follies

10 9.5

Musical shows that have many dancers, large fancy sets, and bright expensive costumes

noun
/ˈfɑːliz/

Archaic

: revista musical

Back in the late 70s, my parents took me to a stage show called The Bugs Bunny Follies.

My little talk is called the Dodd Frank Follies.

Examples

For instance, two companies want you in motion pictures, Ziegfeld wants you in an act in his new Follies.

Sergeant York (1941)
So Ice Follies, Ice Follies right there.
I mean, the Thanksgiving Follies.

South Pacific (1958)
You know, so we married in April onstage of the Follies Theater.

Behind the Burly Q (2010)
He used to buy two seats every night when I was in the Follies.

The Cat's Meow (2001)
In 1915, Will began working for Ziegfeld Follies as the "Talking Fool."

Blog text (7)
In 1926, Graham quit her job in the Greenwich Village Follies.

Academic text (1994)
Ted Chapin nailed it with the title to his Follies memoir: Everything Was Possible.

Academic text (2007)
Company (1970) and Follies (1971) had garnered Sondheim back-to-back Tony Awards for best composer and best lyricist.

Academic text (2007)
The audience erupted in laughter during the extravagant numbers of the follies production last night.

Synonyms

revue

vsfollies

Archaic

18 8.6

A stage show of short songs, dances and comedy sketches that often makes fun of current events

emphasizes lavish costumes, elaborate sets, and chorus lines rather than topical satire

Surface Forms

folly singular

follies plural

Morphology

follies = folly (semi-transparent) = folly + s

The plural suffix '-s' is a transparent morphological operation, but the specific cultural sense 'a musical revue' is a specialized, somewhat shifted sense of 'folly' that is not fully predictable by learners.

Etymology

Follies comes from the French word folie, which means 'madness' or 'extravagance', and is related to the English word folly meaning 'a showy or silly thing'. So, a follies is a lavish, playful musical revue with big costumes and chorus lines.