©The Star Ledger 3/29/1998 Star-laden 'Follies': Not your average song and dance By Peter Filichia
Stage: In one room, eight people are sitting and singing "Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs." In another room, four dancers are doing a bolero. In yet another, a group is huddled around a little model of a stage set, ooohing and aaahing at what they see. It is mid-morning, 32 days before the April 15 opening of Follies at the Paper Mill Playhouse. The principal performers are starting their first full-fledged day of rehearsal for the 1971 Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical theater classic. They'll do today without their director, Robert Johanson. "He's in Chicago, opening our production of The Wizard of Oz, says the theater's marketing director, Debra Waxman. Taking up the slack is Jerry Mitchell, the choreographer who's putting those four bolero dancers through their paces. Among the hoofers is septuagenarian Donald Saddler, who this time last year was directing and choreographing No, No, Nanette for Paper Mill. "This is much harder," he says. "But it's much, much more fun, too." For choreographer Mitchell, too, the dance shoes are now on the other feet. "Donald choreographed me in the 1983 revival of On Your Toes. And now here I am choreographing him." Saddler's partner is Natalie Mosco, a member of the original Broadway cast of Hair "Yes," she says of that 30-year-old hit, "I was one of the girls who took my clothes off. I remember when Tom O'Horgan, the director, came around and individually asked each of us to do it, and we all said no. Then a few of us said yes. After a while, they offered us an extra $1.50 for doing it. I told them, I'll do it for free - but not for $1.50." Saddler and Mosco play a couple who were once stars in the Weissman (read: Ziegfeld) Follies. Doing a mirror image of their bolero are Pascal Faye and Arte Phillips - who play them as youngsters. That's the conceit of Follies, which takes place at a theatrical reunion of former showgirls and stars. We not only meet the now-aged performers, but also see them as their younger alter-egos. In the other room, under the auspices of musical directors Jim Coleman and Tom Helm, eight performers are going through the score. Here's where Follies shows its star power. There's Donna McKechnie, who created the role of Cassie in A Chorus Line and won a Tony for it. Tony Roberts, a two-time Tony nominee who became famous through many Woody Allen films. Dee Hoty also has two Tony nominations (The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public), while Laurence Guittard has one (A Little Night Music). The foursome play two long-married couples - Sally and Buddy, Phyllis and Ben - who met decades earlier when the women were showgirls, and the men were stage-door Johnnies. They married - and then their troubles began. During a break, McKechnie, 53, who plays Sally, says, "I understand the steely part of this woman, for all her life she had to defend against her feelings, and make herself into another person. She had to mold herself into what her spouse wanted her to be." McKechnie has a history with Follies, for her choreographic mentor (and eventual husband) Michael Bennett co-directed and choreographed the original production. "He'd just choreographed me in another show by Sondheim and (director) Hal (Prince), Company, and I was still doing that when Follies came along. But I did some preproduction, where Michael got a group of dancers together in a room to try out his ideas. So I got to see his work on the show pretty early. "Michael approached it with such passion because this is where he lived - these nostalgic old days of the Ziegfeld Follies era. I went to the opening night, and to see those dancers come out in slow-motion? It was perfect Michael Bennett, what he's so good at," she says - inadvertently switching to the present tense, perhaps still unwilling to believe that the musical theater genius has been dead for more than 10 years. Roberts, 58, says, "I've done this show plenty of times - in my living room and in my shower. And I do it very well there," he jokes. "I saw it originally, and wore the grooves off the record, as I have with every Sondheim show. But when my agent told me they wanted me for Buddy, I said, 'Are you sure you got that right?' I thought they might want me for Ben, because Buddy's a dancer, and I'm not a dancer." He's reminded that he danced a good deal when he played the Tony Curtis role in the musical version of Some Like It Hot. "But that was in high heels," he says, mock-seriously. "I don't know if I can dance in men's shoes." Dee Hoty, on the other hand, doesn't know the show. "I know the legend behind it," she says, before aping the excitement that long-time musical theater fans express when they discuss Follies: "'Oh, it's my favorite musical, I saw it 11 times, I bought standing room when I was four years old.' It was a little before my time," says the 45-year-old actress. "I'm a little young for Phyllis, too - which is nice for 'a woman of a certain age.'" There's another reason why Hoty feels fortunate to be here. "I'd been cast in the upcoming Broadway production of Footloose - playing the Dianne Wiest role, the character married to the local preacher who overreacts to all the dancing that's going on in town. It was supposed to go to La Jolla in May, so when I was asked to audition, I decided not to, because that's not right when you already have another job." A week after saying no to Follies, the Footloose producers canceled the La Jolla engagement, and decided to open at the Kennedy Center in Washington this summer. So Hoty let Paper Mill know she was available, and here she is. "Phyllis is a little more used-up than I am. She's a childless trophy wife who finally wonders, 'Where's my life? What happened to me? Who was that girl?' You can't know about the choice you didn't make. If you'd made the other one, you might not have been any better off, either." Laurence Guittard, 58, understands. He remembers that his first goal was to be an opera singer, but then he chose musical theater. "Because I wanted to do new works. But it hasn't turned out that way at all," says the actor who appeared in the Broadway revival of Oklahoma, and last year returned to A Little Night Music in London. You won't find regrets among the quartet of just-starting-out actors: Billy Hartung (Young Buddy), 26; Danette Holden (Young Sally), 24; Meredith Patterson (Young Phyllis), 22. "They're each a 'Broadway Baby,'" says Michael Gruber, citing one of the show's best-known songs. "I'm the 'oldest of the young,'" adds the 33-year-old actor who'll portray Young Ben. "I'm glad, though, just to be playing a human. For the last two years, I've been on Broadway in Cats." "My claim to fame," says Holden, "is that I'm now the young Donna McKechnie." Hartung knows how she feels. "I was appearing in the chorus of a benefit last year that Tony Roberts appeared in, and I remember thinking at the time, 'Gee, this is great, being in the same room with him.'" And Patterson knows how he feels. "When I'm sitting between Donna McKechnie and Tony Roberts, I think, one of these people doesn't belong." Break is over. Back to work. Debra Waxman rushes into another room to make phone calls to coordinate travel arrangements for Ann Miller, Kaye Ballard, Liliane Montevecchi, and Phyllis Newman, each of whom will have a cameo. Follies has more star power coming, as it surges ever forward to that April 15 date. main Follies page

