FOLLIES

A few people have asked me recently what I've seen lately that I really loved, and I was sort of sad to realize that I was having a really hard time answering. born bad, Unnatural Acts, The Shaggs musical, By the Way Meet Vera Stark...most of the really good things I've seen over the past months have closed, and I can only recommend Sleep No More and The Book of Mormon so many times. Happily, I can now add another big, dark, gleaming musical to the list. It took a second viewing to feel like I really got it, but I now have no qualms about saying that the new production of Follies, recently moved from DC's Kennedy Center to Broadway's Marquis theater, is a magnificent thing.

What helped me make my decision? First, the space itself. I may not be a huge fan of the Marquis, but compared to the cavernous Kennedy Center, it feels like the show has been brought down to life sized and makes much more sense playing in an actual Broadway theater. Set in a theater about to be razed in the 1970s (ironic to now be playing the Marquis--look it up), the walls and ceilings are hung with drop cloths, a decaying proscenium arch is over the stage, and the stage floor itself looks warped and worn. As a tattered curtain raises during the overture, the "ghosts" of Follies performers past are revealed in glittering black and white costumes, draped across the stage, harkening back to a time gone by.

The interplay between the ghosts of the characters pasts and the older, regretful people they become is the heart of the show. At its core, two couples in differently destructive marriages meet again at a reunion and over the course of the evening are forced to confront the choices they've made as they look back at a time when anything was possible. When I first saw it, I thought the humongous cast of other characters that trotted out old numbers were scattered throughout for context and color, but a second viewing revealed how carefully constructed the show really is--the entire reunion, the entire concept of a reunion, is about looking back and contrasting then with now, who we were with who we've become. It's not a show about the fear of aging; it's about the realization of the facts of aging and the resultant (inevitable?) regrets. The joy with which some characters look back, at peace with who they've become, not only presents an alternative to the core four, it highlights just how terribly sad their regrets are. This service is highlighted when, late in the show, each of the main four gets a big Follies-style number. Until this point, the rest of the cast has handled the big face-forward-and-sing moments, with our leads having more conversational, in the moment songs. So allowing them to turn to the audience and perform to us, almost pleading with us, has a heightened resonance. Because even in these old-style songs, they can never truly put who they are behind them and just be.

The cast is stupidly fantastic. Jayne Houdyshell has the unenviable task of replacing Linda Lavin as Hattie whose "Broadway Baby" I called one of the highlights of the year. Lavin played Hattie as a sexy temptress with a sense of humor. Houdyshell cranks the humor up a few notches and replaces flirtation with a go-for-broke gusto that is fucking brilliant. This is a woman who will rip the applause from your hands, and in one song and a handful of lines manages a fully realized character that would completely steal the show if she weren't in such fierce company.

Mary Beth Peil has the less troubling task of replacing Regine as Solange LaFitte. Regine bumbled through the role so bizarrely that I hardly noticed her. Peil makes her an aging sexpot with a delicious sense of entitlement and a pretty fantastic sense of humor. Her French accent may not be terribly convincing, but it kind of fits...nothing about Solange seems terribly real.

I already spoke last time about my enormous appreciation of Terri White and the magic she does with "Who's That Woman?" and of Rosalind Elias's soaring voice in "One More Kiss." But I complained about Elaine Paige's oddball take on "I'm Still Here." Lemme just take that back. She's dropped the sex kitten flirtation, opened a vein of anger, and now rips into the song (the show's most famous?) without looking back. Her delivery is unlike any other version I've heard, but what was once uncomfortably odd is now fascinatingly unexpected. It may not end an act, but I'd be shocked if she doesn't start getting standing ovations for this--at least on opening and closing nights, but probably more often as well.

The one question mark I'm left with (theater gods forgive me) is that goddess of the stage, Bernadette Peters. Her Sally is so weepy and maybe just a little too actually crazy. It's a committed performance, and her vocals are (duh) breathtaking, but there are lines in the book that just don't seem to jibe with who we're seeing. This is a woman who calls her sons up just to fight with them when she's lonely. We're told she argues with everyone she knows. When other characters talk about her, she sounds a little bipolar, but the woman we see seems merely depressed. Horribly, terribly depressed, yes, but she seems not to have the fight in her that we're told to expect. It seems like there's room for a little more variation, at least early in the play--places that we can see her steely determination so that when she breaks (and oh, does she break), we see more of what was at stake for her in this reunion. A little more determined than deluded, perhaps. Of course, opening night isn't for another month, so it's quite possible that's something she'll further explore. And I don't want to sound like I didn't enjoy her performance. She's actually great. It's just that everyone else on stage is even better than great. One more caveat: she does have the biggest and toughest role to play. With time, she'll likely nail it out of the park.

And that's a testament to how tight this production is. It feels more harmonious than when I saw it in DC. The choreography has been sharpened (and in one case adjusted to better show off Jan Maxwell--still devastating as Phyllis), the costumes adjusted to better fit some of the characters' personalities and backgrounds, and the scale of the show brought to slightly more human size. I'm seeing it again on opening night (a few tickets are on sale on Ticketmaster!). This one's gonna suck up a bunch of my time and money, and you know what? I can't fucking wait.