I saw the original Follies, it is my favorite musical. The revival at the Marquis Theatre is scrumptious and what musicals were and should be. In a sense, it is a love letter to Broadway and the genre from which it came. With a cast of 41, an orchestra of 28 and the revival of Evita nipping at its heels, there is hardly a way for Follies to make back its money, but, oh, it is sheer heaven.
This is Stephen Sondheim at his best with witty barbs mixed with haunting melodies. Under the orchestration of Jonathan Tunick, Sondheim has never sounded richer or more flushed out.
James Goldman’s show takes place on the first and last reunion of the Weisman Follies based loosely on the Ziegfeld Follies. The theatre is to be torn down and a parking lot put up instead. As the former showgirls, their ghostly counterparts and the men who have shaped their future meet and say good-bye, the past is released and the aftermath is left in the wake. This is disillusionment played out to the fullest. Former showgirls and friends Phyllis (Jan Maxwell) and Sally (Bernadette Peters) return with their husbands Ben (Ron Raines) and Buddy (Danny Burstein) and the decisions made in their youth, have come to fruition in the present. Each married the wrong person, or did they? Past and present collide as the former showgirl songs interject both their feelings and those of the two couples. Tearing down the house are “Broadway Baby” (Jayne Houdyshell), “I’m Still Here” (Elaine Paige’s gutsy way of letting us know she is here and is Fabulous!), and “Who’s That Woman” (Terri White). Kudos also to Rosalind Elias as the opera singer (“One More Kiss,” sung with a glorious Leah Horowitz as her younger self),
Director Eric Schaeffer, allows us to see more of James Goldman’s scripts and “Follies” takes on its double entendre meaning. The visual, unlike Hal Prince, is leggier and more Vegas instead of giving the feeling of a world within a world bustling with activity. Derek McLane’s set is more of a disaster waiting to be torn down than a theatre completely haunted. It is more real as the sound of wind and water dripping adds to the sight lines.
It is hard to rip away Hal Prince and Michael Bennett’s masterpiece. The original cast was perfection, but make no mistake this is a Follies that holds its own. Jayne Houdyshell, Elaine Paige and Terri White make these songs fresh and new with different takes. Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines and Danny Burstein are marvelous. Burstein finds the balance in the trampled on puppy and the frustrated husband of a woman that can never love him. His “Buddy’s Blues” number is one of the highlights of the show. Raines is pure elegance, masking a man who is not complete within himself. Jan Maxwell is perfection as the disillusioned perfect wife. Her “Could I Leave You” is aggressive and disinterested all in the same smoldering breath. The only actor I cannot praise is Bernadette Peters. It breaks my heart to say this, but she is vocally outclassed. She has belted so many numbers that the breaks in her register are apparent. I never believed she was as broken as she seemed, in “Losing My Mind.”
The choreography by Warren Caryle is wonderful and uneven. His “Buddy’s Blues” is great but “The Right Girl” is under-choreographed and you wish Danny Burstein was given more. His leggy Ghosts, his aging showgirls and his Loveland sequence are haunting and chilling. It is hard to step into Michael Bennett’s shoes, let alone fill them and Warren does all that, but not the whole show.
Follies is the ultimate evening of musical theatre bliss. Thank-you to the producers for giving this show back to New York.
Posted by Suzanna Bowling
on September 12, 2011. Filed under ENTERTAIMENT,HOME,Theatre.
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