Post by santtu on Jan 3, 2012 13:16:53 GMT -5
What a cast this show has: Bernadette Peters, Elaine Paige, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines, Jayne Houdyshell, Florence Lacey, Terri White...
In short, the story is about a reunion of former Weisman Follies Girls (like Ziegfeld Follies), the get-together is organized at the former home, theatre, of the Follies show. The main characters, Sally Durant Plummer (played by Peters) and her former best friend and roommate Phyllies Rogers Stone (Maxwell) meet after several years, and they're both unhappily married. Their husbands were also good friends and met the girls when they were in the Follies. As the evening progresses, they start revealing their 'secrets' and air out their dirty laundry, so to speak. What we find out very soon is that Sally has always been in love with Ben, who was dating and ended up marrying her friend Phyllis...
The score is by Stephen Sondheim and it features a couple of his big hits, "Broadway baby" and "Losing my mind". Even though Sondheim has written some absolutely marvellous songs ("Send in the clowns", "Being alive", "Getting married today", "Broadway baby" which is probably my personal favorite of his songs), I've never been a fan of his. And this score didn't help either. He is a brilliant lyricist, but most of his melodies here are just plain boring - "Losing my mind" in particular! What a snooze-fest! Some ok numbers (like "Who's that woman" which had an excellent staging and performance led by Terri White!).
Visually I loved the show - particularly the Act I. When the show started we saw a couple of 'ghosts' on stage, younger ladies dressed up in the faded-coloured Follies type of costumes, with huge head-dresses and all. These ghosts remained visible throughout the show, gliding on and off the stage but the whole time at least one of them somewhere in sight. They never spoke a word, one of them did join in on one song as the singer's younger self. The whole Marquis Theatre was covered in 'dust covers', to set the mood of a theatre-about-to-be-demolished and the stage sets matched perfectly with the run-down proscenium and all. The Act II 'Follies Sequence' where we see each lead have their own 'show number' in these feather/flower pedal drops was just weird, even though the numbers weren't happening in 'real life' but more in the imagination. I thought the setting broke the feel of the show.
As for the performers, Bernadette Peters wasn't my cup of tea at all. I don't know if it was the way the role was written or her own take on it, but her Sally just seemed incredibly naive and a bit of a silly bimbo. And I have to say, I didn't like her voice one bit. Jan Maxwell was simply amazing! Even though the show is closing in a couple of eeks, I think her performance is totally worth of a Tony award! Her "Could I leave you?" was stunning. Danny Burstein and Ron Raines played the husbands, Buddy Plummer and Ben Rogers, respectively, and both did a good job. Neither had any memorable songs to sing, but there weren't many of them in the score to begin with. I'm not sure I liked Elaine Paige in this show. She was great when she wasn't singing, her comic timing was spot on, but her only solo, "I'm still here" fell flat. It was nowhere near as brilliant as it could have been, instead it was this very basic, no-stretch performance which left me feeling like "that was it??!" Jayne Houdyshell got to sing the best song of the score, "Broadway baby" and she brought the house down and deservingly so. Brilliant performance!
I found the Act I far more interesting than the Act II. Not a bad or awful show, but I'm not going to miss it when it closes.
In short, the story is about a reunion of former Weisman Follies Girls (like Ziegfeld Follies), the get-together is organized at the former home, theatre, of the Follies show. The main characters, Sally Durant Plummer (played by Peters) and her former best friend and roommate Phyllies Rogers Stone (Maxwell) meet after several years, and they're both unhappily married. Their husbands were also good friends and met the girls when they were in the Follies. As the evening progresses, they start revealing their 'secrets' and air out their dirty laundry, so to speak. What we find out very soon is that Sally has always been in love with Ben, who was dating and ended up marrying her friend Phyllis...
The score is by Stephen Sondheim and it features a couple of his big hits, "Broadway baby" and "Losing my mind". Even though Sondheim has written some absolutely marvellous songs ("Send in the clowns", "Being alive", "Getting married today", "Broadway baby" which is probably my personal favorite of his songs), I've never been a fan of his. And this score didn't help either. He is a brilliant lyricist, but most of his melodies here are just plain boring - "Losing my mind" in particular! What a snooze-fest! Some ok numbers (like "Who's that woman" which had an excellent staging and performance led by Terri White!).
Visually I loved the show - particularly the Act I. When the show started we saw a couple of 'ghosts' on stage, younger ladies dressed up in the faded-coloured Follies type of costumes, with huge head-dresses and all. These ghosts remained visible throughout the show, gliding on and off the stage but the whole time at least one of them somewhere in sight. They never spoke a word, one of them did join in on one song as the singer's younger self. The whole Marquis Theatre was covered in 'dust covers', to set the mood of a theatre-about-to-be-demolished and the stage sets matched perfectly with the run-down proscenium and all. The Act II 'Follies Sequence' where we see each lead have their own 'show number' in these feather/flower pedal drops was just weird, even though the numbers weren't happening in 'real life' but more in the imagination. I thought the setting broke the feel of the show.
As for the performers, Bernadette Peters wasn't my cup of tea at all. I don't know if it was the way the role was written or her own take on it, but her Sally just seemed incredibly naive and a bit of a silly bimbo. And I have to say, I didn't like her voice one bit. Jan Maxwell was simply amazing! Even though the show is closing in a couple of eeks, I think her performance is totally worth of a Tony award! Her "Could I leave you?" was stunning. Danny Burstein and Ron Raines played the husbands, Buddy Plummer and Ben Rogers, respectively, and both did a good job. Neither had any memorable songs to sing, but there weren't many of them in the score to begin with. I'm not sure I liked Elaine Paige in this show. She was great when she wasn't singing, her comic timing was spot on, but her only solo, "I'm still here" fell flat. It was nowhere near as brilliant as it could have been, instead it was this very basic, no-stretch performance which left me feeling like "that was it??!" Jayne Houdyshell got to sing the best song of the score, "Broadway baby" and she brought the house down and deservingly so. Brilliant performance!
I found the Act I far more interesting than the Act II. Not a bad or awful show, but I'm not going to miss it when it closes.
