The new musical titled “Perfect World” arrives at the El Portal Theatre on Saturday, November 1 and runs through Sunday, November 9, 2025. Described as a mystery musical, “Perfect World “ conveys the true life story of child prodigy novelist Barbara Follett who wrote primarily about her imaginary world Farksolia. It was a place where she created her own spiritual utopia and like JRR Tolkien, she created a new language, Farksoo, for her characters. For Follett, Farksolia was “the Perfect World where happiness reigns and people live in harmony with nature.” In the 1920s, at age 14, she was a best-selling author for Knopf publishing house. While suffering from depression, at age 25 Follett walked out of her home and was never seen again. Tickets for “Perfect World” are on sale now.
Librettist & Co-Lyricist Alan Edmunds is also a professional psychologist and has long been curious about gifted child writers. “Perfect World” began as a research project to document the incredible books and poems of Barbara Follett as well as the mystery surrounding her disappearance. As the research evolved into a musical, Kay Cole joined the project as director and choreographer.
Having worked in Film and Television since the age of six, Kay Cole is a very experienced performer, choreographer, director writer and teacher in Los Angeles, New York and London. She created the role of Maggie in the original 1975 production of “A Chorus Line” and in 1988, the role of Madam Thénardier in “Les Miz” at the Schubert Theatre. In Los Angeles, Cole has directed and choreographed at the Geffen Playhouse, LA Phil, El Portal Theatre, and Pasadena Playhouse. Recently, she co-starred in an original musical presentation at the Havana Music Hall and this year she guest starred on “Grace and Frankie”.
“Perfect World” – Clockwise L to R Hector Guerrero (Associate Choreographer), Jennifer Lynn Deck (Costume Designer), Gabbie Adner (Barbara), Kay Cole (Director-Choreographer), and Charley Rowan McCain (Young Barbara) – Photo by Jim Cox.
LA Dance Chronicle was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Cole to learn more about how her experience informed her work with “Perfect World”.
LADC: Where did you get your dance and theater training?
Cole: I started working in a play when I was six years old and I started dancing with a teacher named Paul Petroff in Los Angeles who had come from being in a Russian ballet company. I also studied with Irina Kosmovska.
Although Cole began as an actor in television, she kept up with her dance training. While in the musical “Music Man” she found the best ballet and jazz teachers in every city the company toured. While in Toronto, a ballet teacher suggested that she remain in Canada with the goal of becoming a prima ballerina, but Cole’s mother would not allow it.
Cole: I stayed with “Music Man” through New York where I joined the “Bye Bye Birdie” Broadway company but I always took classes – Don Farnsworth, Richard Thomas. When I was in Chicago for a year with “Music Man”, I studied with Edna McRae. She was amazing!
As a young actress, Cole often was on the sidelines and found herself watching the director and the choreographer. Later on when she began dancing and choreographing, that act of observing became very useful.
LADC: When did you begin your choreographic career?
Cole: It was when Mark Knolls, who choreographed “Snoopy,” had fallen into editing and loving it. So when we were playing in New York at the Lambs Club – I was playing Lucy, and one of my bucket list was to get to London – he (Knolls) said ‘I don’t really want to go and I know that they are going to do new numbers and you can choreograph.’ I was his assistant so he passed the torch to me. So my first choreographic real job creating numbers from scratch and telling the story physically was in London with “Snoopy.”
I’m big on keeping the choreography telling the story. There are moments when you don’t have to tell the story and just have joy, kick up your heels and go for broke.
LADC: I read in an interview that you felt transitioning from choreographer to director was a natural progression. What was the first musical or play that you directed?
Cole: It might have been “Dining Room” by A.R. Gurney although I think that I did a couple of plays before that. I’ve always loved plays and words, so it seemed to make sense when the opportunity was offered to me. I loved the play and I felt that I could give the play the rhythm it needed. It is a lovely transition when you go from choreographer to director. But I was always into plays.
She added that she loves the spoken word and the silence in human behavior and feels that she has always been a director even while choreographing.
“Perfect World” – L to R Gabbie Adner (Barbara) and Charley Rowan McCain (Young Barbara) – Photo by Jim Cox
LADC: With “Perfect World,” who brought the team together and were you on the original creative team?
Cole: They had time together before this version. I know they had some kind of reading in New York and I was brought on by Conwell Worthington, the producer. I was also brought on because I had worked before with Richard Winzeler (Composer and Co-Lyricist) in “Great Expectations” here in Los Angeles. It was sort of serendipitous when Conwell said well I think that the person who should direct and choreograph is Kay, and of course Richard already knew me. It was a natural fit.
She said that this run in Los Angeles is a lovely expansive workshop with extremely talented people who are honing the script and the music. Cole has worked on a lot of original musicals and several original plays and it is what she loves to do
Cole: I love the beginning process where you can really sculpt what the story needs to be.
