The Will Rogers Follies (1991)

Broadway musical from 1991 that won the Tony awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score. It's about the life of historical figure Will Rogers (1879-1935), who was a performer and social commentator.

I chanced upon it in August 2026 due to a piano sheet music book I was working through (unsurprisingly, it's a Broadway songbook) and the song "The Big Time" caught my interest. I searched it on Youtube and saw that there was a full recording of the show (with original cast) -- can be found with a quick search. So I watched it.

I enjoyed it! I understand what it won the awards. It has the classic extravagance of Broadway^[1] and some very fun traits -- it kind of has a show-within-a-show gimmick, and the fourth wall is broken a bunch of times, and it's funny, and (somewhat) touching at times. There are some pretty catchy songs (especially "The Big Time", which is echoed as a recurring motif throughout the show). I've learned more about Will Rogers than I ever would have expected to, especially considering I had never heard of him before this. I don't particularly intend to learn any more about him, though, beyond being curious how accurate the show was to his actual life.

Less positive feedback about the show:

• It was a bit slow at times
• Not a particularly compelling plot, especially if you've never heard of Will Rogers
• Perhaps one too many songs about his wife missing him (though, it's an important characteristic, so I forgive it)

(Still, I think it was very well done and was entertaining to watch overall).

The writer of the musical (the book, specifically) was Peter Stone, who also wrote the show 1776 - which I have't seen^[2], but I've heard of and have been meaning to watch for a while.

I vaguely do want to watch (if available) every Best-Musical-winning show, so this checks off one of that list at least. Funnily, I didn't realize it had won that award until I was partway into watching the recording and was already getting absorbed into it. So when I saw the award, it was an "aha, that explains it" moment.