Elaine Stritch Joins London 'Follies in Concert,' 2/4

Theatre legend Elaine Stritch has joined the star-studded cast of "Follies in Concert," which will be presented at the London Palladium on February 4th, 2007 at 7:15 PM.

The star - who played Hattie Walker in the famed 1984 Lincoln Center "Follies in Concert" - will now appear as Carlotta, who sings the anthemic "I'm Still Here."

Stritch joins the previously announced Josephine Barstow, Bonaventura Bottone, Adam-Jon Fiorentino, Neil McDermott, Trevor McDonald, Liliane Montevecchi, Charlotte Page, Angela Rippon, Imelda Staunton and Summer Strallen.

The classic 1971 Sondheim-Goldman musical has been a hot property lately.  New York's Encores!, as previously announced, will also present a staged concert of Follies in February.

The London concert will benefit the Starlight Children's Foundation and the Kingston Hospital Cancer Unit Appeal.

"Follies in Concert" will be presented by Richard Douglas Productions, and will be directed and choreographed by Bill Deamer.  Richard Balcombe will offer musical direction.

The show will also feature lighting design by Mark Nimmin and sound design by Gareth Owen.

The original production of Follies, which features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman, starred Dorothy Collins, Alexis Smith, John McMartin and Gene Nelson.  It opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on April 4th, 1971 to run for 522 performances, and was revived on Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company in 2001.  A crumbling theatre on the brink of demolishment--once the site of the glamorous Weismann Follies--is the setting of Follies. In the show, two couples--both comprised of former Weismann showgirls and their one-time stage door Johnnies--are confronted with the ghosts of the past.

Stritch received a 2002 Drama Desk Award for her acclaimed one-woman Broadway show Elaine Stritch at Liberty; the show also garnered a Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event. She has received Tony Award nominations for her performances in A Delicate Balance, Bus Stop, Sail Away and Company, in which she originated the role of the sardonic Joanne. Other Broadway credits include Call Me Madam (as the standby for Ethel Merman), Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Goldilocks, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Love Letters and Show Boat. On film and TV, she has been seen in Providence, Cocoon: The Return, September, An Unexpected Wife, Small Time Crooks, Autumn in New York, Monster-in-Law, "3rd Rock from the Sun," and "Law and Order," for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. 

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