Review Roundup: FOLLIES on Broadway - All the Reviews - Updated!

With a 28-piece orchestra, FOLLIES features a cast of 41 and stars 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 also stars 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. FOLLIES 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. 

Ben Brantley, The New York Times: Somewhere along the road from Washington to Broadway, the Kennedy Center production of "Follies" picked up a pulse. A vigorous heart now beats at the center of this revitalized revival of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical, which opened on Monday night at the Marquis Theater...The four stars of this "Follies" give X-ray performances, in which lives past and souls divided can be seen clearly beneath the skin. Like Mr. Sondheim's music, they make harmony out of the jangling contradictions that come with being alive. 

Howard Shapiro, The Philadelphia Inquirer: If you're not sold on the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies by the time Bernadette Peters walks onto a lonely, red-lit stage on Broadway and gives desperate life to the torch song "Losing My Mind" - if that remarkable rendition doesn't seal the deal, well, there's nothing else to be done. The gorgeous production, in a new, rich orchestration, mounted originally by Washington's Kennedy Center, is detailed down to the makeover of the Marquis Theater's interior.

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg: Broadway’s sterile Marquis Theatre has never looked so good as in the state of faux decrepitude that welcomes us to the latest, and finest, revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies...Near the end [of "Loveland"] Raines, through a brilliant trick, snaps Ben and us back into the reality of 1971. We’re still feeling the jolt as the curtain falls and Technicolor nostalgia recedes into grim reality.

Michael Musto, The Village Voice: Is a serviceable Follies good enough? Yes, because the 1971 classic is such a rich, dark leap into regret, with a witty and poignant Sondheim score--and besides, the Eric Schaeffer-directed production rises to the occasion for Act Two. It's still Follies, and with its go-for-broke emotionalism, this production is definitely worth a visit before they tear down the Marriott and make it a parking lot.

Steven Suskin, Variety: The Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's "Follies," when done right, is one of the glories of the American musical. The new revival, a transfer from the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., is done right...The stars are supplemented by a crowd of featured ladies whom Sondheim provides solo spots in which to shine, and shine they do.

Scott Brown, NY Magazine: Sondheim himself, in Finishing the Hat, has called the show "crippled by its size, ambition and mysteriousness, and thus always worth the effort of experimentation." Director Eric Schaeffer has opted mostly to steer the ship, not re-install the keel, and, as far as I can tell (which, to be honest, isn’t very far), he and choreographer Warren Carlyle have preserved the spirit of Michael Bennett’s original hoofery...Follies is the disease and the cure in one package: I'd advise you to catch it.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: A revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" has arrived on Broadway just in time for Halloween. It's perfect for the season — it's got ghosts, skeletons bursting out of closets and a haunted house. It's also a treat. "Come on, let's go home," Phyllis says at the end of the show to Ben. But it's been such a good and tuneful production that you may hope no one listens to her and the ghosts stick around just a little longer. 

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: 40 years after its Broadway premiere, Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s show still dazzles with its structural complexity and brilliant score...It’s unlikely any staging will ever equal the extravagant showmanship of the original, co-directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett. But just having Follies back on Broadway, played by a full orchestra and performed by a gifted cast, is reward enough.

Peter Marks, The Washington Post: The weakling elements evident in Washington last spring have been resiliently bulked up...The creative team behind this production has made the calculation that old age ain’t so bad after all; it’s sort of a baby boomer’s vision of “Follies.” So if the evening doesn’t resonate with much aching authority, it’s packed with entertainment. These dames still know how to light up a stage. And there’s much more to savor in this treatment since it played a sold-out run in the Eisenhower Theater.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Post: The revival that opened last night is in the shaky mitts of journeyman director Eric Schaeffer and a tentative cast led by Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell and soap-opera star Ron Raines. Rather than a seamless whole, the show feels like barely connected musical numbers of varying quality.

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg.com: Maxwell nearly steals the show with Phyllis's tongue- twisting "The Story of Lucy and Jessie." But the true thief is Raines who brings heart-breaking pathos to Ben's two big numbers -- "The Road You Didn't Take" and "Live, Laugh, Love."

Matt Windman, amNY: Eric Schaeffer’s lavish production, which features a 41-member cast and a 28-piece orchestra, originated at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It has improved since then...Peters fully captures Sally’s sweet and innocent center. Burstein violently throws himself into the role of Buddy, bringing the character’s pent-up anger to manic heights. Maxwell, who is better known as a dramatic actress, proves that she can handle a tough musical role. Raines credibly portrays Ben’s downward spiral from cocky self-denial into helplessness.

Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune: Schaeffer, whose early directing talent on road shows like "Big" has matured into something quite formidable, has achieved a great deal here. Not the least is the way the younger selves of the former showgirls are integrated into the action, often with the help of choreographer Warren Carlyle. Without the device ever seeming crass or manipulative, these sepia-toned lovelies of the pre-war years alternately flare up with the force of nostalgia and resilience - and, as the ever-intriguing Elaine Paige reminds us, "Follies" is about still being here just as much as wondering what happened - then recede whenever loss and regret overwhelms. It is a very poignant visual treatment and it gives way to a gorgeous second-act "Loveland" sequence (designer Derek McLane fills the stage with a plush look that suggests both a womb and a fatal web). The sequence is as caustic as it is beautiful.

Robert Feldberg, NorthJersey.com: The revival of this singular musical, which opened Monday night at the Marquis Theatre, is imperfect, but, in its overall impact, it offers a slice of theatrical heaven.

Michael Musto, The Village Voice: I found the last Follies revival--in 2001--to be more consistently thrilling, but it's still Follies, and with its go-for-broke emotionalism, this production is definitely worth a visit before they tear down the Marriott and make it a parking lot.

Linda Winer, Newsday: Finally, we have this one -- the first staged "Follies" I've seen that wouldn't work better as just a concert of blazingly theatrical Sondheim songs without James Goldman's mawkish dialogue. This rich and wrenching revival -- first directed by Eric Schaeffer at the Kennedy Center last spring and starring, for starters, Bernadette Peters and Jan Maxwell -- seems blissfully unaware of any such problem.

Adam Feldman, TimeOut: But this is a show no grown-up should miss; after 40 years, it remains a piercing stare of hope and regret, longing and compromise. The kind of musical theater it dissects and eulogizes may be vanishing from Broadway, but Follies is still here, and it's gorgeous.