Poster for FOLLIES at Lyric Stage Company [http://lyricstage.com/]. Show runs until October 11, 2008.
Well, if there was even a shade of doubt in my mind that 78 year-old Stephen Sondheim is not a certifiable genius of the American musical, that doubt evaporated forever after seeing his 1971 show Follies at the Lyric Stage Company. I grew up on Sondheim's later shows, from Sweeney Todd (1979) on to Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987) and Passion (1994). But just last fall I saw a wonderful production of his 1970 show Company and was blown away with how great it was. And the same holds true for Follies.
The show is a loving tribute to the great ladies of the musical stage and offers wonderful roles for older women, especially in the lead roles of Sally and Phyllis, two women who, as young girls in the 1940s, were chorus girls in the Weismann Follies (with more than a nod to the Ziegfeld Follies!). They and their husbands Ben and Buddy (who courted the girls at the same time, and were themselves best friends), are re-united 30 years later in a big party to mark the next day's demolition of the rundown theatre that used to be the stage for their glory days. Mirroring this action in the present day, we see the shadows of these characters in their youth, along with the younger versions of other chorus girls, in a very clever and effective book by James Goldman. The dramatic tension that runs throughout is the unhappiness of the long-married (a common Sondheim theme) who look to find freedom in either past longings (Sally's longlost love is Phyllis' husband Ben) or future dreams (Ben and Phyllis claim to want to divorce and Buddy has a younger woman he claims loves him more than Sally). That these two couples end up back in the arms of their spouses at the end of their mutual 'follies' is a foregone conclusion. However, along the way we see each of them reveal their inner turmoil in typically Sondheim-ian deep psychological songs like "The Road You Didn't Take", "Could I Leave You?", "The Right Girl" and "Losing My Mind". Interwoven with this romantic drama are show tunes from other characters, both past and present, including the showstopper favorite "I'm Still Here".
The Artistic Director of the Lyric Stage Spiro Veloudos welcomed the audience on Wednesday night (always a class act for an AD to do so) and let us know that this was the biggest show ever produced iin the 35 year history of the company. And the theatre space is a very small one in the Hotel Clarendon! But I was consistently impressed with the levels achieved in this production, especially in the tight and effective choreography, including an almost full-cast tapdance number. The set is simple but makes maximum use of the space, the costumes work well and the 9 piece orchestra sounds fine.
Standout performances were Leigh Barrett as Sally, who found all the levels of vulnerability and sorrow in this woman who has felt she married the wrong man for so long and then finds out how wrong she has been. Barrett also has a lovely singing voice and performs "Losing My Mind" with great strength. Another standout was Maryann Zchau as Phyllis who is sharp and angry throughout, pulling her man back to her through the sheer force of her indomitable will. Her singing of "Could I Leave You?" (in which one hears the dissonant foreshadows of Sondheim's later works) is fantastic. The men do well in their roles as well, and Peter Carey proves himself an able dancer in "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues". Other strong turns come from Bobbie Steinbach in the plum role of Carlotta and Kathy St. George as the French songstress Solange. I also enjoyed much of the work in the young company, many of whom are currently in musical theatre degree programs throughout the city.
Follies has had an interesting critical history (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follies) with lots of split response. Sondheim suffered early on for being way ahead of his time, but recent reviews have come to recognize what I saw in this show...what Ben Brantley called "a landmark musical and a work of art". Amen to that.
