FLASH FRIDAY: Forty Years of FOLLIES - Looks, Lives, Love & Lore

On August 7 the ghosts come out to sing and dance and reminisce a bit when one of the most legendary musicals of all time returns to the Great White Way and previews begin for a sparkling new production of FOLLIES, directed by Eric Schaeffer, coming direct from the recent Kennedy Center mounting of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's haunting and thrilling nostalgia cornucopia. While the various productions of FOLLIES over the decades have a lion's share of unforgettable star turns and show-stopping moments to treasure, the brand new Broadway revival could very well be the ghostly musical's true total resurrection for a 21st century audience. After all, this is the show which coined the term Broadway Baby! Speaking of which, with a cast boasting Broadway heavyweights Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, (with upcoming InDepth InterView participant) Ron Raines and (previous InDepth InterView participant) Elaine Paige, along with the glories of Sondheim's masterful score and the moody magic that this musical can singularly conjure, this production is evidently poised to present FOLLIES as perfectly as potentially possible for a modern audience - so, while taking a look at this particular production and the past performances of the stars of the show we shall parse the looks, lives, love and lore that makes up FOLLIES - and a couple laughs, too - and also consider why it is one of the most important musicals of the twentieth century.

Never Look Back

FOLLIES has every ingredient of a classic Broadway musical - spot-on songs, showgirls, sex, sequins, psychosis - yet, it is the ruminative, introspective, and, literally, haunting heartbeat just below the surface sheen, shine and pizazz that gives the show the implicit power and prestige that a timeless work of art commands. If nothing else, FOLLIES is that - pure art. But, also, it is so very much more! How lucky audiences who have never seen it before will be come August 7 - as well as those who have and love it!

Some backstory: Originally opening on Broadway on April 4, 1971 under the expert co-direction of Harold Prince and Michael Bennett, the debut of FOLLIES was a success d'estime - some critics got it, but most did not; some audiences enjoyed it, others did not - and it managed to score some Tony Awards and enough word of mouth to go out on the road. While the tour did not last as long as anticipated or hoped, the simple fact that a show this daring had been produced at all - and so elaborately, both on Broadway and in its touring version - speaks so well to the power of the message at the core of the show, as well as the sway Sondheim's truly marvelous music holds over the captive, attentive audience member. It is a delicate work of art, but it is surely not without its knock-down, drag-out, sing-to-the-rafters show-stopping moments - actually, FOLLIES is built on such things!

With a few looks back at what FOLLIES has meant over the years to all the Broadway babies out there, new and legend (never old), as well as some performance highlights from the showbiz saga at the center of today's discussion, here is a four-part analysis of forty years of FOLLIES focusing on the Looks, Lives, Love and Lore.

Mirror, Mirror

Starting off with perhaps the finest musical number of the late-twentieth century and a thematic centerpiece of the score and show at large, here is a fleeting glimpse of the very first FOLLIES that ever was, from all the way back in 1971. Michael Bennett's staging fires on all axels and makes "Who's That Woman" a choreographic and dramatic tour-de-force as the present-day women get up to perform their big number one more time - stumbles, fumbles and all - and, before too long, they are swept up in the magic of their memories and their very selves from thirty years ago reappear - all of this as viewed, where else, but in the mirror! A masterpiece.

Hi, Girls, Ben, Sally

The quartet of characters at the core of FOLLIES is Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy and in a show so intimately involving the past and the present and their intermingling metaphorically and literally, even neophytes of this particular enterprise can assume from a Sondheim musical comes some seriously strong characterization and detail. Indeed, the diegetic songs are some of Sondheim's most sharply pointed work, with the characters seeming to almost fully reveal themselves to each other and to us in the audience and lay themselves - and their souls - bare, repeatedly. No better examples exist than these following numbers, the latter two taken from last year's exemplary SONDHEIM! THE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION concert at Avery Fisher Hall, directed by Lonny Price.

First up, here is the most important dramatic song in the show, Ben Stone's "The Road You Didn't Take", as performed by original Ben, John McMartin, in the original 1971 production.

Next, Donna Murphy at the SONDHEIM! concert supplies a delectably delicious and biting rendition of Phyllis's first second act solo, pre-Loveland, "Could I Leave You".

Lastly, here is the Young Foursome - that is: the Younger Selves of Ben, Sally, Phyllis and Buddy - as played by Matt Cavenaugh, Laura Osnes, Jenn Collela and Bobby Steggart - and an example of how in one Loveland song Sondheim paints four fully-complete characterizations in just four fast-moving minutes. Plus, it must also be noted that Loveland is where the diegetic songs become onstage songs, so this certainly fits right in with this section's theme!

Don't Look At Me

The central love story of FOLLIES is that of Ben and Sally. Doomed, forbidden, tarnished, going grey - but, burning brightly - that is the state of Sally and Ben's affair. Will the remembrance of embraces' past stir up too many dangerous feelings, thoughts and emotions within them at this late date? Will they finally give in to each other at last? Could they last together now even if they gave it all up just to try? Those are only a few of the questions asked about the roads we take and the ones we do not - in love and in life - in FOLLIES. No one sums it up better than FOLLIES master composer/lyricist himself Stephen Sondheim in the enthralling and emotional Act One Finale, "Too Many Mornings".

So, without further ado, here is a particularly thrilling performance of "Too Many Mornings", overflowing with heartache, lust and seemingly quite genuine love, taken from the FOLLIES: IN CONCERT production, performed by Barbara Cook and George Hearn.

Time Stops

While all of the elements discussed so far certainly add to the overall ultimate entertainment package deal that FOLLIES offers just by the sheer nature of a show about show business people and the inherent theatricality of the idiosyncratic conceit therein devised by Sondheim & Goldman, it is with the psychosis-inducEd Hallucination extravaganza of four showstoppers in a row - five, if you count the moment when all the songs come together in the pinnacle moment of the cacophonous undertones laid bare and highlighted in naked, white light - called, simply, Loveland. The couples reach their breaking point and their pasts take over as they reevaluate their emotional states in song and dance. The whole show builds to this moment, yet for someone who has never seen the show before it is a very special thrill - and, of course, each new production brings its own twist on the sights and sounds of the series of showstoppers that make up Loveland. Here is a glimpse of the original production and how Harold Prince and Michael Bennett handled staging it.

Here They Come

So, take a peek of the potential Broadway production opening on August 7 for yourself - this new Broadway revival of FOLLIES directed by Eric Schaeffer looks and sounds simply sensational judging from the clips of the Kennedy Center production available below, which are undoubtedly more than a mere indication of what is to come! And, what sensational surprises lay in store?! We'll soon see!

Now, as a special bonus, check out this hour-long chat with the leads of the 2011 Broadway revival of FOLLIES - Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines and Elaine Paige - while in rehearsal for the show at the Kennedy Center earlier this summer! Enjoy - and pick up a ticket!

http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=A73857

With this surefire new Broadway revival of FOLLIES, it seems clear as a mirror reflection that the time has come for all those beautiful girls to come down those stairs of the Weismann Theater one last time… never looking back, yet always haunted by the ghosts of yore. And lore… and more.