Three years ago, Paul Tan hung up his megaphone as director of the “Park City Follies.”
He’s baaaaccck.
Tan has returned to direct the town’s annual Egyptian Theatre fundraiser that musically spoofs all things Park City. The three-weekend run opens April 17, and tickets are on sale now at parkcityshows.com.
The director said he felt it was time to return to the “Follies’” fold after directing his last show in 2023.
“After last year’s run, I got to talking with Egyptian Theatre manager Randy Barton and some of the creative team, and there was a combination of great things that came together,” he said. “The 100th anniversary of the Egyptian is this year, and it coincides with the 25th anniversary of the ‘Follies.’”
Plus, one of the “Follies’” original creative team, Tom Clyde, decided this would be his last year.
“So, when Randy and I talked, we decided this thing that celebrates the greatest things in Park City, that means a lot to people, deserved to have its own cherry on top, because this is something that is cool that has remained local and is a town favorite,” Tan said.
Tan and Barton quickly decided Tan should return because the Park City “Follies” is a machine that keeps running, according to Tan.
“Right after a ‘Follies’ run ends, the team very quickly has to make up its mind about what is going to happen the following year,” he said. “It’s not like this all comes together in two months, because there are all of these moving parts.”
Tan started his due diligence and checked the temperature with people involved with the show, while learning about how things had worked during the years he was gone.
“It’s not like it’s just adding water and I’m back,” he said with a laugh. “Things had changed, but I had been on the ‘Follies’ writing team for 20 years and directed for 15 straight years. So I knew what pieces needed to be in the right places, and once that got cleared up, we made the decision to go forth.”
Tan also spent time talking with the production’s creative team — Clyde, Terry Moffit, Andy Cier, Peg Tan, Paul Hochman, Claire Wiley and Scott Greenberg.
“I knew I needed to go back in a sense of the way I used to run things, but they also had some rules and stipulations,” he said. “If the two didn’t meet up, this wouldn’t have happened.”
One thing that didn’t change during Tan’s break was the team’s ability to find things to lampoon.
“This town never ceases to provide material for the Follies (because) it’s a small town with a big-town heart,” he said. “It’s a very unique spot in the world, and one of the beauties of the ‘Follies’ is that we’ve been able to capture the real zeitgeist as Park City being a small town.”
He credits the creative team’s diverse background in accomplishing that aspect.
“We have such a diverse writing team who come from all different corners of the town and from all over the world,” he said. “So our points of views are always different.”
Team members’ experiences also influence the writing, according to Tan.
“Over the years, some of us had kids in school,” he said. “Some of us are older, and some of us have played different sports. So what hits us is always from different points of view that capture what the town is about. And I think that’s why this show is successful.”
Still, the “Park City Follies” has been, and will always be, an amateur production, Tan said.
“It’s been put together over the years as a love-of-the-art production, which means nobody walks on stage looking for a paycheck,” he said. “And to be fair, this is not something that is going to provide a paycheck, anyway. So, the people are in the show because they want to perform and be part of the show.”
Every year, the “Follies” cast features someone new, and in most cases, these people saw one show and wanted in, Tan said.
“To have new blood is one of the great aspects that I’ve seen over the last 20 years,” he said. “I don’t think there has been a year where we haven’t had at least one new person on stage, and there are times when we’ve had many.”
Sometimes the many include Park City’s entire fire district, police department or real estate agents, Tan said.
“Some of the greatest memories are when different aspects of the town come together,” he said.
When talking with potential new cast members, Tan spends the least amount of the discussions talking about their singing and acting backgrounds.
“I really want to find people who want to do this in a fun and collaborative way and who have the right personalities,” he said. “I always tell them we only do eight stage rehearsals, and by the fifth rehearsal, they may get this sensation to seriously ask themselves what they have gotten into, and whether they need to come up with a bizarre sickness in order to bow out.”
But Tan also counters by saying they will feel different four days later.
“I tell them things will be awesome and that they will love every minute of it,” he said. “I also tell them no matter how much theater experience you have, you will be hard-pressed to experience anything similar to this. So enjoy it while you’re here.”
One of the things Tan insisted on when he returned was live music.
“Jen Floor is the band director, and the music director is Katrina Kmak, who is also in the show,” he said. “Katrina is such a great singer and voice coach. So it’s incredible to hand that responsibility over to somebody at that level. Then we couple that with Jen, someone who is so good at running and directing the band. I can’t say enough about them, and I can’t say enough about our choreographer Stephanie Bass.”
Over the years, Tan has seen an evolution from all sides of the production, even when it comes to the Egyptian Theatre.
“The theater had to transition some things in the show from being a truly left-alone show to something that needed to be run by the theater, and I feel I’m the type of person who can work through those differences and work together,” he said.
Still, the force that drove Tan back to the “Follies” is its prominence.
“This is a bigger entity than any of the individuals, and it means so much to the town and it means so much to the Egyptian,” he said. “It has become a heartbeat in the spring when the town shuts down and there are only locals around. And it sets the stage at how we look at ourselves, make fun of ourselves and keep ourselves humble, if that’s possible.”
This year’s “Follies’” spirit will get an epilogue when the Egyptian Theatre hosts two screenings of a “Park City Follies” documentary on May 5 and 6, after the live show closes on May 3, Tan said.
“These dates will be ticketed events that will include a Q and A,” Tan said.
The documentary was inspired by Tan’s last year directing the production three years ago.
“Me leaving back then was kind of the end of an era with the whole creative team, and I thought it needed to be captured,” he said. “The years between 2001 to 2023 marked huge growth and changes in town, and ‘Follies’ documented all of that in a lampooning sense. So, I had a camera follow me around and we edited it into a 48-minute documentary.”
The documentary isn’t spoofy or necessarily a comedy, according to Tan.
“It’s about the process it takes to put a stage show on out of nothing,” he said. “It’s a peek behind the curtain to see how the secret sauce is made.”
Part of that secret sauce required Tan to maintain the show’s charm throughout the years.
“It’s still a local show,” he said. “Some people can’t dance or barely sing, and their only acting experience is on the ‘Follies’ stage. And that’s the beauty of it.”