A Broadway Baby is Born: Review, Saturday Night

Everyone cringes at their baby pictures, even geniuses.

While West Side Story marked Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway debut, loyal devotees of the composer are quick to remember Saturday Night.  It was “the show” that was to have been Sondheim’s theatrical introduction to the world as a composer/lyricist.  However, due to an untimely death, Saturday Night would remain on the shelves for more than four decades.  Luckily for DC theatergoers, Signature Theater was there to re-introduce the show 56 years after it’s scheduled Broadway opening.

Saturday Night is about a group of young men trying to find dates on the eve of the Great Depression.  It is based on the play Front Porch In Flatbush by Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein.  The Epstein’s were an accomplished writing team, having won an Oscar in 1944 for the screenplay of Casablanca.   Broadway Producer Lemuel Ayers had commissioned Julius Epstein to write the book for a musical based on the play. 

Ayers had approached other composers to write Saturday Night before finally asking Sondheim.  Once Sondheim accepted, the show was scheduled for the 1954-55 Broadway season and a formal announcement was made in The New York Times.  During pre-production Ayers died rather suddenly and Saturday Night was put on the shelf.  In 1997, the show was rediscovered and, with Sondheim’s permission, finally received a staging in the United Kingdom.  The show has since been performed in the United States, but a Broadway production has never materialized.

On October 29 – 30, 2011, Signature Theater, DC’s leading regional theatrical authority on all things Sondheim, produced a four performance concert version of the show.  What “concert version” means is that the show is staged, however the sets are minimal and the choreography is almost non-existent. The purpose of the performance is to focus on music and lyrics.  Fortunately for Signature Theater, this is where they excel when it comes to all things Sondheim.

As a score, Saturday Night is reminiscent of musicals from the early 1950’s, which is only fitting given when the show was originally commissioned.  The romantic leads end up together and all of  life’s problems are solved in two acts.  Nonetheless, two features distinguish Saturday Night from other musicals of the era: lyrics and the lack of a chorus.  Both foreshadow Sondheim’s career as a theatrical innovator, while remaining true to the art form he loves most.

The lyrics for Saturday Night are exquisite and greatly enhance the audiences’ ability to understand the character’s emotions/motives.  The best example of this is the Act I song “Class” sung by the main character Gene.  Ever scheming, and longing to be wealthy, Gene explains how the poor can appear rich by simply re-titling everyday items:

This is why

A room is a “flat.”

You don’t say “tie,”

You call it “cravat.”

Say you drink from a “tumbler,”

Instead of a glass.

That’s the mark of someone who has

What I call “Class.”

The lyrics aid in the development of the characters, which is extremely important in the case of Saturday Night.  The show features no chorus, which means that each character on-stage must have a distinct personality.  Historically a chorus, is used to provide commentary, analysis or setting for the action(s) of the leading characters.  For Saturday Night, the characters are now providing the necessary narration since a chorus is non-existent.  Hence the importance of well-crafted lyrics.

Signature Theater must be complimented for yet another fantastic staging of a Sondheim show.  It provided a brief insight into the early career of America’s greatest composer.  The ironic part of the evening is that Sondheim isn’t particularly fond of Saturday Night’s lyrics saying, “There are some things that embarrass me so much in the lyrics — the missed accents, the obvious jokes.”  Interesting, because of the all the audience commentary heard after the show, no one mentioned any of these imperfections.  Sondheim goes on to say, “But I decided, Leave it. It’s my baby pictures. You don’t touch up a baby picture — you’re a baby!” 

Yes, they are Sondheim’s baby pictures, pictures from when a Broadway Baby was born.

I Should Not Be Here

I kept thinking, “I should not be here,” as the escalator ascended towards the Marquis Theater.  This was the show that no one ever thought would be revived and yet here I am.  40 years after its Broadway opening, featuring the most talented ensemble I’ve ever seen on one-stage, Follies was finally getting a production and its due as one of the greatest musicals ever written.

If you read this blog regularly, or follow me on Twitter, it’s obvious: I’ve been obsessed with this show.   From its summer tryout at the Kennedy Center to its Broadway opening, following Follies journey has been incredible to watch.  For me, it was particularly thrilling to watch firsthand as the show changed and evolved.  Even more exhilarating was to see the naysayers proven wrong and to say that yes, Follies could be successfully revived.

Sondheim fans, theater geeks and Follies groupies, oh yes they exist, had a plethora of reasons as to why this show could never work on Broadway again.  The plot was too complex, no revival could ever top the opulence of the original Broadway production, the cast/orchestra size required guaranteed that the show wouldn’t be profitable and the reasons go on and on.  Basically, in today’s cost conscious climate, the consensus was that no theater producer would take a chance on such a risky property.

And yet, last May the Kennedy Center opened a new production of Follies to warm reviews.  The revival had its flaws, but it didn’t matter.  In a theatrical world of prefabricated jukebox/movie inspired musicals, Follies was refreshingly different.  It featured genuine theater stars commanding the stage, a non-synthesized orchestra playing Sondheim’s most brilliant score and intelligently written characters who wrestle with the universal theme of the past.  Follies is what great musicals once were, and hopefully, can be again.

Even though several roles were miscast, the choreography was amateurish, and the first act progressed slowly, I was thrilled when Follies announced its Broadway transfer.  Now was the time for the show to prove itself and answer the questions being asked?  “Could the Follies creative team fix these problems,” and, “How the Broadway community would react to a show long defined by its past rather than by its future.”  Having last seen the show in mid-May at the Kennedy Center, I was anxiously awaiting to see what changes had been made.

