NewsPHOTO RECAP: Star-Studded Follies Opens at Broadway's Marquis Theatre; Arrivals, Curtain Call and PartyThe critically acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Follies played its final performance at the Marquis Theatre Jan. 22, 2012. We look back at the show's opening night on Sept. 12, 2011.
By
Matthew Blank
January 22, 2013
Upon closing, the Broadway production played 38 previews 151 regular performances.
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Star-Studded Follies Opens at Broadway's Marquis Theatre; Arrivals, Curtain Call and Party
Eric Schaeffer directs and Warren Carlyle choreographs a cast headed by two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters as Sally Durant Plummer, four-time Tony nominee Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, two-time Tony nominee Danny Burstein as Buddy Plummer, three-time Emmy Award nominee Ron Raines as Benjamin Stone and Olivier Award winner Elaine Paige as Carlotta Campion.
James Moore serves as music director and conducts the 28-piece orchestra. Jonathan Tunick’s original orchestrations are being employed for the production.
Follies was originally co-directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett on Broadway in 1971. Since then, it has received a legendary star-filled concert at Lincoln Center in 1985 (preserved on recording), a Roundabout revival on Broadway directed by Matthew Warchus in 2001 (not recorded), a City Center Encores! production in 2007 (not recorded) and numerous regional mountings, including a Paper Mill Playhouse engagement that featured Donna McKechnie and the late Ann Miller (preserved on a cast album). The original cast recording and a London cast recording that includes songs written for that run are also on the market.
PS Classics, the label dedicated to the heritage of Broadway and American popular song, released the new two-disc set Broadway cast album of Follies Nov. 29. To purchase the recording, click here.
Follies concerns a group of former "Follies" stars who return to the site of their former glory, the Weismann Theatre, which is about to be demolished. Old wounds resurface as two Follies stars (Phyllis and Sally) and their husbands (Benjamin and Buddy) reassess their lives and what could have been.
Among the show's songs are "Beautiful Girls," "Don't Look at Me," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs," "Rain on the Roof," "Ah, Paris!," "Broadway Baby," "The Road You Didn't Take," "In Buddy's Eyes," "Who's That Woman?," "I'm Still Here," "Too Many Mornings," "The Right Girl," "One More Kiss," "Could I Leave You?," "Loveland," "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow," "Love Will See Us Through," "The God-Why-Don't-You-Love-Me Blues," "Losing My Mind," "The Story of Lucie and Jessie" and "Live, Laugh, Love."