TV: Inside the FOLLIES Opening Night Celebration!

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Performances began on Sunday, August 7th for James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES, directed by Eric Schaeffer, with choreography by Warren Carlyle and music direction by James Moore. With a 28-piece orchestra, FOLLIES features a cast of 41 and stars two-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters as Sally Durant Plummer, four-time Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell as Phyllis Rogers Stone, two-time Tony Award 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. Broadway Beat was on hand for the entire celebratory evening and brings you interviews with the cast and creative team below! Be sure to check back next week for the next installment of Backstage with Richard Ridge featuring a candid in-depth talk with the legendary Elaine Paige!

The production also stars Don Correia as Theodore Whitman, Christian Delcroix as Young Buddy, Grammy & Emmy Award winner Rosalind Elias as Heidi Schiller, Colleen Fitzpatrick as Dee Dee West, Lora Lee Gayer as Young Sally, Michael Hayes as Roscoe, Leah Horowitz as Young Heidi, Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell as Hattie Walker, Florence Lacey as Sandra Crane, Tony Award nominee Mary Beth Peil as Solange LaFitte, David Sabin as Dimitri Weismann, Kirsten Scott as Young Phyllis, Frederick Strother as Max Deems, Nick Verina as Young Ben, Tony Award nominee Susan Watson as Emily Whitman and Terri White as Stella Deems.

Rounding out the ensemble are Lawrence Alexander, Brandon Bieber, John Carroll, Mathew deGuzman, Sara Edwards, Leslie Donna Flesner, Jenifer Foote, Suzanne Hylenski, Danielle Jordan,Amanda Kloots-Larsen, Joseph Kolinski, Brittany Marcin, Erin N. Moore, Pamela Otterson, Clifton Samuels, Kiira Schmidt, Brian Shepard, Jessica Sheridan, Amos Wolff, Ashley Yeater.

FOLLIES features scenic design by Derek McLane, costume design by Gregg Barnes, lighting design by Natasha Katz, sound design by Kai Harada, and the original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. FOLLIES - featuring a book by James Goldman and a score by Stephen Sondheim - was originally produced on Broadway by Harold Prince with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick. It opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for 522 performances and received seven Tony Awards, including Best Original Score. FOLLIES played a limited engagement at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater opening on May 7 and closing with sold-out houses on June 19, 2011.