"HAT'S OFF, HERE THEY COME THOSE.. BEAUTIFUL GIRLS"

It can only be the Stephen Sondheim musical FOLLIES which I saw on Tuesday night with Owen and Angela, the third production I have seen of this landmark musical.

I couldn't believe my ogles a few weeks back when I saw that this most lavish and cast-heavy show was going to be staged at the Landor Pub Theatre in Clapham... like how? The usual argument made for the non-staging of FOLLIES is the cost would be too prohibitive... and it's going to be staged over a pub?? After the Menier's excellent small-scale SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE which transferred to the West End and John Doyle's infuriating but very successful SWEENEY TODD I guess the artistic directors of small-scale venues have been eyeing up other Sondheim shows with a view to seeing how they can get a piece of the action. Enter Robert McWhir and his seemingly off-the-wall idea of doing this epic show in his theatre space.

However he has obviously studied the show and what is it really? A party on the stage of a derelict theatre for the former showgirls and featured acts from the Follies staged by Dimitri Weissman between the wars the night before the theatre is to be demolished. Surely you don't need a huge space for this... the only demands for a full stage are in the second act when the two couples whose fragile marriages come close to imploding at the party spin off into a fantasy version of the Follies and each of the four protagonists 'star' in a number which explains their predicament in song. This hurdle is overcome by making the four numbers front-cloth numbers as they probably would have been anyway.

The space is cleverly used, the first row of seats is broken up with tables where some of the cast sit during the show thus taking the audience directly into the action. The Beautiful Girls number which usually features the former showgirls descending a huge staircase is cleverly done with a spotlight picking out the women in the throng after which they form a line-up on stage. There is also a clever use of b/w filmed sequences to show some of them as they looked when they performed the number originally.

As the old troupers reminisce about the old days and reprise their old routines, married couples Sally & Buddy and Phyllis & Ben are shadowed by ghosts of their younger selves, when they were dating and the promise of happy ever after was in the air. However even this is a fiction... Sally and Ben had an affair behind the backs of their fiancees but ultimately Ben rejected her for Phyllis. Sally has nurtured a love for Ben all through the years which has affected her marriage to Buddy who, despite a young mistress, still loves his maddening wife. Phyllis and Ben are similarly at breaking point in their marriage, Ben not able to shake the feeling that his success in politics and writing is built on sand and Phyllis hates herself for turning into a frosty bitch because of his emotional neglect.

 
It's hard to imagine four more negative people to ask the audience to care for but you do primarily through Sondheim's score which gives song to their pent-up fears and desires. None more so than Sally - played here by Claire Moore - who gets to sing three of his most yearningly romantic songs IN BUDDY'S EYES, TOO MANY MORNINGS and the classic LOSING MY MIND. A great song by any standard, when seen in the context of the show it's even more poignant as you know the character really is lost in a delusion. Phyllis is played by Sarah Payne who rather undersells her big number COULD I LEAVE YOU? but gives an excellent performance as the becalmed wife of a successful man who can't see her own pain for his own. Their respective husbands Buddy and Ben are played well by Bryan Kennedy and Leo Andrew.

The former showgirls are mostly played by musical theatre stalwarts of the 1970s and 80s, the standouts being Rachel Izen's swaggering BROADWAY BABY, Carol Ball's WHO'S THAT WOMAN? and Roni Page's ONE MORE KISS. Adele Anderson, erstwhile Fascinating Aida member, plays Carlotta, the showgirl who became a film star, with great style and paces her big number I'M STILL HERE admirably.

I had a great time afterwards too when in the bar Angela collared Rachel Izen who amazingly remembered me from 1982/3 as a front-row regular at the National Theatre's GUYS AND DOLLS. It was great to hear her thoughts on the production and to catch up with Carol Ball whose Drury Lane dressing room during her lengthy run in 42ND STREET in the 1980s was a frequent home-from-home!