{"id":4035,"date":"2017-11-09T18:40:55","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T18:40:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-08-25T14:34:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T14:34:00","slug":"follies-at-londons-national-theatre-all-the-middle-aged-crises-plus-lots-of-feathers-and-sequins-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laughfrodisiac.com\/2017\/11\/09\/follies-at-londons-national-theatre-all-the-middle-aged-crises-plus-lots-of-feathers-and-sequins-html\/","title":{"rendered":"“Follies” at London’s National Theatre: \u00a0All the Middle-Aged Crises Plus Lots of Feathers and Sequins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Woot it’s Theatre Thursday! Today’s review is of the Sondheim classic “Follies”, playing at London’s National Theatre until January 3.<\/em><\/p>\n

Every musical is supposed to teach you something or share some important life truth with you. At least that’s how I think about them. The lesson of “Follies” is that after you stop being a showgirl, life suuuuuucks and people suuuuuuck and you’ll never be happy again and you’ll just trudge through life counting time units in a deep dark depression. But with sequins!\u00a0\u200bThe new production of \u201cFollies\u201d at the National Theatre in London did what few productions of \u201cFollies\u201d are able to do: make me feel something besides boredom. Sure I felt a LOT of that \u2013 it\u2019s not my favorite musical \u2013 but I also got EMOTIONAL. At SEVERAL points. Okay those of you who know me are probably saying to their screens \u2018um you cry at car commercials tho\u2019 and yes that\u2019s true and valid but I don\u2019t mean I cried, I mean like, I felt for these supremely unlikable characters instead of hoping that they all go to the bad place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u200bRight off the bat, let me share the very worst thing about this production. I saw the 2011 Broadway Revival of Follies (which I\u2019m going to reference a lot because THAT CAST), and I don\u2019t remember getting a kidney infection afterwards, so I\u2019m going to guess that it was two acts with a 15 minute intermission LIKE NORMAL HUMANS DO. I have a great memory (with lists of the names of all who\u2019ve wronged me) (just kidding) (am I?) so if I don\u2019t remember being tortured, I assume an experience was nontorturous and that Broadway gave an intermission (New Yorkers drink their water). But this West End production apparently wants to render Brexit insignificant and stop anyone from wanting to enter the UK ever again because it HAS NO INTERMISSION BUT IT\u2019S OVER TWO HOURS LONG I MEAN I CAN\u2019T HOW YOU CAN POSSIBLY THINK THAT\u2019S A GOOD IDEA.<\/p>\n

You think I\u2019m done yelling but my neighbors can tell you that\u2019s simply not true.<\/p>\n

So you may have gathered by now that there\u2019s no intermission, despite other productions of the show being two acts, and though they say the run time is 2 hours 15 minutes, it was closer to 2 hours 25 minutes till I got to go to the bathroom again. But even so, two hours without intermission is usually unheard of! The average act is an hour anyway so like stick in an intermission ya jackwagons! If I could punch a show in the face, I would. I guess I could punch whoever\u2019s idea this was (it would not have messed up the narrative at all) but I don\u2019t like violence. Unless whoever\u2019s idea this was also happened to vote for Brexit, then we can talk. with fists.<\/p>\n

