Theater Review: Follies

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.

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