Follies

The story is set in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition. It focuses upon a reunion of former showgirls who performed in the Weismann Follies reviews between the wars. The ex-show girls (and boys) are brought together one last time before the theatre, in which they had performed in their youth, is torn down to put up a parking lot. The story focuses upon ex-show girls Sally and Phyllis, and their partners Ben and Buddy. The action of the show moves between the present and the past, and we see that some of the good memories they revisit become things which are maybe best forgotten: the memories of the Follies aren’t just of the show but those of youth as well.

This show was not without its problems I am afraid.  Act 1 at an hour and a half is overlong and it did seem to lack pace. There were also sound problems as radio microphones were not always switched on so dialogue and voices was drowned out and at times actors were not quite where the follow spot expected them to be (or vice versa).  Sometimes the music under the dialogue made it hard to hear although this was mainly due to the aforementioned problems with radio mics.

The opening of the show was good with action going on behind a gauze during the overture where we could see the ‘ghosts’ of the former young girls of the Follies drifting around the stage and up and down the staircase giving a real feel to the setting (designed by Andrew Featherstone and Sarah Phelps) which depicted a crumbling theatre. The opera box with it huge lumps of plaster dropping off was great, although a bit of dust and dirt and a few mouse holes might have added verisimilitude. 

Leading the principals was Steven Waring as Buddy who was excellent, he has great stage presence and an excellent voice.  Antonia Grantham as his wife Sally matched him in performance, Losing My Mind was superb. Ms Grantham is a talented actress as well as a singer.   Trenetta Jones  as Phyllis (who should be complimented on the excellent rendition of Could I Leave You? and The Story of Lucy and Jessie) and Matthew Chancellor as her self confessed wayward husband Ben were the other pairing. At the end of the show Ben breaks down at the end of his song Live, Laugh, Love which was well handled. These four, had the lion’s share of the first half shadowed by their ‘ghostly’ younger selves. 

The casting of the past and present characters, especially Buddy, Sally, Phyllis and Ben was good and worked well.  Ashley Hartland (young Buddy), Marecello Cervone Rasberge (Young Ben), Achylla Jones (Young Phyllis) and, particularly Karen Turner as Young Sally, all came into their own in the second half when they had the opportunity to show what they could do too.  Another performance which shouldn’t go unmentioned is Rachel Bye as Carlotta who’s I’m Still Here was a highlight of the show.

One by one the former artistes recreate their old routines.  There was an energetic and well executed tap dance number in Act 1 where Stella (played by DeeDee Doke) leads the former chorus line of show girls to perform Who’s That Girl and they are mirrored by their younger counterparts who join them in a major production number which bought the house down . Congratulations to choreographer Emma Olley.  The orchestra under the skillful musical direction of Lucas Elkin was good handling the challenging Sondheim score well.  

In Act 2 as the present and the past merge; replaying the past to escape the dissatisfying present Sally and Ben rekindle their love. Buddy takes to the bottle because of Sally’s behaviour and Ben asks Phyllis for a divorce.  Then fantasy takes over and we find ourselves in Loveland where everybody lives to love (apparently).  Buddy’s vaudevillian The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues with two imaginary lovers was hilarious. 

I would not say this production was a complete success.  I saw it early in the run and, personally, feel it would have benefitted by a few more rehearsals.  Maybe as the week went on things got slicker.  That said however, you certainly could not fault the commitment and energy of the whole cast.

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