© Backstage Magazine May 15, 1998 Follies by Peter Wynne
The buzz is that the Paper Mill Playhouse revival of Follies is headed for Broadway. If it doesn't get there and run for ages, it will be a measure only of how perverse our times can be. This superb, first-ever New York-area revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's 1971 musical is something Broadway could truly use. Michael Anania's sets, Gregg Barnes' costumes, and Mark Stanley's lighting provide lavish helpings of color and dazzle. The cast assembled by Playhouse Artistic Director Robert Johanson boasts enough stars for a small galaxy and, most important, the show has Goldman's newly retouched book and Sondheim's ever-witty lyrics and sophisticated, period-inspired score. Heading the cast are veteran players Dee Hoty and Laurence Guittard as Phyllis and Ben Stone, with Donna McKechnie and Tony Roberts as Sally and Buddy Plummer. These are the people around whom the action turns--two aging "Weismann Follies" chorus girls and the stage-door johnnies they married. Surrounding them is a constellation of equally bright longtime stars for the variety turns in the show: Kaye Ballard, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller, Liliane Montevecchi, Natalie Mosco, Phyllis Newman, Donald Saddler and, from opera, Vahan Khanzadian and Carol Skarimbas. Musical co-directors Jim Coleman and Tom Helm preside alternately over the 21-piece orchestra. Moreover, Follies has an unusual structure that requires a second, equally wonderful "mirroring" cast of younger performers. The story shows the Weismann Girls at their 1971 reunion, 30 years after the series folded, and also in their heydays decades earlier. The young Phyllis and Ben are played by Meredith Patterson and Michael Gruber, while Danette Holden and Billy Hartung are seen as the young Sally and Buddy. They're flanked, in turn, by Julie Connors, Pascale Faye,Pamela Jordan, Temple Kane, Ingrid Ladendorf, Krista Lepore, Karen Lifshey, Jean Marie, Arte Phillips, and Jillana Urbina, who take on the more strenuous dance chores that someone like Jerry Mitchell, who choreographed the production, would never assign to people in their 70s, as at least four of the veterans now are. Goldman has revised the book to lighten the feeling of the show and put more emphasis on minor characters. Also, a song from the 1987 London production, "Ah, But Underneath," splendidly performed by Hoty, replaces "The Story of Lucy and Jessie." main Follies page

The buzz is that the Paper Mill Playhouse revival of Follies is headed for Broadway. If it doesn't get there and run for ages, it will be a measure only of how perverse our times can be. This superb, first-ever New York-area revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's 1971 musical is something Broadway could truly use.

Michael Anania's sets, Gregg Barnes' costumes, and Mark Stanley's lighting provide lavish helpings of color and dazzle. The cast assembled by Playhouse Artistic Director Robert Johanson boasts enough stars for a small galaxy and, most important, the show has Goldman's newly retouched book and Sondheim's ever-witty lyrics and sophisticated, period-inspired score.

Heading the cast are veteran players Dee Hoty and Laurence Guittard as Phyllis and Ben Stone, with Donna McKechnie and Tony Roberts as Sally and Buddy Plummer. These are the people around whom the action turns--two aging "Weismann Follies" chorus girls and the stage-door johnnies they married.

Surrounding them is a constellation of equally bright longtime stars for the variety turns in the show: Kaye Ballard, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller, Liliane Montevecchi, Natalie Mosco, Phyllis Newman, Donald Saddler and, from opera, Vahan Khanzadian and Carol Skarimbas.

Musical co-directors Jim Coleman and Tom Helm preside alternately over the 21-piece orchestra.

Moreover, Follies has an unusual structure that requires a second, equally wonderful "mirroring" cast of younger performers. The story shows the Weismann Girls at their 1971 reunion, 30 years after the series folded, and also in their heydays decades earlier.

The young Phyllis and Ben are played by Meredith Patterson and Michael Gruber, while Danette Holden and Billy Hartung are seen as the young Sally and Buddy.

They're flanked, in turn, by Julie Connors, Pascale Faye,Pamela Jordan, Temple Kane, Ingrid Ladendorf, Krista Lepore, Karen Lifshey, Jean Marie, Arte Phillips, and Jillana Urbina, who take on the more strenuous dance chores that someone like Jerry Mitchell, who choreographed the production, would never assign to people in their 70s, as at least four of the veterans now are.

Goldman has revised the book to lighten the feeling of the show and put more emphasis on minor characters. Also, a song from the 1987 London production, "Ah, But Underneath," splendidly performed by Hoty, replaces "The Story of Lucy and Jessie."

main Follies page