FOLLIES Ends Kennedy Center Run, Heads for Broadway

The Kennedy Center's all-new, critically-acclaimed production of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical FOLLIES will transfer to Broadway this summer. FOLLIES will play a limited engagement at the Marquis Theatre (1535 Broadway). Dates, Broadway casting and ticket information will be announced soon.

The $7.3 million production, with book by James Goldman and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, concludes its highly successful six-week run in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater today.

The musical, which opened May 21, features a cast of 41 and is directed by Eric Schaeffer with choreography by Warren Carlyle and music direction by James Moore. Moore also conducts the 28-piece Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

When former members of the "Weismann Follies" reunite on the eve of their theater's demolition, two couples remember their past and face the harsher realities of the present. Reminiscing of their younger selves and the years gone by, the crumbling theater brings back memories for both couples of good times and bad. Containing such well-known songs as "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here," "Too Many Mornings," "Could I Leave You?" and "Losing My Mind," Follies echoes the songs, exuberance and romance of the vaudeville days between the two World Wars.

Originally produced on Broadway by Harold Prince with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, FOLLIES opened on April 4, 1971 starring Dorothy Collins, John McMartin, Gene Nelson, and Alexis Smith. It ran for 522 performances in the Winter Garden Theatre and received seven Tony Awards ® , including Best Original Score.

Principal casting in Washington, D.C. includes Bernadette Peters as Sally Durant Plummer, Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, Danny Burstein as Buddy Plummer, Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone, and Elaine Paige as Carlotta Campion. The production at the Kennedy Center also stars Terrence Currier 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, Florence Lacey as Sandra Crane, Linda Lavin as Hattie Walker, Régine 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. Rounding out the ensemble is Lawrence Alexander, Brandon Bieber, John Carroll, Sara Edwards, Leslie Flesner, Jenifer Foote, Leah Horowitz, Suzanne Hylenski, Danielle Jordan, Joseph Kolinski, Amanda Larsen, Brittany Marcin, Edrie Means, Erin Moore, Pamela Otterson, Clifton Samuels, Kiira Schmidt, Brian Shepard, Sam Strasfeld, Amos Wolff and Ashley Yeater.

The Kennedy Center production features scenic design by Derek McLane, costume
design by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Kai Harada and
the original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.