Follies

Last night, we had a date and went to see Follies at the Kennedy Center. This was the first of several shows that we have tickets for this summer.

Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Goldman. The musical is set during a reunion of the Weismann's Follies performers in their old, crumbling theater, which is set for demolition. The story focuses on two couples, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Ben and Phyllis Rogers Stone, both of whom are bitterly unhappy in their marriages.

Many of the former show girls perform their old routines, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of their former selves. The ghosts or memories of the past are frequently on stage and drift through the action, often mirroring the action in present day. The show ends with a dreamlike sequence in the style of the old Ziegfeld Follies, in which each of the four principle characters act out their own follies.

I was not very familiar with this show before going, but as a general rule, I love Sondheim's work and this show did not disappoint. The cast includes the always lovely Bernadette Peters as Sally, Jan Maxwell (Phyliis), Danny Burstein (Buddy), Ron Raines (Ben), Linda Lavin as Hattie and Elaine Paige (Carlotta). The show runs through June 19th.