beginning. “That’s the real glue – our traditions are what hold us all together,” argues “the glue” over the phone with The Park Record. “But it’s cyclical, things change I just hope that the Follies stays a tradition.”
Terry Moffitt, who writes advertisement content professionally, likewise returned to write most of the lyrics for the Follies. “It’s not hard – there’s always a wealth of stuff to spoof in Park City,” she says. “We just hope we end up with an audience with a sense of humor.”
The challenge is to keep local material timely, she says.
One of her songs, “Glad I’m not a Rich Man,” includes the verse, “If you were a rich man/Ya da deedle deddle bubba bubba deedle deddle dum/Clothes at Nordstrom’s I would have to buy/Instead of shopping at DI.”
Among the lines she likes that she didn’t pen herself is one thought up by Tom Clyde, one of the fellow veteran scribes behind the Follies. “He took on the Talisker advertisements, the ones that show Lauren Hutton roasting marshmallows in the forest. In the show, he says, ‘Marshmallows taste so much better roasting over $100 bills.’
“People are really good sports on stage. They really put their hearts and souls into this production,” Moffitt says.
Planning for The Park City Follies now more than 10 years old begins in September with regular gatherings of a handful of veterans who decide the main storyline and “filler” skits.
“We try and decide what’s been the biggest hair up Park City’s rear the past year and there’s rarely a question,” says Follies playwright Annette Velarde. “Last year it was a toss-up between the airport at Promontory and the water crisis.”
The water, as it turned out, won, and the theme was “Da Davinci Code” and “American Idol” and at 50 the cast was the largest ever.
In 2006, the theme was based on the musical “West Side Story,” featuring a mock battle between the western and the eastern sides of Summit County. The creators of the Follies like to choose familiar musicals to base their scripts on because the actors only get two weeks of rehearsal time – four hours a night.
This year, Follies features 15 actors including KPCW reporter Rick Brough, Prudential Realtor A. Flint Decker, Off the Top Comedy Troupe founder Dee Macusolo and Silver Creek Animal Clinic veterinarian Randall Barbe directed and choreographed by Terence Goodman. Mayor Dana Williams, will be perched on the top of a Blue Roof gas station roof at the start of every scene, with a mandolin.
“My favorite part is the rehearsal process that we’re going through right now,” confesses Velarde. “Watching local people who, in a million years, would never take to the stage in any serious way, take to the stage and sing in public for the first time in their lives – by themselves It just makes my heart swell. It’s dorky and it’s amateur and we love it.”
Among the subjects “Follies on the Roof” will recall are Park City’s 6 a.m. dynamite ritual on Miners Day and the Fourth of July, Clown Day at Park City Mountain Resort and Autumn Aloft, the hot air balloon festival that took place each fall. They point the finger – and the fun — at the newcomers and developers who might not fully understand how the customs preserve Park City’s soul. Indeed, blaming anyone is perhaps a risky game, but that’s the purpose – and the tradition – of the Follies.
“Our intention is to ruffle feathers, because the whole point of the Follies is to stop people from taking themselves so seriously, and that became especially clear to us about four years ago,” Velardi explains. “There’s so much stuff going on, and when you look at it with maybe a sarcastic eye, you realize how utterly ridiculous it is.”
Each year, the Follies has a cause: it raises money for the Egyptian Theatre Company, however, this year, Velardi argues that it’s twofold. This year’s message about saving traditions and remembering the town’s history is one she says she and the cast and crew, hope audiences will take to heart.
“What’s been great about Park City is that the millionaires party with the middle class and the waiters,” Velardi observes. “That doesn’t happen in other towns. It’s hanging on to those goofy things that remind us that we can be a small close-knit community if we hold on to those things.”