LADC: Were you familiar with the writings of Barbara Follette?
Cole: No, I wasn’t familiar with her so I found out about her, got her books and read them. And I thought, this is fascinating. First of all, the age she was is beyond comprehension and to be so poetic. Age is kind of an illusive prospect. It is not always important.
Poster for “Perfect World” – Photo courtesy of Davidson and Choy Publicity.
LADC: I’m interested in how the choreography weaves into the story. Does the choreography take part in her fantasy world?
Cole: Yes, it does at one point and throughout there are snippets. I’m not fond of the word ensemble, so I’ve added a Farksolia in the first act. Those are people who fully realized her imagination. It is a sense of feeling them because we see them. I think that it is really important that people embrace the whimsy in the show and to know how brilliant she was.
I think that Richard and Alan (Edmund) have done a beautiful job to create a story that is A. accessible, B. fascinating, but C. the goal is to keep it as human as possible but to still have the imagination in front of that.
LADC: Does the play go chronologically or back and forth through time.
Cole: It goes back and forth. It gives you a sense of what happened then and what happens now. It’s definitely not linear.
LADC: Are the dancers in “Private World” trained dancers or are they actors who move well? Or does it matter to you in this particular play.
Cole: In this particular play it is an expression of who they are as characters. I’ve worked with many stars like Uta Hargen and Contance Towers who are not dancers but we had to create an essence of dance. So, I’m quite familiar with the language that one uses to explore the physicality of an actor and the comfort of an actor. We have many wonderful people and many of them are real dancers. My assistant choreographer Hector Guerrero is a wonderful tapper. This just adds to the mix. You put together your team for what you think the story needs to be told.
Kay Cole – Photo courtesy of the artist.
LADC: How does the choreography work with the story?
Cole: It can express the hidden joy of Barbara Follette and the camaraderie of father/daughter. It can express and reveal that everyone should use their imagination as much as possible because it gives you a comfort level in this day and age, or in any day and age actually it allows you to pinpoint your joy. And that for me is what dance is. It creates sadness, it creates joy, it creates all kinds of rainbow colors of expression. But what’s lovely about it is that the audience can kind of participate because if they’re not dancers but people who love dance or choreography, it’s not just doing a great big old number, it’s expressing their emotion.
LADC: Are there any pitfalls or advantages to being both choreographer and director?
Cole: I think that I have found that the thing about being a choreographer/director, and I think that is what Fosse and Jerome Robbins had, is to keep the rhythm of life within the show or within a number. You really want to connect to the rhythm in what everyone is expressing in their life whether they know it or not. That is the connection that I find so invaluable.
LADC: Is there anything that we have not discussed that you would like our readers to know?
Cole: I would like the readers to know that this is not a children’s show even though we are speaking to the youthful age of her (Follette) as a writer in much of this story. It’s a really wide-ranging discovery of all the participants in her life as we move through her childhood and then her disappearance. It’s a very poignant subject matter but at the same time we treat it really well. It’s total entertainment in every way and what people digest is really their choice but I think that it’s a wonderful project and a wonderful piece of theater for everyone to enjoy.
LADC: Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview.
Cole: I’m very excited to have done this. When you start a career from dance and then are able to expand your horizons to include everything that dancers are; dancers are musicians, dancers are actors. It’s nice to be able to express that, so thank you for this.
Cast of “Perfect World”: Gabbie Adner, Darcy Rose Byrnes, Dia Day, Michael Deni, Adam Hollick, Catherine Last, Elizabeth Last, Sammy Linkowski, Charley Rowan McCain, Guy Noland, Brent Schindele, Erika Schindele, Michael Wells
Creative Team: Librettist & Co-Lyricist Alan Edmund, Composer & Co-Lyricist Richard Winzeler, Director and Choreographer Kay Cole , Musical Supervisor Darryl Archibald, Producer Conwell Worthington, Production Consultant Cody Lassen, Scenic Designer Stephen Gifford. Costume Designer Jennifer Lynn Deck, Assistant Choreographer Hector Guerrero, and Music Assistant Zev Burrows.
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WHAT: “Perfect World”
WHERE: Theatre: El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood CA 91601
WHEN: Saturday, November 1 through Sunday, November 9, 2025
Performance Saturday, November 1 at 2pm and 7:30pm
Schedule:
Sunday, November 2 at 1pm
Press Performance Sunday, November 2 at 6:30pm
Wednesday, November 5 at 7:30pm
Thursday, November 6 at 7:30pm
Friday, November 7 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 8 at 2pm and 7:30pm
Sunday, November 9 at 1pm
TICKETS: Price $47.00 ($22 obstructed view)
For more information and to purchase tickets: elportaltheatre.com
Written by Jeff Slayton and Ann Haskins for LA Dance Chronicle
Featured image: Artwork for poster of “Perfect World” – Photo courtesy of Davidson & Choy Publicity.
