Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating view of a pretty amazing show
Review: Ted Chapin was pretty much there at the birth of the wonderful musical that is Follies. For anyone who loves Follies, this is an excellent book full of little bits of information that you never knew you would one day know. A broad knowledge of the show is very helpful. The book has two major strengths. Firstly, the deep knowledge alluded to above, and secondly, it brings to life all the wonderful characters connected with that first production, both onstage and offstage. Where this book lets itself down is that Ted Chapin has misunderstood the book's appeal. This book is only going to appeal to people who know and love Follies or theatre in general, and I guess those people do not need to have theatrical terms and situations explained to them. At times, these quite lengthy basic explanations detract from the flow of the book. That said, if you are one of those people who know and love Follies, then do not hesitate to read this book, and just bear with the criticism mentioned above.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous "Follies"
Review: Ted Chapin was the luckiest 20 year old whoever lived. As a "production assistant" (unpaid gofer)for the new Broadway musical "Follies", he had the opportunity and good sense to record the making of one of the greatest musicals of that era. "Everything Was Possible" covers the first rehearsals to the abysmal cast recording to what has happened to the people involved. Starting from pre production on, his narrative never gets stale. He tells of how Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim and Michael Bennett pulled it all off. It wasn't always fun. They had to deal with a group of aging actors who found negotiating a raked stage dangerous and a lot of their vulnerabilites and insecurities.
The book will have significant impact on anyone who saw the show. I did not see it in New York but at the end of its Broadway run it was to go on a national tour starting in Los Angeles. With most of the original cast intact I sat center section at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles in September, 1972.
It was one of the most emotional roller coasters I have been on in the theatre. The tour ended two weeks later and "Follies" has seldom been revived.
All musical theatre afficionados will love Chapin's book. Thank you Ted for letting us see those "Beautiful Girls" one more time.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous "Follies"
Review: Ted Chapin was the luckiest 20 year old whoever lived. As a "production assistant" (unpaid gofer)for the new Broadway musical "Follies", he had the opportunity and good sense to record the making of one of the greatest musicals of that era. "Everything Was Possible" covers the first rehearsals to the abysmal cast recording to what has happened to the people involved. Starting from pre production on, his narrative never gets stale. He tells of how Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim and Michael Bennett pulled it all off. It wasn't always fun. They had to deal with a group of aging actors who found negotiating a raked stage dangerous and a lot of their vulnerabilites and insecurities.
The book will have significant impact on anyone who saw the show. I did not see it in New York but at the end of its Broadway run it was to go on a national tour starting in Los Angeles. With most of the original cast intact I sat center section at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles in September, 1972.
It was one of the most emotional roller coasters I have been on in the theatre. The tour ended two weeks later and "Follies" has seldom been revived.
All musical theatre afficionados will love Chapin's book. Thank you Ted for letting us see those "Beautiful Girls" one more time.
Rating:
Summary: "Everything Was Possible" is wonderful
Review: Ted Chapin's book "Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies'" is a insightful and enjoyable look into the creation of musical theatre by one of Broadway's most talented creative team. For those familiar with "Follies" already, it is a wonderful way to see the development of the music and book from frame to finish. To fully appreciate the experience of reading the book, it is helpful to have knowledge of the music, and I suggest listening to the original cast recording as well as Papermill's recent recording, which includes a number of cut songs that are discussed in detail with the book. Like Frank Rich's "Ghost Light," Chapin's personal exploration into the theatre world gives a sense of energetic focus and perspective to the story unlike many other theatre books which give just chronologies from "page to stage." This is a wonderful book for fans of Sondheim, Prince and those who belief in the prosperity of original musicals.
Rating:
Summary: "Everything Was Possible" is wonderful
Review: Ted Chapin's book "Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies'" is a insightful and enjoyable look into the creation of musical theatre by one of Broadway's most talented creative team. For those familiar with "Follies" already, it is a wonderful way to see the development of the music and book from frame to finish. To fully appreciate the experience of reading the book, it is helpful to have knowledge of the music, and I suggest listening to the original cast recording as well as Papermill's recent recording, which includes a number of cut songs that are discussed in detail with the book. Like Frank Rich's "Ghost Light," Chapin's personal exploration into the theatre world gives a sense of energetic focus and perspective to the story unlike many other theatre books which give just chronologies from "page to stage." This is a wonderful book for fans of Sondheim, Prince and those who belief in the prosperity of original musicals.
