Follies

The musical “Follies” has music and lyrics written by Stephen Sondheim from a book by James Goldman. The show is set during a reunion party for the Weismann girls held at the old Broadway theatre where they performed in the Ziegfeld-style Weismann musical revues called “Follies”. The theatre is to be demolished to make way for a car park, so it will be the last chance for the girls to relive their memories. These memories are represented and made more realistic by having younger versions of each Weismann girl ghosting their actions. Follies is a very challenging show as Sondheim’s music and script  is multilayered with various themes running throughout the show such as regrets and heartlessness mixed with cynicism, optimism and nostalgia so it is very emotional to perform. The story set in 1971 focuses on two married couples, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Ben and Phyllis Rogers Stone, Sally and Phyllis were best friends, former room-mates and showgirls in the Follies. The action revolves around the turbulent relationships between Sally (Pam Ashcroft) who is married, to the adoring Buddy (Eric Fletcher) and Sally’s old friend Phyllis (Lynne Nolan) who feels emotionally abandoned by her self-absorbed husband Ben (Neil Townsend) the man Sally thinks she is in love with. These four very good actors performed well together producing especially interesting characterizations of people who have experienced life but not necessarily the life they aspired to, and all four expertly demonstrated the struggle between what they wanted and what they actually had  and also the unfulfillment of the gaping chasm between youth and  middle age. As previously highlighted there were younger version of the above characters ghosting. their actions throughout the production so I must mention the very talented actors who played them, they were Sarah Culshaw as young Sally, Kay Williams as young Phyllis, Robbie Dale as young Ben and Alex Mckillop as young Buddy who all performed very well. There are some familiar songs in the show such as Carlotta’s song “I’m Still Here” sung and acted in this production excellently by Diane Dale, and also some of the showgirls performed musical numbers, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of their former selves such as Stella Deems played by Christine McCabe who expertly headed all the girls in the number “Who’s That Women” paving the way for an enjoyable nostalgic tap dance routine which involved the older and younger versions of the girls with choreography by Sarah Culshaw. In the second act the characters go to a dreamscape called “Loveland” which consists of a separate production numbers for each character and is reminiscent of the dream sequences from old MGM musicals. However it was a little confusing at first when the cast suddenly walked on the stage dressed in 18th century costumes because there does not appear to be anything to indicate this is going to happen during the action on stage. songs included in this dreamscape were  Sally’s song the very emotional “Losing my Mind” and another very enjoyable number was “The God Why Don’t You-Love Me Blues” performed by Buddy with his little car who was comically assisted by Claudia Molyneux and Jess D’ Silva, I must note Jess’s beautiful voice when she sang as young Heidi.

The action and pace was a little slow at the beginning of the performance but it picked up as the show progressed, Overall diction was very good meaning there was clarity of voice and dialogue could be followed, all American accents were first-rate and maintained well throughout the production.

The orchestra was conducted by Musical Director Malcolm Fallows who also played the character Roscoe showing off his very good singing voice with a rendition of “Beautiful Girls”. The orchestra played very well and supported the cast expertly throughout and choreography suited the era and was executed well by the cast.  Costumes fitted the era and characters well and were very colourful. Well done to all involved in this production on stage and including David Wheeler Rehearsal Pianist the Stage Manager, backstage crew, sound, lighting and not forgetting front of house.

Congratulations must go to Neil Townsend who not only played Ben Stone in this show but had the task of directing this very challenging production.

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