{"id":345497,"date":"2026-09-13T08:56:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345497\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T08:56:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T08:56:32","slug":"follies-broadway-review-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/345497\/","title":{"rendered":"Follies Broadway Review \u2013 New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"

I resurrect my review of Sondheim\u2019s Follies, which opened fifteen years ago today, September 12, 2011. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When the sequined ghosts of showgirls past appear at the beginning of \u201cFollies,\u201d a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical opening tonight whose delights edge out its disappointments, the performers are not so much haunting the stage as sharing it. And they are not the only ghosts anymore. <\/p>\n

It has been 40 years since Sondheim\u2019s musical about a show biz reunion debuted on Broadway, directed by not one but two future Broadway legends, Michael Bennett (\u201cA Chorus Line\u201d) and Harold Prince (some 60 Broadway productions\u2026so far). Still, both New York Times drama critics panned it (\u201cexhausting\u2026tedious\u2026its extravaganzas have nothing to do with its pebble of a plot\u2026.ingenuity without inspiration\u201d), and, although it lasted more than a year, \u201cFollies\u201d lost a lot of money and was considered a failure.
Times certainly have changed. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of the weirdly abundant ironies that surround \u201cFollies,\u201d a musical that explores the disillusion and disintegration that come with the years, is that the years have been quite kind to its reputation. The new production, which originated at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and was transferred to the Marquis with just a few changes in the 50-member cast, already has rapturous devotees, some critics among them. When the character Carlotta, ex-showgirl and aging movie queen, sings one of the show-stopping numbers in \u201cFollies,\u201d she might as well be speaking for the musical itself: \u201cI\u2019m Still Here.\u201d <\/p>\n

But with the revised reputation comes increased expectations, which may help explain my mild feeling of let-down throughout the production, from choreography to acting and even to some of the singing, especially in the first act. There was nothing outright wrong; just too little struck me as exceptional. <\/p>\n

Even \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d was not the thrill I expected, though the great Elaine Paige, who originated the roles of Eva Peron in Evita and Grizabella in Cats, is playing Carlotta. Her performance was not the only surprise. Luckily, some of the surprises were happy ones, especially the emergence of Jan Maxwell\u2019s inner song and dance.<\/p>\n

Inspired by an actual reunion of performers for the Ziegfeld Follies, a stage show spectacular presented on Broadway every year from 1907 through 1931 (and then more sporadically as Hollywood movies), \u201cFollies\u201d takes place in the Weismann Theater, former home of the (fictitious) Weismann Follies, shortly before the old theater will be razed \u2014 \u201cin a final burst of glory,\u201d says the aging impresario Weismann ironically \u2014 for a parking lot. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pictured L-R: Ron Raines (Benjamin Stone), Bernadette Peters (Sally Durant Plummer), Lora Lee Gayer (Young Sally) & Nick Verina (Young Ben) <\/p>\n

The musical focuses on the troubled marriages of two former best friends who have not seen each other for 30 years. The cleverest aspect of the interaction among the four old friends and antagonists is the employment of four other actors to play their younger selves. This culminates in a terrific scene of all eight arguing with one another in various combinations. All four of the principals do a fine job \u2013 Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines \u2014 but the stand-outs here are Jan Maxwell as Phyllis, Follies class of 1940, and Danny Burstein as Buddy, the Stage-Door Johnny who married Phyllis\u2019s best friend, Sally. <\/p>\n

The jolt here is that Peters, so wonderful when last on Broadway as the replacement Desiree Armfeldt in \u201cA Little Night Music\u201d (and indeed, so effective in most of her performances) is competent but not superlative, playing it too low-key. Part of the problem is that, although 63 years old \u2013 older than her character is supposed to be \u2013 she seems far too glamorous and put-together to deliver \u201cLosing My Mind\u201d as a credible dowdy and delusional middle-aged woman obsessed with her best friend\u2019s husband. <\/p>\n

\"\"Jan Maxwell and ensemble<\/p>\n

By contrast, Maxwell seems to invest far more energy both as the brittle sarcastic blonde of \u201cCould I Leave You?\u201d and the slinky red lady of fantasy number \u201cThe Story of Lucy and Jessie,\u201d a performance startling in its range. Unlike the typical modern musical, most of the songs of \u201cFollies\u201d do not aim to advance the plot but to underscore the mood, and drive home the themes. Sondheim himself has called his show \u201cvirtually plotless.\u201d Indeed, most of the second act is a kind of mock Follies revue, called Loveland, with the four principals each getting razzmatazz numbers to express their feelings (often with ironic juxtaposition between what they say and what they actually feel.) <\/p>\n

