Tony Tuesday: FOLLIES
In the early 1900s, the Ziegfeld Follies dominated Broadway with their theatrical revue productions. Their legacy inspired the entertainment industry during and after their peak and they have been represented in popular culture in no less than three Broadway musicals; The Drowsy Chaperone, Funny Girl, and, of course, Follies.
One of Stephen Sondheim’s best-known works, Follies has had three stints on Broadway, first opening in 1971. Alongside music and lyrics from Sondheim, the original creative team was made up of Harold Prince as director and producer, Michael Bennett choreographing, and the book written by James Goldman.
The 1972 Broadway production received mixed reviews, veering toward the negative with the New York Times dubbing it “an extravaganza that becomes tedious”. However, Follies took home seven of its eleven Tony Award nominations at the 26th Annual Tony Awards. Sondheim’s music and lyrics gave him his second win in the Best Original Score category, and the show also took home the awards for Best Choreography, Scenic Design, Costume Design, and Lighting Design, among others. It was the most nominated and celebrated production at the Tony’s in 1972. Interestingly, this year Sondheim had two musicals on Broadway eligible for Tony’s as the revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
With almost all of the characters in Follies being represented as their ‘now’ and ‘younger’ selves, the show has a large cast and with a lavish set and costumes, this is an expensive show to produce. Despite this, Follies has been performed in multiple productions across the U.S., having had runs in Los Angeles in 1972 and 2012, as well as regional productions and also across the globe in France, Spain, and London’s West End.
Follies has been revived on Broadway twice, in 2001 and 2011, landing Tony Award nominations for both productions, including Best Revival of a Musical. 2001 actors Blythe Danner and Polly Berge and, from 2011’s production, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines, Jan Maxwell, and Jayne Houdyshell were all nominated in performance categories at their respective Tony Awards years, but none succeeded to take home these awards. It was only the award for Best Costume Design for Gregg Barnes in 2011 that was won by either of these revivals.
Though the U.K. may lack the nostalgia for the Follies and Ziegfield Girls that could have benefited Follies’ popularity in the U.S., the show has been met with success in London across the years. The original West End production opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1987 with a cast including Julia McKenzie, Daniel Massey, Dame Diana Rigg, and David Healy. The musical was reworked for its West End opening with an added intermission and replacement songs written by Sondheim. Follies won the Olivier Award for Musical of the Year at the 1987 Awards, where Julia McKenzie was nominated in the Actress of the Year in a Musical category. Despite leaving the production during its run, McKenzie surprised audiences by reprising her role as Sally for the show’s final four performances before its closure in 1989.
Most recently the National Theatre revived Follies at its Olivier Theatre in 2017. For this production, the show returned to being presented in one act. In the cast were West End veterans Imelda Staunton, Janie Dee, Tracie Bennett, Philip Quast, and Peter Forbes, as well as Zizi Strallen. The National’s production of Follies was hugely celebrated with great critical acclaim, with ten Olivier Award nominations, winning Best Musical Revival and Best Costume Design. After closing in January 2018, Follies returned to the Olivier Theatre for a limited run in early 2019 with Joanna Riding and Alexander Hanson replacing Staunton and Quast.
Follies has not been performed in the U.S. in a significant production for over ten years now. The last production was the 2011 Kennedy Center and subsequent Broadway run where the cast included Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines, Elaine Paige, and Jan Maxwell. Could the passing of Stephen Sondheim create a new wave of Sondheim revivals in some form and could we see Follies returning to Broadway in the near future?
FACTS:
Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: James Goldman
Original Broadway Theatre: Winter Garden Theatre
Original Production Run: 4 April 1971 - 1 July 1972
TONYS:
Original Broadway production (1971):
NOMINATED: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical - James Goldman, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Dorothy Collins, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - Gene Nelson
WON: Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Alexis Smith, Best Original Score - Stephen Sondheim, Best Direction of a Musical - Harold Prince and Michael Bennett, Best Choreography - Michael Bennett, Best Scenic Design - Boris Aronson, Best Costume Design - Florence Klotz, Best Lighting Design - Tharon Musser
Broadway revival (2001):
NOMINATED: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Blythe Danner, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical - Polly Bergen, Best Costume Design - Theoni V. Aldredge, Best Orchestrations - Jonathan Tunick
Broadway revival (2011):
NOMINATED: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - Danny Burstein, Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - Ron Raines, Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Jan Maxwell, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical - Jayne Houdyshell, Best Lighting Design - Natasha Katz, Best Sound Design - Kai Harada
WON: Best Costume Design - Gregg Barnes