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16<br />
Photos: Johan Persson<br />
FOLLIES<br />
Olivier Theatre<br />
Ever since Follies opened at the Winter<br />
Garden in 1971 it has been labelled a<br />
‘problem’ musical. Dyed-in-the-wool<br />
Sondheim-ites consider it a masterpiece<br />
yet it has always failed to resonate with<br />
the general public and open-ended runs<br />
never turn a profit, including Hal Prince’s<br />
stunning original production. The reason<br />
has generally been attributed to the fact<br />
that there is no one in James Goldman’s<br />
patchy and plotless book to root for.<br />
As any Follies aficionado knows, the<br />
setting is a derelict Broadway theatre<br />
where, between the wars, its legendary<br />
owner, Dimitri Weismann (Gary Raymond)<br />
annually presented his lavish Follies. The<br />
theatre is about to face the wrecking ball<br />
for an office block and, as a last hurrah,<br />
Weismann has invited several ex-Follies<br />
girls and their spouses to a nostalgic<br />
reunion.<br />
Of the eleven women who show up,<br />
Goldman’s book focuses on just two: Sally<br />
(Imelda Staunton) and Phyllis (Janie Dee),<br />
both of whose marriages are in trouble.<br />
Though Sally is married to Buddy (Peter<br />
Forbes), a philandering salesman from<br />
Phoenix, she has always carried a torch<br />
for Ben (Philip Quast) Phyllis’s wealthy,<br />
ex-politician husband; while for the<br />
bilious Phyllis, who once shared digs with<br />
Sally, there is no love lost for either Sally<br />
or Ben.<br />
Augmented by some of the finest<br />
songs Sondheim has ever written, and<br />
further enhanced by the<br />
ghost-like appearances<br />
of their younger selves,<br />
this quartet of unhappy<br />
souls, with their<br />
unrealised dreams,<br />
frustrations and the<br />
inevitable compromises<br />
life demands, cry out<br />
for your sympathy and<br />
understanding. But<br />
because the sketchy<br />
book is no match for<br />
the brilliance of<br />
Sondheim’s classic<br />
score, it is hard to get<br />
involved with these<br />
tiresome people and<br />
their unfulfilled lives.<br />
In the first twenty minutes or so during<br />
which all the characters are introduced,<br />
there is so much activity in director<br />
Dominic Cooke’s staging and in Vicki<br />
Mortimer’s atmospheric but constantly<br />
revolving set, it’s hard to get a handle on<br />
any of them and their back stories.<br />
However, as the show progresses the four<br />
protagonists (though not their younger<br />
counterparts) become more clearly<br />
defined but not more endearing.<br />
The best performance of the evening is<br />
Staunton’s. Though physically miscast as<br />
an erstwhile Follies chorine, this<br />
diminutive powerhouse with a singing<br />
voice to match, comes close to breaking<br />
your heart as the unrequited Sally. Her<br />
interpretation of the show’s best-known<br />
song, Losing My Mind, is the most<br />
forceful I’ve heard. If only Goldman’s book<br />
were as adept as Arthur Laurents’ for<br />
Gypsy, Follies would undoubtedly qualify<br />
as one of the greatest of all Broadway<br />
musicals. But it isn’t and it doesn’t.<br />
Given the number of starry, highoctane<br />
revivals this show has had since<br />
1971, its stellar combination of both<br />
Imelda Staunton as Sally Durant Plummer<br />
t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g a z i n e • t h i s i s l o n d o n o n l i n e
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