Many of the rest of the songs are in effect cameo performances, Follies alumnae delivering what are supposed to be their old trademark songs, often accompanied by actresses playing their younger selves (the ghosts). Sondheim set out to write songs in the various styles of popular music from the end of World War I to the end of World War II, in homage to composers and lyricists he admires, and reflecting what one might have heard in a Ziegfeld Follies show. The most memorable songs in \u201cFollies\u201d manage to be fresh and tuneful, while also hinting at their provenance. Imitating such optimistic pre-Depression songs as \u201cThe Best Things in Life Are Free\u201d and \u201cButton Up Your Overcoat,\u201d Sondheim came up with \u201cBroadway Baby.\u201d There is an edge to the lyrics. The character Hattie has been through five marriages and some tough times, but she is singing a hit song from her salad days, long past::<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just a Broadway baby Walking off my tired feet. Pounding Forty-second Street To be in a show\u201d<\/p>\n

There is something touching about a person with her future long behind her re-creating the hopefulness of her youth \u2014 a poignancy that works better for being indirect. <\/p>\n

The current revival features Jayne Houdyshell as Hattie (in a replacement of Linda Lavin who performed in D.C.), and it is a smart choice, for this is a woman with a body past its dancing prime but with her energy and optimism intact.<\/p>\n

Such sophisticated subtext adds to the richness of the experience of \u201cFollies,\u201d but also makes it more difficult to absorb, or fully appreciate, in a single viewing. In \u201cFollies,\u201d Sondheim is unfailing in the cleverness of his lyrics, and a handful of the almost two dozen songs in the show are not just hummable, but hard to get out of your head. But his aim here was in part to imitate some of the most melodious songwriters of the 20th century: his two favorite composers, he\u2019s said, are Harold Arlen (Stormy Weather, Get Happy, Somewhere Over The Rainbow + 500 or so more) and Jerome Kern (Ol\u2019 Man River, A Fine Romance, + 700 or so more), and several songs in \u201cFollies\u201d are meant as homage. One suspects Sondheim was more focused on subtext and ironic juxtaposition \u2014 and less on the melodies \u2014 than the people he was trying to imitate. <\/p>\n

At least one of the ironies in this production of \u201cFollies\u201d was surely unintended: its presentation on the stage of the Marriot Theater, the cold, inconvenient replacement for five grand old theaters that were razed to make way for the hotel \u2014 and (indoor) parking lot \u2014 that surrounds it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follies
Marquis Theater
Book by James Goldman Music and lyrics y Stephen Sondheim
Choreography by Warren Carlyle
Directed by Eric Schaeffer
Scenic Design by\u00a0Derek McLane; Costume Design by\u00a0Gregg Barnes; Lighting Design by\u00a0Natasha Katz; Sound Design by\u00a0Kai Harada; Hair and Wig Design by\u00a0David Brian Brown; Make-Up Design by\u00a0Joe Dulude II
Cast: Bernadette Peters as Sally Durant Plummer, Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, Danny Burstein as Buddy Plummer, Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone, Elaine Page as Carlotta Campion, Don Correia as Theodore Whitman, Christian Delcroix as Young Buddy, Rosalind Elias as Heidi Schiller, Colleen Fitzpatrick as Dee Dee West, Lora Lee Gayer as Young Sally, Michael Hayes as Roscoe, Leah Horowitz as Young Heidi, Jayne Houdyshell as Hattie Walker, Florence Lacey as Sandra Crane, Mary Beth Peil as Solange LaFitte, David Sabin as Dimitri Weismann, Kirsten Scott as Young Phyllis, Frederick Strother as Max Deems, Nick Verina as Young Ben, \\ Susan Watson as Emily Whitman and Terri White as Stella Deems. Lawrence Alexander, Brandon Bieber, John Carroll, Mathew deGuzman, Sara Edwards, Leslie Donna Flesner, Jenifer Foote, Suzanne Hylenski, Danielle Jordan, Amanda Kloots-Larsen, Joseph Kolinski, Brittany Marcin, Erin N. Moore, Pamela Otterson, Clifton Samuels, Kiira Schmidt, Brian Shepard, Jessica Sheridan, Amos Wolff, Ashley Yeater<\/p>\n

The revival ran for 38 previews and 152 performances, through January 22, 2012, and was nominated for seven Tonys, winning for costume design. (The original 1971-72 production ran for 522 performances, and was nominated for 11 Tonys, taking home seven.)<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I resurrect my review of Sondheim\u2019s Follies, which opened fifteen years ago today, September 12, 2011. When the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-345497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}