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I'm Still Here (Follies song)
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Wikipedia article
'"I'm Still Here"' is a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1971 musical 'Follies'.
Production
"I'm Still Here" was introduced in the musical 'Follies', which premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on April 4, 1971. The song is sung by former Follies showgirl, Carlotta Campion. The role was originally played by Yvonne De Carlo.[http://www.sondheimguide.com/follies.html#Broadway " 'Follies', Broadway, 1971"] sondheimguide.com, accessed May 29, 2014
Other performers who have played Carlotta in 'Follies' on Broadway include Ann Miller in the 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse production, Polly Bergen in the 2001 revival and Elaine Paige in the 2011 revival. In the 1987 West End production, Carlotta was played by Dolores Gray. She was played by Tracie Bennett in the recent National Theatre production.
Since the original production many performers have included the song as part of their concert performances, often rewriting it to reflect their own careers, including Barbra Streisand, Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis Jr.
Background
"I'm Still Here" was written during the out of town tryout for 'Follies' in Boston, when Sondheim decided that another song ("Can That Boy Foxtrot") was not working. This song had been written as a throwaway song for a minor character, but Yvonne De Carlo was a high-profile name in the cast, and the creative team felt she deserved a more substantial song. The librettist James Goldman suggested it should be a song about survival that said 'I'm still here.' Sondheim borrowed the phrase for the song title.'Six By Sondheim
It is an example of a "list song". Sondheim noted that "the song develops through decades" (p. 181). Stephen Banfield describes it as "a blues song" (p. 183).Banfield, Stephen. 'Sondheim's Broadway Musicals', University of Michigan Press, 1993, , pp 179ff
The tune was written as a pastiche of Harold Arlen, one of Sondheim's favorite Broadway composers.
June Abernathy provided an explanation of some of the terms and references in the song. For example, in the phrase "Ive slept in shanties, Guest of the W.P.A.", "W.P.A." means the Works Projects Administration (193543), a U.S. government agency. "Windsor and Wallys affair" refers to King Edward VIII, King of England in 1936, and Wallis Warfield Simpson, an American divorcee.Abernathy, June. [http://www.sondheim.com/features/im_still_what.html "I'm Still..What?"] sondheim.com, accessed May 29, 2014
Synopsis
Carlotta is a former showgirl who became a movie star and later a nightclub performer and television star. In this song she sings about the many adventures she has been through during her long career, and explains that she has outlived it all. She describes rising from poverty during the Great Depression through luck and perseverance despite limited training. The next verses describe surviving the excesses of show business success, including alcoholism, drug addiction and rehabilitation, as well as going through the Hollywood Blacklist.
Sondheim loosely based the song on the career of Joan Crawford, stating "She [Crawford] started as a silent film-star, then she became a sound-star, and she eventually became superannuated and started to do camp movies [...] she became a joke on and of herself, but she survived."Six By Sondheim This shows up in the line 'First you're another sloe-eyed vamp/ Then someone's mother/ then you're camp/ then you career from career to career/ I'm almost through my memoirs/ and I'm here!'
What makes the song interesting and poignant is the very real mixture of emotions of an older person reviewing her life, seeing how the good and the bad in life are bound to come, alternately or sometimes simultaneously, and in having reached a certain age there is a sense of both cynicism and triumph. This mixture is expressed in the emotional impact of the music itself, which gradually begins to swell as the song progresses from what starts as a nightclub lounge-act performance into a brassy big-band cabaret style finish.
As she goes through an outline of her life, skimming through the pages of her mental scrapbook, she builds up to the realization that, good or bad, she managed to get through her life and that she is a survivor. With that realization there is a confidence and a sense of triumph, but with an edge to it. Some youthful tenderness has to be left behind, but "what does not kill you, makes you stronger".
Critical reception
'Variety' describes the song as "electric".[https://variety.com/2011/legit/reviews/follies-1117945292/ "Reviews. "Follies'"], 'Variety', 2011 The 'New York Times' called it "the song of the survivor".Wilson, John S. [https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/03/arts/cabaret-jane-harvey-songs.html "Cabaret: Jane Harvey, Songs"] 'The New York Times', February 3, 1984 Elaine Stritch told Stephen Sondheim that an actress has only earned the right to perform the song once they reach 80. She expressed her frustration that the many women who perform the song in their forties, fifties, and even sixties, lack the life experience necessary, demanding to know "where have they been?"[http://www.stage17.tv/video/elaine-stritch-performs-im-still-here "Elaine Stritch Performs 'I'm Still Here'"] stage17.tvStritch, Elaine "I'm Still Here" 'Elaine Stritch At Liberty' (2002).
Recordings
Many performers have recorded the song, including cast albums and other recordings. Among them are: Yvonne DeCarlo in the original 1971 Broadway production;
Nancy Walker in 'Sondheim: A Musical Tribute' (1973); Millicent Martin in 'Side by Side by Sondheim' (1976); Gemma Craven in 'Songs of Sondheim' (1977); Carol Burnett in 'Follies in Concert' (1985); Julie Wilson in 'Sings the Stephen Sondheim Songbook' (1988); Cleo Laine in 'Cleo Sings Sondheim' (1988); Dorothy Loudon in 'The Stephen Sondheim Album' (2000); Elaine Stritch in 'At Liberty' (2002) and 'Sondheim the Birthday Concert' (2010); Elaine Paige in '2011 Broadway Revival Cast Recording';[http://www.sondheimguide.com/folliesrec.html#Songs " 'Follies' Songs"] sondheimguide.com, accessed May 30, 2014 and Shirley Bassey in 'Hello Like Before' (2014).
In popular culture
The character Frederica Norman, played by Patti LuPone, sang the song in 'Pose', season 2, episode 6.
The character Doris Mann, played by Shirley MacLaine, sang the song in 'Postcards from the Edge'. At the request of director Mike Nichols, Stephen Sondheim wrote special lyrics for MacLaine to sing in the film.
The character Lillian Bennett, played by Carol Burnett, sang the song in 'Touched by an Angel' season 4, episode 10: "The Comeback". Burnett also sang the song in character as Carlotta in 'Follies in Concert' (1985).
The character Kurt Hummel, played by Chris Colfer, sang the song in a 'Glee' episode in a Sondheim tribute episode in season five. TVLine gave the performance an "A".[http://tvline.com/2014/04/08/glee-kurt-attacked-sam-mercedes-dating-season-5-episode-15-recap/ " 'Glee' Season 5, Episode 15 Recap"] tvline.com, April 8, 2014
References
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