Rating:
Summary: Ted and Yvonne?
Review: The book is good, but it is the book of two men, a young and an old, who are not the best of collaborators. I think the young man to whom most of the adventures happen would have been more gossipy and excited about things were he not held in place by the distinguished older gentleman Ted Chapin of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. For example, if you read between the lines, it seems pretty clear that the young Ted was pretty much crushed out on the glamorous Hollywood hasbeen Yvonne de Carlo, who came to New York City in full glamor mode and took Ted out on a series of dates to the Stork Club et al, and that when she left his life she left a big hole in it. But the older Ted sees ruefully that if it was a romance at all, it was pretty one-sided and potentially embarrassing. So the issue is tabled. I loved hearing all about how Sondheim created the score as the show was in tryouts; when it began only perhaps twenty minutes worth of music was finished, and the rest was created under intense pressure on the road in hotel rooms and coffee shops. I liked hearing about Mathilde Pincus, the music copyist, and the book gave me a new word I had never heard before. "She [Pincus] used a flat pen with black ink and wrote on 11" by 14" sheets of opaque paper called deschon, which had the musical staff lines printed in reverse on one side. Writing with ink on the other side allowed for errors to be erased without affecting the staff lines." I guess I had seen 'deschon" but never knew what it was, just like I went to see "Follies" with De Carlo, Smith, Collins, several times, and never really knew how it came to be created. Thank God for Ted Chapin, the young one and the middle-aged man as well.
Rating:
Summary: Wish you were there
Review: The immense immediacy of Ted Chapin's "Follies" memoir puts you right in the middle of a chaotic rehearsal period. Alas, the era Chapin remembers is as far gone to us as the era "Follies" intended to evoke. He rarely pauses for breath as he takes us through the thrilling rehearsal period of a musical with cast that mixed young and old and a range of temperaments. The parts where he talks about Yvonne DeCarlo are both fascinating and a little weird. Unintentionally, Chapin puts his finger on what exactly was wrong with "Follies" 33 years ago -- the creators never seemed to have a clear, hit-your-head-with-a-hammer conception of what it all meant. The musical seemed to create itself, and the result baffled as many people as it pleased. The creators even sought out a Harvard undergrad who had written an essay on the show during its Boston tryout. (Read the book to find out who the undergrad was, but rest assured it wasn't Ted Kaczynski.) I was too young to see it, but I really, really wish I was there. The characters of the actors and creative team come through, with the possible exception of Jim Goldman, who seemed to have distanced himself from the cast. Some surprises: Hal Prince gave line readings to the actors, and even stars making a lot of money for the time could routinely make mistakes. Nevertheless, Chapin has a profound sense of decency and understanding, and he never paints any of these people in an overly negative way. Another thing that comes through in Chapin's memoir is his audacious efficiency. Based on this account, Chapin was a dream gofer, coordinating the demands of a script that just kept spinning out of control. I could never have done it. Hats off. While reading the book, I often found myself singing the "Follies" score aloud; it is brilliant, and I'll never understand why critics of the time dismissed Stephen Sondheim's music. Neither, I suspect, did Chapin. For theater buffs, this book will make you yearn to head to your local little theater group and jump right in.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book...Couldn't Put It Down!
Review: Thoroughly enjoyed this backstage account of a legendary musical.