Okay, let\u2019s get back to the show itself. \u201cFollies\u201d is the beloved tragic musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman from 1971, about a bunch of old people who reunite at the NYC \u2018Ziegfeld Follies\u2019-type theatre where they once danced in the skimpiest yet sparkliest costumes with lots and lots of feathers on their heads, to say goodbye before it\u2019s torn down. It\u2019s thus a lot of reminiscing and the interpersonal drama that comes from a lifetime of memories, whether they\u2019re accurately remembered or fabricated by time. Sounds like it\u2019s for the \u201cBest Little Old Foreign Marigold Hotel\u201d crowd or whatever it\u2019s called minus whoever Dev Patel brings in, right? Right. Story: When we were about to leave for the theatre, it was suddenly wintry and I had to pull my winter coat out of storage \u2013 where it had been vacuum-packed with BOY coats which means it smelled like boys\u2019 college dorm floors. I know, horrid. I worried that it would smell so bad for whoever I\u2019d be sitting next to, and Husband said \u201cdon\u2019t worry they\u2019ll probably smell worse from overdosing perfume [get it we\u2019re making fun of old biddies]; it\u2019s that kind of show, right?\u201d \u201cActually,\u201d I said, \u201cit might be from the people onstage too.\u201d Get it because it\u2019s not only a show that attracts older audiences, it\u2019s also a show about and starring old ladies and they wear too much perfume. At least the very waspy ones do. We\u2019re mean I know but you know what\u2019s even worse? Wearing perfume.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unclear why the show art features David Bowie<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Now, going in, I knew that I don\u2019t loooove this show, but it\u2019s SONDHEIM. So I do love some of the music and what it achieves dramatically. \u201cToo Many Mornings\u201d is one of my all-times, probably because my mom always played the Mandy Patinkin version in the car when I was little and it was beyond. Actually it\u2019s so good I want you to listen to it here while you read the rest of this\u00a0<\/a>(it starts with the song \u201cPleasant Little Kingdom\u201d which was cut from the original production; \u201cToo Many Mornings\u201d as it\u2019s used in the show now starts at about the 2:00 mark but you know what just listen to the whole thing it\u2019s RG). And with a cast this stellar, I had to see what they did with it. That\u2019s why we bought tickets \u2013 Sally in this production is played by Imelda Staunton, my favorite Shakespearean maid from the \u201890s and now all of a sudden Britain\u2019s foremost musical theatre actress. Another London theatre ledge, Janie Dee, stars as the acerbic Phyllis, and another, Tracie Bennett (last seen on Broadway as Judy Garland) would have the supporting but often scene-stealing role of Carlotta, who sings the musical theatre standard \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d. Though there are plenty (too many) of other supporting characters who get their chance to shine (too many shines), it\u2019s mainly about a quartet of people \u2013 Sally, frumpy, depressed, and heartsick over a former love; Phyllis, cold and hardened to the world by what her life became; Ben, all-important, famous, unfulfilled and self-hating; and Buddy, the kind of guy who tells really dumb jokes to strangers and then shakes their hand while saying \u2018Buddy Plummer, glad to meet ya!\u2019 or some shit like that. Like I said, I saw it on Broadway about six years ago, and that cast was stellar too \u2013 Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein (my fave), Jayne Houdyshell, Mary Beth Peil, and the biggest draw for most people, Bernadette Peters as Sally. The cast was superb, but despite the parts working well, I didn\u2019t connect with the show as a whole back then. It left me cold, like something important was missing but is present now. Maybe it\u2019s the direction (pretty flawless here), maybe it\u2019s that the grasp of the intent of the material was undeniable, maybe it\u2019s the fact that I had to pee the whole time so I was on high alert, but I connected this time. I still don\u2019t love the show \u2013 it has some shitbits (not to be confused with Fitbits, which can also be shit) \u2013 but it worked so much better for me here.<\/p>\n

But not for the first 20 minutes or so. The opening is still mind-numbingly slow, as all the former Weisman girls arrive and marvel at how the theatre has changed and aged along with them. The National Theatre\u2019s enormous size helps here, because the old theatre set rotates so you\u2019re like ooh ahh and all the gorgeous showgirls of yesteryear prance about in their feathers and jewels. So \u201cFollies\u201d famously has the young versions of its core quartet onstage with their modern-day counterparts, showing what their history encompassed and what their relationships were really like back in the day. It enhances what we know about these connections and makes it all even sadder when you see how happy they once were. The rest of the ensemble comprises the young ghosts for all the other ladies too, but less conspicuously. In fact, I don\u2019t even remember that the other women had ghosts follow them around in past productions, but here they undeniably were, decked out in their former glittery costumes and headdresses and heels while observing what they\u2019ve become. But it was hard to miss here because it works so well. Some of the tiniest moments, not even front and center, that arose from this were the most moving in the show. Like as each lady arrives, her younger-self-ghost (I mean it\u2019s not a ghost it\u2019s a memory\u2026ghost) finds her and shadows her and stuff. The oldest lady sings her old operatic number from the show with the help of her younger self (whose voice is stronger and can hit the high notes still), which was a very nice touch although it was part of the really boring section that gives too much time to unnecessary characters. My favorite ensembleghost moment was right at the beginning when one heard her name realizing that her current self has arrived and she moves up through the crowd to start ghostin on her and sees that she is now dowdy and stout and her face FALLS. You weren\u2019t even supposed to be looking at that actress playing the younger self of this minor character and it was everything, so I hope whoever is in that ensemble track gets a cookie or something. So good.<\/p>\n

