Follies review: Elegant Sondheim classic returns to dazzle anew
Dominic Cooke’s shimmeringly elegant production of this cherished 1971 Stephen Sondheim musical was a big hit when it premiered at the National in 2017. It’s no surprise, then, that this opulent show with a cast of dozens should shimmy back for a second outing.
It’s now minus Imelda Staunton, who looked unusually ill-at-ease last time, but it’s still plus — and it’s a big plus — the evening’s standout performer, the high-kicking, acid-tongued Janie Dee.
There’s a star even bigger than Dee, however. It’s Vicki Mortimer’s gorgeous set of sumptuous decrepitude, which portrays a gone-to-seed Broadway theatre that is about to be turned into a parking lot.
For a shining time in the Thirties and Forties, this was the home of the legendary Weismann Follies, whose former showgirls have gathered for one final goodbye. Shadows and memories hover all around, not least in the case of the central quartet of characters, whose younger selves weave sinuously around the action, and look on in pained silence at the spectacle of two disintegrating marriages.
Bill Deamer’s stylish choreography is to be praised greatly, not least for the way it portrays overspilling pockets of action, present realities and past phantoms, as the party progresses.
Follies is a sophisticated, frustrating, centrifugal piece, capturing evanescent moments in time, rather than a dutiful plod of linear narrative. Two of the biggest numbers — Broadway Baby and I’m Still Here — are sung by peripheral characters; at least Joanna Riding’s impressively fragile Sally gets the third, Losing My Mind. Dee’s Phyllis is sparklingly brittle, overflowing with past dreams and missed opportunities.
Until May 11