Follies in Concert (1985 - 85 min, 13 sec) started life as a Stephen Sondheim show, book by James Goldman, which allowed Sondheim to examine the relationship between modern musical theatre and some others strange nostalgic yearning for a past which probably never existed. The original show was staged in 1971, but a full recording of the show was never completed, therefore in 1985 it was decided to stage the show to perform and record the whole thing for posterity, although in reality, many changes were made, somewhat defeating the original intention.

The story concerns the closing of a theatre which used to put on Follies (a form of musical revue), but is now coming to the end of its life. Coming back for a reunion are two of the Follies dancing girls, with their respective partners, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Benjamin and Phyllis Rogers Stone. The show examines how the couples had made poor choices in their lives, including the fact that Sally is still in love with Ben, whilst her husband, now a travelling salesman, is having an affair of his own.

The show was staged at the Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Centre on the nights of both the 06 and 07 September 1985. The production has some notable talents from musical theatre including Mandy Patinkin (Buddy), Lee Remick (Phyllis), Barbara Cook (Sally) and George Hearn (Ben). Even the lessor parts attracted notable talent including Carol Burnett (Carlotta), Elaine Stritch (Emily) and Adolph Green (Theodore).

Unusually, for a Broadway show, the new staging also produced a film, although if you’re a fan of the show, you may be disappointed as the movie deals more with the work behind the scenes than it does with the actual musical numbers. It would seem that even Broadway shows are coming with extras and in the case of Follies you also get Sondheim’s score for the film Straisky (45 min, 32 sec). The track listing remains the same as the original two records set:

'Overture' (5:03), 'Beautiful Girls' (4:56), 'Don't Look at Me' (2:06), 'Waiting for the Girls Upstairs' (5:39), 'Rain on the Roof' (0:52), 'Ah, Paris!' (1:59), 'Broadway Baby' (3:54), 'The Road You Didn't Take' (2:51), 'In Buddy's Eyes' (2:58), 'Who's That Woman?' (5:23), 'I'm Still Here' (5:49), 'Too Many Mornings' (4:52), 'The Right Girl' (4:42), 'One More Kiss' (2:46), 'Could I Leave You?' (3:03), 'Loveland' (2:48), 'You're Gonna Love Tomorrow / Love Will See Us Through' (4:50), 'Buddy's Blues' (4:00), 'Losing My Mind' (4:17), 'The Story of Lucy and Jessie' (2:46), 'Live, Laugh, Love' (4:43) and 'Finale: Waiting for the Girls Upstairs / Beautiful Girls' (reprise) (4:44).

As the show is from the iconic Sondheim, there are a lot of strong songs in the show, including a classic standard ‘Losing my Mind’, although my own feeling is that it is not, generally, as good as some of his other shows. Indeed, the show continues to split critics, some believing it to be a great piece others only that it gets its success from its cult status. Although the somewhat negative stance is supported by the fact that the original run was a financial failure, it remains true that some of Sondheim’s worst is still better than many other composers’ best and the recording does have Mandy Patinkin in, a certain guilty pleasure of mine.

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Charles Packer