And then the characters we\u2019ve been waiting for arrive and at an applause break (the only time it\u2019s okay to make short whispers in a theatre) Husband said to me \u201cis that Imelda?!\u201d I thought he just couldn\u2019t figure out which one she was because she\u2019s sporting a superfrump makeover for this role but he later clarified that he didn\u2019t know she was in the show at all. Dude that\u2019s why we bought tickets! Anyway we meet Imelda\u2019s Sally, who is so damaged that she made me super uncomfortable, in an appropriate way. She talks too fast and talks over herself somehow and is clearly not in a good state of mind and you just want to shake her and be like take a breeeeath. She married Buddy, her sweetheart (actually they call the boys who wait for the girls after the show their \u2018stage door Jonny\u2019 I am crying) from during her time in the theatre, who became some sort of \u00a0overly friendly but kind of oily salesman while she raised their kids, kept house as they moved from place to place, and wasted lots of time thinking about her former love from the same time gasp Ben, who at the time was dating Sally\u2019s bff Phyllis and now those two are married. I knowww. So Sally married Buddy but is still in love with Ben, Buddy has a long-time affair with a woman who loves him but he still loves his wife even though he doesn\u2019t want to, Ben has affairs allatime and doesn\u2019t know what he wants or who he loves because he hates himself (\u2018you cannot share real love until you love yourself\u2019 \u2013Rent), and Phyllis has lost all sense of joy because she hates Ben and hates what they have become and pretty much hates everything except super chic clothes and killer putdowns. Phyllis is the type of person that sharp-edged girls would be like \u2018she\u2019s my hero\u2019 but she\u2019s supes broken so like pick a different hero.<\/p>\n

The whole first half hour or so is like a less fun version of the \u201cBeautiful Girls\u201d scene from \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d which is the most useless thing ever, so you get that I was eager for it to end. Finally it gave way to some good music and some intrigue, as we learn the intricacies of their relationships, both in the past and present. And then Carlotta (Tracie Bennett) gives the best performance of the big song \u201cI\u2019m Still Here\u201d, in which she shares how despite all the shit she\u2019s endured throughout her long career she still clawed her way through and is, in fact, still here and still doing her thang and until I see something top her in the next few months I\u2019m going to say that Tracie is going to win an Olivier for this. She was FLAAAAMES. I was so there with her. I LOVED how they changed up the usual staging of this number, from the usual plant-and-shout spotlight solo to having her begin seated, lounging, surrounded by seated ensemble members like she was a celebrity sharing stories with a group of adoring fans, and then having the ensemble disappear while she stood up and began to, well, plant and shout but it was amazeballs.<\/p>\n

Carlotta\u2019s fierce drive and determination to overcome whatever challenges she has faced in life contrasts with our main characters, who kind of flail about in misery and self-hatred. Especially Sally, who is really an extra sad sack in this one. She has a lot of lines about how she\u2019s going to kill herself and how she\u2019s going to die but for the first time I actually thought she might. Imelda is great as usual and made me feel sadder than ever for Sally – not because she can\u2019t be with the man she loves (or thinks she loves or fondly remembers loving) but because she can\u2019t snap out of it. Her duet of \u201cToo Many Mornings\u201d with Ben was not as enjoyable as I like it to be because her anxiety and discomfort made me uncomfortable, but that\u2019s a valid choice. I didn\u2019t like how she made some of the lines a little more comical than usual (her \u201cI should have worn green\u201d was like played for laughs but it\u2019s sad!) but still she conveyed the necessary lovelorn damage. Ben shocked me, because I\u2019m still not completely in on British theatre, so I didn\u2019t know that the actor, Philip Quast, was kind of a big deal. Guys, he won the Olivier for best actor in a musical three times. How did I not know about him? And not only three times, but for the three BEST male roles in classic musical theatre \u2013 George Seurat, Javert, and Emil de Becque. I know. If I were a cop I would be asked to turn in my gun and badge right now. But yeah he was wonderful, in strong booming voice, as all Bens should be, that hides that he\u2019s falling apart inside.<\/p>\n

