Saturday, September 17, 2011

Theater Review: Follies

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This Revival Isn't a Folly at All
By Lauren Yarger
Thank you Stephen Sondheim. Thank you for a show that provides great roles and great songs for women of a certain age. And thank you to the producers who were smart enough to realize that bringing Follies back to the Broadway stage was no folly of an idea at all.

James Goldman's book offers a very simple plot: people who were involved in a sort of Ziegfeld Follies show return to the theater for one last reunion before it is demolished. Sally Plummer (Bernadette Peters) was one of the "Weismann Girls" in the theater's hey day, before she married Buddy (Danny Burstein). The reunion provides a diversion from their troubled marriage and Sally hopes to spend time with old flame Ben Stone (Ron Raines), who was Buddy's best friend.

Ben and his wife, Phyllis (an enchanting Jan Maxwell), who was Sally's old roommate, also aren't happy together, and Ben considers running off with Sally. The emotional encounters between husbands and wives and between the would-be lovers play out against memories of the past, depicted by shadows of their former selves living the follies of their youth. (Lora Lee Gayer and Christian Delcroix are young Sally and Buddy and Kirsten Scott and Nick Verina are the younger Stones).

Mostly the show is about the music, however, (James Moore directs) with terrific numbers showcasing vocal talent (Raines is dreamy; Sondheim's lyrics are haunting) enhanced by choreography by Warren Carlyle. Jane Hoodyshell gets a comedic tour de force as a faded Weismann girl and delivers a showstopping "Broadway Baby." Broadway and London star Elaine Paige shines as Carlotta Campion and Mary Beth Peil gets a good turn as sultry French Solange LaFitte.

If that's not enough to enjoy the revival (and, it is), director Eric Schaeffer creates one of those "forever-etched-in-the memory" moments when Peters sings the beautifully moving "Losing My Mind." Dressed in an elegant royal blue evening dress (Gregg Barnes, costume design) against a backdrop of a red, flower-petal-like arched set (Derek McLane, set design; Natasha Katz, lighting design), Peters delivers the gut-wrenching, tormented thoughts of a woman who is obsessed with her love for the man who got away. It's simply breath taking and is Peters at the top of her game.

This production of Follies, which transferred from the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. runs through Dec. 30 at the Marquis Theater, 1535 Broadway, NYC. Discounted tickets are available by clicking here.

 Christians might also like to know:
God's name taken in vain
Adultery
Posted by Lauren Yarger at 2:04 PM

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.

In 2008 she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions (http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/) and is Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp http://www.curtainup.com/, a national theater web site based in New York and editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection, an online source for news and reviews (http://ctarts.blogspot.com/).

She also worked in arts management for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com/ and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country.

She is a freelance writer and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the CT Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, the Connecticut SPJ, the Connecticut Critics Circle and Christians in Theatre Arts.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.
Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Our Reviewing Policy

Our reviewer Lauren Yarger receives free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle and The Drama Desk, the two professional critics organizations with journalists covering NY theater. Journalistically, she provides an unbiased review and is under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows our readers want to know about (we review all Broadway shows and pertinent Off-Broadway shows), Masterworks purchases a ticket.

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