©The Star Ledger
3/29/1998

Star-laden 'Follies':
Not your average song and dance
By Peter Filichia

Stage: In one room, eight people are sitting and singing "Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs." In another room, four dancers are doing a bolero. In yet another, a group is huddled around a little model of a stage set, ooohing and aaahing at what they see.

It is mid-morning, 32 days before the April 15 opening of Follies at the Paper Mill Playhouse. The principal performers are starting their first full-fledged day of rehearsal for the 1971 Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical theater classic.

They'll do today without their director, Robert Johanson. "He's in Chicago, opening our production of The Wizard of Oz, says the theater's marketing director, Debra Waxman.

Taking up the slack is Jerry Mitchell, the choreographer who's putting those four bolero dancers through their paces. Among the hoofers is septuagenarian Donald Saddler, who this time last year was directing and choreographing No, No, Nanette for Paper Mill. "This is much harder," he says. "But it's much, much more fun, too."

For choreographer Mitchell, too, the dance shoes are now on the other feet. "Donald choreographed me in the 1983 revival of On Your Toes. And now here I am choreographing him."

Saddler's partner is Natalie Mosco, a member of the original Broadway cast of Hair "Yes," she says of that 30-year-old hit, "I was one of the girls who took my clothes off. I remember when Tom O'Horgan, the director, came around and individually asked each of us to do it, and we all said no. Then a few of us said yes. After a while, they offered us an extra $1.50 for doing it. I told them, I'll do it for free - but not for $1.50."

Saddler and Mosco play a couple who were once stars in the Weissman (read: Ziegfeld) Follies. Doing a mirror image of their bolero are Pascal Faye and Arte Phillips - who play them as youngsters.

That's the conceit of Follies, which takes place at a theatrical reunion of former showgirls and stars. We not only meet the now-aged performers, but also see them as their younger alter-egos.

In the other room, under the auspices of musical directors Jim Coleman and Tom Helm, eight performers are going through the score. Here's where Follies shows its star power.

There's Donna McKechnie, who created the role of Cassie in A Chorus Line and won a Tony for it. Tony Roberts, a two-time Tony nominee who became famous through many Woody Allen films. Dee Hoty also has two Tony nominations (The Will Rogers Follies, The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public), while Laurence Guittard has one (A Little Night Music).