Peter Forbes\u2019s Buddy was very good, but I am partial to Danny Burstein in all ways and I think his Buddy just can\u2019t be beat \u2013 it made you feel for him in more complex ways than just \u2018oh he\u2019s funny and cheerful but also an ass but we still want him to be happy.\u201d He made Buddy so real and damaged and lovable too, and while I didn\u2019t wish Peter\u2019s Buddy harm, I didn\u2019t really care about him. Husband thought he was great so I think I\u2019m just biased. Janie Dee\u2019s Phyllis was perfection, dropping one liners like Obama drops mics. Even though she didn\u2019t seem to be in good voice (a lot of breaking at times when it wouldn\u2019t be an acting choice), her \u201cCould I Leave You\u201d was, again, flames. It\u2019s a difficult song, as she\u2019s pretty much sarcastically shouting to Ben, making it seem like she couldn\u2019t leave him and their wonderful life but it\u2019s sarcastic and it\u2019s hard to sing sarcasm! But it was incredible.<\/p>\n

Even harder to do is Phyllis\u2019s \u201cThe Story of Lucy and Jessie\u201d, but that\u2019s because it\u2019s kind of annoying and the lyrics are amateur for Sondheim. It\u2019s a thinly veiled tale of how Phyllis and Sally always wanted what the other had and were jealous of each other but it has lyrics like \u2018Lucy is juicy and Jessie is dressy\u2019 erma gerd I feel like he wrote these lyrics on a dare and was like \u2018watch they\u2019ll still say it\u2019s all genius!\u2019 This song comes in the \u201cLoveland\u201d section of the show, which is always tricky. In Loveland, each of the four mains are forced to deal with what\u2019s plaguing them in a follies (like vaudeville) performance. Phyllis\u2019s, as above, is usually my least favorite and once you get the general concept of her song, they try to distract you with a big dance number. Janie did a great job dancing her ass off but I still feel blah about it. Buddy\u2019s folly was better, in which he explains in a super cheerful clownish manner how he has \u201cthose god-why-don\u2019t-you-love-me-oh-you-do-I\u2019ll-see-you-later blues\u201d. The lyrics in this one are so clever and they present Buddy\u2019s issues clearly, but after the first so-clever verse you\u2019re like okay I get it, he wants what he can\u2019t have and when he gets it he doesn\u2019t want it. Ben\u2019s and Sally\u2019s follies won the show for me, though. Sally sings the famous \u201cLosing My Mind\u201d and Imelda put to bed all those haters who say that she\u2019s not really so much of a singer. Her beautiful, heartbreaking rendition was what made me think to myself okay this is overall a great production. And Ben continued to surprise me with his \u201cLive, Laugh, Love\u201d, which was so perfectly done that his spiral and forgetting of the lyrics seemed real. The first break, I think a lot of the audience just thought he forgot the words and got frustrated (Husband did). That\u2019s incredible! Ugh so good. I hate the whole Loveland conceit in theory but it\u2019s always good once it gets started, especially if the actors follow through like these did.<\/p>\n

Will you leave the theatre joyous and uplifted after seeing this production (any production) of \u201cFollies\u201d? Fuck no. It\u2019s pretty much saying \u2018you\u2019ll never be as happy as you were in your youth and everything is terrible and then you\u2019re old and you missed your chance.\u2019 So not exactly a feel-good show. But this pretty flawless production will make you consider all the existential troubles of life that any good drama should leave you frantically worrying about. Plus sooo many feathers.<\/p>\n

INFO
\nThe Olivier Theatre at the National is a freaking barn so there’s really no bad seat. It’s so big that you can see no matter what. There are toilets in the hallways after your ticket is checked so that’s better than some of the theatres in this complex. There were several signs that any bags bigger than like a sheet of computer paper would have to be checked so I took my coat off and held it over my bag so no one would see and I wouldn’t have to comply with that noise. I like rules and regulations but not when they exist for no good reason.<\/p>\n

STAGE DOOR
\nDidn’t for several reasons – this complex is super confusing and it’s never worth it, and after seeing how mean these old ledges can be to each other I didn’t want them to yell at me for taking up their time ah so scary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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