Overall, the cast seemed more cohesive, the leads had further developed their roles, the new cast members were all brilliant additions and the choreography showed more thought.  Follies takes place at a reunion of showgirls and so it was terrific watching the actors purposely “forget” the choreography in several numbers.  This showed that great attention had been paid to the plot and that it would only be natural for the characters to forget some of their old moves.   It was just one detail of many that makes this production soar.

Even if you’re not a theater aficionado, go see Follies because this production is really something special.  It is the equivalent of seeing a great athlete in their prime or traveling to that hidden gem just before it becomes the next big thing.  The changes made during the Kennedy Center to Broadway transfer reflect a creative team that was honest with themselves about the challenges of staging Follies, while also refusing to be beholden to the past.  In her first solo, the character of Sally sings, “I’m SO glad I came,” and yes I thought, SO am I.

For more information on Follies please check out:

Follies 2011 Broadway Revival Website: http://folliesbroadway.com/

The Follies of My Ghost by MarqueePolitics

Everything Was Posssible: The Birth of the Musical Follies by Ted Chapin.  Available on line at Amazon.com

The Follies of My Ghost

Every week I walk past the White House.  It’s not on purpose, just usually en route to some event.  However, every time I walk by, I’m poised to stop and think.  I worked at the White House for the final 18 months of the Bush administration.  It was, and remains, my dream job. Yet, whenever I stop to look I swear I can almost see the ghost of a junior staffer from Pittsburgh, coasting through the halls in his Macy’s suit, Van Heusen shirt, and black DKNY tie, wide-eyed with wonder and amazement.

Our memories of the past are ever present and in a slightly cynical way dictate our future.  Perhaps there is no greater illustration of this than in the Kennedy Center’s hauntingly beautiful, Broadway bound, revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman musical Follies.  The show is both an homage to a long gone era in American theater and a cautionary tale about the effects of not making peace with one’s past.

Follies is about a group of Ziegfeld-esq showgirls who reunite at their old theater on the eve of its demolition.  It focuses on two former follies girls, Sally and Phyllis, their husbands, Buddy and Ben, and each couple’s crumbling marriage.  At the reunion they are joined by former costars, old stagehands and ghosts symbolizing the memories of their youth.  For many characters, their return to the theater is an attempt to rectify, relive or revisit the past.

What makes this production of Follies so powerful is the overwhelming reminder that ghosts, or the memories of our past, are ever present.  From the first note of Sondheim’s epic overture, the ghosts, dressed in the costumes of yester-year, aimlessly wonder the stage.  In the Act I showstopper, “Who’s that Woman?” the women reenact an old follies number.  As they dance, their every move is mimicked, literally, as if in a mirror, by the ghosts of themselves from 30 years ago.  The scene is an unbelievable expression of just how deep each character’s memory is embodied in their soul.

Ben(Ron Raines) and Sally(Bernadette Peters) dancing with the memory of lost love. Remembering an affair 30 years in the past.

In the second act, the two couples confront their ghosts and are almost startled when they fail to receive a response.  It serves as another reminder that memories, however alive in our minds, are just that, only alive in our minds. The emotional toll memory can take on one’s self, is underscored in the character of Sally, wonderfully portrayed by Bernadette Peters.  Sally attends the reunion hoping to find happiness by rekindling an old love affair.  Her second act solo, “Losing My Mind”, sears the audience’s soul in watching Sally’s attempt to bring herself closure to an event that occurred in the past.

Follies is a tough show to stage for numerous reasons and any revival becomes a major theatrical “Event.”  The show often sells out in advance, and fans of the show will follow it anywhere.  The irony of it all is that for a show about memory, many critics, and fans alike, say that no production will ever top the grandeur of the glorious 1971 original Broadway company.  It’s an unthinkable statement considering how Follies is about moving beyond the past.

What makes Follies compelling is its honesty in showing how crippling the past can be in our attempt to live in the present.  Everyone is guilty of living in the past.  We lament over lost lovers, ambitions, dreams, and hopes, and that is the common link shared between the characters on-stage and the audience.   It is also that connection which makes live theater so powerful, and allows Follies to take its place in the pantheon of great American dramatic works.  The Kennedy Center should be commended not only for producing a fantastic revival of a Sondheim classic, but for also not get bogged down in trying to replicate previous productions of Follies.

Watching Follies I empathized with the characters who view the reunion as one last chance to relive their dream.  Anyone who has ever lost their dream, understands the feeling of pain associated with it.  Walking past the White House, there was time when I was bitter that my dream only last 18 short months.  Every time I walked by the White House, I was haunted by that ghost.

However, the great lesson of Follies is not about loss, but of survival.  One of  Follies signature anthems, “I’m Still Here,” embodies this message.  It’s sung by the character of Carlotta, portrayed in the Kennedy Center’s revival by Elaine Paige.  Carlotta is a movie star who has bounced from theater, radio, burlesque, film and television.  All while having been poor, rich, in love and out of love.  And yet, she doesn’t resent anything or anyone.  For her, life is about surviving and living to dream another day.

I’d like to think that out of all the characters in Follies I’m the most like Carlotta: a survivor, someone who will continue to both dream and accomplish.  Our memories, our ghosts, will be ever present and assert their presence at certain moments in life.  Whether it’s at a reunion of follies girls or walking by the White House, the ghost of that junior staffer will always be apart of me.