Frank ‘Fraver’ Verlizzo’s poster for the 2011 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s musical play Follies.
Donny Jackson’s Follies poster signed by 2011 revival cast members Bernadette Peter, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, and Ron Reines.
Glenda Jackson (no relation) pictured in 2018 after a 25-year hiatus from the stage, as “Woman A” in Three Tall Women. Signed by Laurie Metcalf, Allison Pill, and Glenda Jackson,
Audra McDonald performing as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, at Circle in the Square Theatre, NYC, 2014.
Signed by cast members Angela Lansbury, Catherine Zeta-Jones (in her Broadway debut), and Alexander Hanson, a poster for the 2010 revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s A Little Night Music.
“Destined to be forever spoken of with misty-eyed bragging rights by anyone who sees it,” wrote the New York Times of this limited run revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park With George, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Annaleigh Ashford,
Theater Memorabilia
Donny Jackson
Theater
A pale face with glossy lips and panda eyes gazes into a spotlight, or perhaps into the past. Designed by Frank ‘Fraver’ Verlizzo, the poster for the 2011 revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s musical Follies encapsulates the haunted, reflective nature of the show itself.
As Donny Jackson explains, Follies “revolves around a reunion of people who used to perform together in a Vaudeville-style variety show. It's been 30 years since the show closed, and when they arrive the audience can see the "ghosts" of their younger selves haunting the theatre. They each have something they regret and want to change.”
For Fraver, theater graphics are “a tangible, two-dimensional memory of a live event you’ll never forget.”[1] Jackson, a lighting designer and technical theater doyen, has been gathering theater mementos for ten-years.
“The Follies poster is a definite favorite because it was the first one that I got signed by the cast, and it’s the best production of a musical I’ve seen in New York,” he says. “A close second would be the signed programs for Lady Day and Three Tall Women. Lady Day because the performance by Audra [McDonald] was so strong, and Three Tall Women, because it’s possibly the best production of a play I’ve ever seen.”
Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill sees Ms. McDonald as Billie Holiday, performing and reminiscing in a seedy bar, shortly before her death. Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women transports the audience into the psyche of a stroke-bound old woman, who argues with younger versions of herself over who they are, have been, and will become. “It's a fascinating story,” Donny says, “that ultimately asks the audience to confront mortality for two hours.”
“I want to do Follies,” said Donny recently.[2] “The Broadway production I saw used flickering construction lights along the walls and echoes of laughter to enhance the feeling of a "haunted" space…The space you must create to do the show properly is what attracts me the most. It's the kind of setting I'd want to explore, and I think that's exciting for an audience, even if most of them find the show depressing because it deals with aging and regret. I, however, think it could also serve as an advisory tale to not delay acting on the things you want.”
Footnotes
[1] John Olson, “Fraver by Design: 5 Decades of Theatre Poster Art from Broadway, Off-Broadway and Beyond,” Picture This Post, 2018. www.picturethispost.com/fraver-by-design-5-decades-of-theatre-poster-art-from-broadway-off-broadway-review-2/. Accessed 09.09.2020.
[2] Tech Talk With Ethan, July 2, 2020.