While on a mini-vacation to Washington D.C. last weekend with my wife I attended two theatre events that are worth mentioning.
The first one was the long awaited Kennedy Center production of the great James Goldman/ Stephen Sondheim musical "FOLLIES" and even in this in and out and unevenly cast production it is still [in my opinion anyway] one of the best musicals to emerge in the 1970s with one of the decades best scores, possibly surpassed only by Mr. Sondheim's late 70s masterpiece "Sweeney Todd".
Forget about the fact that I saw [and loved] the original 1971 production and I was at the legendary 1986 concert reading at Lincoln Center. Both were perfectly cast and and staged and were exroadanary theatre evenings so I was willing to judge this production on it's own terms, but the somewhat uneven casting[ of the four leads only Jan Maxwell seemed well suited to her role] and spotty stage direction by Eric Schaeffer cast a pall over the procedings that [for me anyway]never went away. Even the sets by Derek McLane and the costumes by Gregg Barnes were lacking in mood and style.
Is there anything good? Well Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations and John Berkman's dance music arrangements are as fresh and vibriant as ever and they are played by a good pit orchestra conducted by James Moore.
While it is true that " FOLLIES" was never a flawless show [the book has problems of structure and seems to sometimes get out of hand] the music and lyrics are beyond great and even in this underpowered production it is worth seeing.
The second show we saw was a delightful production of the 1975 revue "SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM"produced by the excellent Signature Theatre in Arlington Virginia and performed by an excellent cast of three performers and two musicians. This was a lighthearted look at Sondheim's work thru the1970s[ ending right before"Sweeney Todd"] and was performed by three very talented singers Sherri L. Edelen, Matthew Scott, and especially Nancy Anderson who has a smile and personality that are irresistable.
For those that are interested, "SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM" runs thru June 12th and 'FOLLIES" is on thru June 19th.
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It would appear that you took a mini Sondheim vacation. It would further appear that even a flawed "Follies" is worthy of one's attention. Also, for one like myself who has seen "Side By Side...", it is difficult to do a bad production of this crowd pleaser.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to see you back in print Jeff, or should I say Mr. Broadway?