FOLLIES at the Marquis Theater, Broadway at 45th St.
Photos by Joan Marcus
Starting the current season, on a curiously high note, the latest, lavish revival of Follies isn’t about dear old Show Biz Nostalgia. This Follies is about what fools these mortals be. And no one does it better than Stephen Sondheim, but with such panache, such glitz as director Eric Schaeffer has wreaked out of James Goldman’s book as was there buried in the first place. And with twenty—count ‘em – stars, according to the program, every one of them worth our admiration, not least of which are work horse Bernadette Peters and work horse Jan Maxwell. But even they would not shine so brightly were it not for the astonishingly powerful performances of their show and story line counterparts, Danny Burstein, partner to the diva prone Peters and Ron Raines, power house partner to the indefatigable Jan Maxwell. Wrack your brains over past productions of Follies and not one male performer comes to mind. Never again. Burstein and Raines are so good, so vivid, they almost steal the show and that would be an incredible theft to pull off.
But let’s get to the story as told this time through the hauntingly evocative designs of set designer Derek McLane and costume designer Gregg Barnes. We are in the ghostly remains of the once glittering, glamorous theater where the great showman, Dimitri Weismann (genial David Sabin) (read Florenz Ziegfeld) staged his series of hit Follies shows, all girls, gorgeous girls, in gorgeously outlandish, revealing costumes. It is the night before the theater will be torn down. Ancient impresario Weismann has invited as many of his delicious beauties from the decades past – it is now 1971 – to one last binge of togetherness and nostalgia, replete with food, drink and drink. And music. And ghosts. From the moment we have arrived at the theater, we have seen spectral, beautiful showgirls sinuously traversing the levels and staircases in their spectral splendor, dimly, yet vividly alive still, ghosts of the past. Among them we find the young incarnations of the decades older guests. How young they were! How happy! How hopeful! How alive!
Ah, but – today? 1971? Thirty years later? Who have these youngsters become? Our story focuses on two couples, Phyllis and Ben Stone, and Sally and Buddy Plummer. Phyllis (Jan Maxwell) is an exquisitely turned out trophy wife for tycoon husband Ben (Ron Raines, forceful, towering, profoundly unhappy success. Sally (Bernadette Peters) an equally unhappy pretense of a housewife, has dragged her eager to please husband, Buddy (Danny Burstein) to this semi-painful, semi hopeful reunion. She is looking for lost love; she has been in love with Ben all these years, since both couples first met. It doesn’t matter that Buddy has worshipped her all these same years. And Phyllis knows it all. How the long night of their bittersweet reunion works its way to the last, gray dawn is sustenance for the theater’s leading composer-lyricist Sondheim, in 1971 at the peak of his Broadway show phase and he has written a Broadway show so layered in its displays of loving cleverness, even through his satiric bent, you do not notice that he’s lambasting us with the perennial pain of life choices gone awry.
Oh, sure, the other stars do nostalgic turn after nostalgic turn, each a delight. Michael Hayes is pitch perfect as the de rigueur tenor who always sang those “Beautiful Girls” type songs as they sashayed around the stage. Leah Horowitz and Don Correia do a whimsy peach of a “Rain on the Roof” number, even though she’s losing it up there. Terri White, in a superbly faked “Who’s that Woman”, Mary Jane Pfeil in a smirky cool “Ah, Paris!” Janis Paige in a flatfootedly sure “I’m Still Here”, Jayne Houdyshell over the top in the showstopper designed “Broadway Baby”. And you think, wow, that’s more than enough, ha? Not even close. Peters tears your heart out with her guilt in “In Buddy’s Eyes” and goes ineffably gaga in “Losing my Mind”. Danny Burstein puts on a rictus smile and tears up the stage with the “God Why Don’t You Love Me Blues” and Raines performs superbly in every one of his numbers, by far the best singer up there. And Maxwell? She pours her guts out in “Leave You”. Stop here and it’s far and away more than enough but there are many more other delights, and, throughout, the thrillingly gorgeous ghosts of showgirls past. Hie thee to Follies. This is definitive Broadway, emotionally, visually, intellectually, and enjoyably. Don’t miss it.
Marquis Theater, Broadway at 45th Street. Tickets: $47-$137. 877-250-2929. Tue 7 pm, Wed-Sat 8 pm. Mats, Wed, Sat 2 pm, Sun 3 pm.