The witheringly droll and elegant Phyllis (Ms. Maxwell) is married to Benjamin Stone (Mr. Raines), a celebrated Manhattan executive, while Sally (Ms. Peters) has settled down in the Midwest with Buddy Durant (Mr. Burstein), a salesman.
Since when is Phoenix, AZ, "the Midwest"?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
"Peters, who knows her way around a Sondheim score, is wonderful as the pining, overweight housewife Sally — she manages to hide her knock-out figure in Act I"
wtf? It's not like she's wearing a fat suit...and her figure was still pretty knock-out to me...did they change something since the first preview?? Not seeing it again till next week.
THRILLED about the Brantley RAVE. SO beyond thrilled.
"I chose and my world was shaken--so what? The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not. You have to move on"
First of all, he begins by quoting "One More Kiss"--we do like reviewers well versed enough in the show to quote the more obscure lyric. And look for his "fantastical folies a quatre"...very nice turn of phrase that, no?
It's a shame that Bernie's performance didn't get stronger reviews...we all knew they would love Maxwell and Burstein, but her performance is so nuanced and wonderful. It was really incredible in DC, though not as wonderful as Maxwell.
Still, I say all this but I can't complain. I am also thrilled for Raines whose reviews seem very positive (though mostly brief) overall - he has been a staple of regional theatres and opera companies for a long time and it's nice to see him get recognition here.
Follies offers a smart definition of success - "being good at what you love to do," says one character. It can't offer one for happiness, so it asks, profoundly: Who, out there, is happy?
"...and Burstein proves, to anyone who didn't know it already, that he's one of our great stage performers.... He's a great gift, an honest musical-theatre actor, and a Sondheim natural. Also? Whatever pieces of your heart are left after Bernadette's through, Burnstein will grind to powder for you." Bravo!
(no, it was me, see below)
Updated On: 9/12/11 at 11:22 PM