#effort-saving

First of all, the design of the high-pressure car washing water gun is very user-friendly. It has a variety of nozzle options, such as foam nozzles, water column nozzles and fan nozzles, which can be replaced according to different cleaning needs. In addition, the water gun is equipped with a non-slip handle, which is more comfortable during use. Secondly, the performance of the high-pressure car…

So, the first entry in my Twenty Days of Sondheim project is "Ah, But Underneath" from Follies. As it transpires, I've already written quite a detailed post on this song? So, because I firmly believe in saving effort whenever possible, I have recreated it below for your pleasure.

NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS VIDEO IS ACTUALLY PERFECT.

[video: Dee Hoty in the 1998 production of Follies, performing the number "Ah, But Underneath". It is a striptease, though one with considerable humour and what I can best describe as sarcasm? She begins wearing a voluminous and satiny purple coat, and loses layers down to a purple sparkly dress, then one-piece undergarment, then ultimately nothing at all (though this is concealed by a blanket)]

Okay, the thing about this video. Firstly, Dee Hoty is, I am pretty sure, a goddess. Secondly, the lyrics of the song are really quite clever and appropriate with the conceit of the strip-tease (they concern a woman--Hoty's character--who has built up so many layers of artifice around herself that no-one--perhaps not even her--is sure who she really is. The last line is "sometimes when the wrappings fall/there's nothing underneath at all" [The full lyrics are on this page, if you do a Ctrl+F search to find them]). Finally, the reason for the strip-tease itself (for those who don't know Follies) has to do with the fact that the entire show incorporates major pastiche of Follies shows (like Ziegfield type stuff) from the 30s and 40s, and this particular sequence has all four major characters perform a Follies number that establishes--brilliantly, and in about four minutes each--their major character flaws.