The foursome play two long-married couples - Sally and Buddy, Phyllis and Ben - who met decades earlier when the women were showgirls, and the men were stage-door Johnnies. They married - and then their troubles began.

During a break, McKechnie, 53, who plays Sally, says, "I understand the steely part of this woman, for all her life she had to defend against her feelings, and make herself into another person. She had to mold herself into what her spouse wanted her to be."

McKechnie has a history with Follies, for her choreographic mentor (and eventual husband) Michael Bennett co-directed and choreographed the original production. "He'd just choreographed me in another show by Sondheim and (director) Hal (Prince), Company, and I was still doing that when Follies came along. But I did some preproduction, where Michael got a group of dancers together in a room to try out his ideas. So I got to see his work on the show pretty early.

"Michael approached it with such passion because this is where he lived - these nostalgic old days of the Ziegfeld Follies era. I went to the opening night, and to see those dancers come out in slow-motion? It was perfect Michael Bennett, what he's so good at," she says - inadvertently switching to the present tense, perhaps still unwilling to believe that the musical theater genius has been dead for more than 10 years.

Roberts, 58, says, "I've done this show plenty of times - in my living room and in my shower. And I do it very well there," he jokes. "I saw it originally, and wore the grooves off the record, as I have with every Sondheim show. But when my agent told me they wanted me for Buddy, I said, 'Are you sure you got that right?' I thought they might want me for Ben, because Buddy's a dancer, and I'm not a dancer."

He's reminded that he danced a good deal when he played the Tony Curtis role in the musical version of Some Like It Hot. "But that was in high heels," he says, mock-seriously. "I don't know if I can dance in men's shoes."

Dee Hoty, on the other hand, doesn't know the show. "I know the legend behind it," she says, before aping the excitement that long-time musical theater fans express when they discuss Follies: "'Oh, it's my favorite musical, I saw it 11 times, I bought standing room when I was four years old.' It was a little before my time," says the 45-year-old actress. "I'm a little young for Phyllis, too - which is nice for 'a woman of a certain age.'"

There's another reason why Hoty feels fortunate to be here. "I'd been cast in the upcoming Broadway production of Footloose - playing the Dianne Wiest role, the character married to the local preacher who overreacts to all the dancing that's going on in town. It was supposed to go to La Jolla in May, so when I was asked to audition, I decided not to, because that's not right when you already have another job."

A week after saying no to Follies, the Footloose producers canceled the La Jolla engagement, and decided to open at the Kennedy Center in Washington this summer. So Hoty let Paper Mill know she was available, and here she is. "Phyllis is a little more used-up than I am. She's a childless trophy wife who finally wonders, 'Where's my life? What happened to me? Who was that girl?' You can't know about the choice you didn't make. If you'd made the other one, you might not have been any better off, either."

Laurence Guittard, 58, understands. He remembers that his first goal was to be an opera singer, but then he chose musical theater. "Because I wanted to do new works. But it hasn't turned out that way at all," says the actor who appeared in the Broadway revival of Oklahoma, and last year returned to A Little Night Music in London.

You won't find regrets among the quartet of just-starting-out actors: Billy Hartung (Young Buddy), 26; Danette Holden (Young Sally), 24; Meredith Patterson (Young Phyllis), 22.

"They're each a 'Broadway Baby,'" says Michael Gruber, citing one of the show's best-known songs. "I'm the 'oldest of the young,'" adds the 33-year-old actor who'll portray Young Ben. "I'm glad, though, just to be playing a human. For the last two years, I've been on Broadway in Cats."

"My claim to fame," says Holden, "is that I'm now the young Donna McKechnie."

Hartung knows how she feels. "I was appearing in the chorus of a benefit last year that Tony Roberts appeared in, and I remember thinking at the time, 'Gee, this is great, being in the same room with him.'"

And Patterson knows how he feels. "When I'm sitting between Donna McKechnie and Tony Roberts, I think, one of these people doesn't belong."

Break is over. Back to work. Debra Waxman rushes into another room to make phone calls to coordinate travel arrangements for Ann Miller, Kaye Ballard, Liliane Montevecchi, and Phyllis Newman, each of whom will have a cameo. Follies has more star power coming, as it surges ever forward to that April 15 date.

main Follies page