Have seen several productions of FOLLIES except the original Broadway/Tour Cast..wish I had. Even though Mr. Chapin was a "go-fer" he was still able to chronicle the process, setbacks, joys and frustrations of opening a Broadway musical from early rehearsals to opening night. The show has flaws but a definite
landmark in the history of the American Musical. I was captivated by Mr. Chapin's diary and felt like I was there with the cast and artistic staff who made the show possible.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Follies
Review: What I like the most about this book is that although Follies is an over-the-top piece of musical theater, Chapin takes a journalistic "just the facts, Ma'm" approach. In other hands, the book could have been a scandal sheet of unsubstantiated gossip, screaming arguements, and backstage back-biting. Instead, Chapin gives a fair, neutral, even-handed version of his experience as someone who was there. The disparity of the Amazon reviews is not surprising, as Follies itself divides audiences, usally into camps (pun not intended) who adore the glitzy pastiche numbers and abhor the bad marriage blather, and those who try to accept the work as a whole. If you really love the history of musical theatre and appreciate the indelible influence of Prince, Bennett, and Sondheim, then this book is for you. If you are looking for dish, go elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Makes You Want To Get Up There And Do It!
Review: Without sounding overly zealous or emotional, I would like to say that I literally could not put this book down. I found it in a local Barnes and Noble, and while I didn't originally intend to buy it, I found while perusing it in the cafe that I didn't have a choice. So I walked out with it, finished the first half that night, and read the other half the next day. Recently, I loaned the book to a friend of mine, and I can't wait until she gives it back, as I would really like to re-read certain parts. As a long-time admirer of the musical "Follies", I found this account to be perhaps the most fascinating one I've ever read that was connected with any sort of performance or film, and to me, it is comparable only with Aljean Harmetz's "Wizard--The Making of The Wizard of Oz" for its sheer, fact-wealthy, you-are-there quality. As a production assistant/gopher involved with the project, author Chapin took exhaustive notes and kept copious journals which documented everything from start to finish, and it is from these resources that he has produced this tome. It is to his credit that he makes all of this history sound as fresh and exciting and relevant as if it all happened six months ago instead of over thirty years ago. I disagree with other reviewers who carp about the fact that Ted Chapin isn't a writer. Who cares? In an instance like this, it is truly what he says that is important, not how he says it. And much of it he says very well indeed. This is not, as some reviewers have pointed out (and others seem to have lamented) a dishy soap opera meant solely to entertain. It is, instead, a mature, fully-realized, and intelligent recording of the events surrounding the genesis, rehearsal, and performance of a landmark Broadway musical. This is not to say that the prose is short on human interest; on the contrary, it is everywhere in the book. It is contained in such small things as Chapin's recounting of how, in an age without computers readily at one's disposal, he had to type up lyrics on an IBM typewriter using several carbons at a time. On a larger scale, there are practically minute-for-minute reviews of the first performances in Boston and New York, including which actors botched lyrics, lines, and dance steps during those jittery times. As has been mentioned in other reviews of "Everything Was Possible", all personalities of everyone involved in this show are revealed clearly and honestly, though never cruelly. This is also to Chapin's credit. I must admit that I didn't like everyone he wrote about and neither will most other readers. In particular, I disliked Alexis Smith (she comes across as being as cold and unpersonable, for the most part, as the character she played), Fifi D'Orsay (I've worked in community theatre with prima donnas like her, and they are a pain in the a**), and Michael Bennett (though a brilliant choreographer, he appears to have been more than a little temperamental and arrogant). On the plus side, Dorothy Collins shines warmly as the show's "den mother", Ethel Shutta amuses as the crusty but decent elderly veteran, and Yvonne DeCarlo is simply unforgettable, whether struggling with a tap number, belting out the irresistable show-stopper "I'm Still Here" (which she had to learn at breakneck speed when it replaced her original solo, "Can That Boy Foxtrot!")or flirting with young Chapin. Perhaps the most telling evidence of the indelible impact that this book has had on me is that it just makes me want to do what all the creative personnel involved in "Follies" were doing. As an amateur actor/singer, this account was a real treat for me, and I look forward eagerly to my next audition. In conclusion, I highly recommend this book to those with an interest in any type or facet of show business, whether or not they are fans of the musical "Follies" itself. Everyone--actors, writers, directors, choreographers, costume designers--can learn something from this. And in my opinion, they couldn't pick a better model to learn from than this thoroughly well-crafted commemoration of a masterpiece of musical theatre. My deep thanks to everyone who took part in it, and in particular to Mr. Ted Chapin, for taking the time.
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