London Theater Review Part 2: Two Early Sondheim Musicals

Follies

Written by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Dominic Cooke

National Theater, London

February 26, 2019

Company

Written by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Marianne Elliott

Starring Rosalie Craig and Patti LuPone

Gielgud Theater, London

February 27, 2019

Seeing London productions of Stephen Sondheim’s (b. 1930) first two breakout plays from the early 1970’s on consecutive nights gave me a good perspective on how different and path breaking he was. These were perhaps the first two plays to truly break out of the musical-as-diversion stereotype, and show how the form could be used for societal critique (West Side Story, South Pacific, and Hair were earlier prototypes). Sondheim says that he wanted to turn the mirror back on the NY city upper-middle class couples who came to the theater to escape their lives, and instead show them their lives for their consideration. Both Company and Follies do so, but with varying success. Both received updated and stunningly good presentations this winter from British artists, and Company benefited from some gender swapping that really worked.

I think Follies (1971) is the better show overall. It’s a bit of a show-off piece for a composer who famous for writing lyrics (West Side Story, Gypsy), but whose music was mostly new to Broadway.  Follies is designed to allow him to write in virtually every musical theater form: waltz, torch song, soft shoe, blues, etc. The songs are uniformly catchy, sometimes profound, and always integrated with some of  the best lyrics ever written for Broadway. The concept of Follies is that a group of retired chorus girls from a between-the-wars follies show return for a reunion, just prior to the theater being torn down to make room for a 1970’s New York City parking lot. They reminisce, dish, cry, even dance and sing a bit. Throughout they are shadowed by the young versions of themselves, circulating around the ruined theater dressed in their original follies glitz. These doppelgangers are often described as ghosts, but in this excellent production they seemed more like young critical observers, mystified about how their older selves turned out. How could they become so cynical, so wounded? Some of the musical numbers are performed by the older actors alone or together, but sometimes the younger versions join in too, i.e. the wonderful “Mirror Number”, originally written in the 1920’s for the follies dancers to mirror their actions with each other onstage, but here transformed by Sondheim into a song and dance duet between the older and younger selves, mirroring youth and age. Like much of the show this number was alternately inspiring (these older actresses can still tap dance!) and nostalgic/touching (yes, but the younger ones do it better). Follies is mostly a show about aging, carried along by a main plot line involving two couples who, typical for Sondheim, are unhappily married. Sondheim loves plays on words (think of his lyrics for West Side Story), and here the title of the show is one…the show is about the Follies show, but also about the folly of marriage and relationships, and how people deceive themselves in both. At the end, there is a very clever synthesis of these themes. As the reunion breaks up and all start to leave, there is a sudden scene change. Away goes the broken down theater; elaborate pastel sets from the 1920s drop down, and we see a Vaudeville style song and dance number from each member of the unhappy couples, with each number labeled as a “Folly” (in both senses of the word) of that character. These include a torch song that was popular for a bit on the pop charts (“Losing my Mind”), a jazzy tap number, and a final soft-shoe number (“Live, Laugh, Love”) by the oblivious Ben, who denies any unhappiness and glibly wants to end his marriage. But he dissolves in tears at the end of his song, now realizing his unhappiness and fear. He realizes how his marriage, imperfect as it is, has kept him going. Typical of these early Sondheim musicals, there is no pat, happy ending. The couples leave to a feeling of uncertainty, and the ghosts leave the ruined theater. This was a pretty shocking way to end a musical in 1971, and many theatergoers still don’t care for the reality, cynicism, and societal critique. I find Follies bracing and stimulating, especially when executed so well as in this performance.

Company, written one year earlier, is largely a critique of marriage. Several upper middle-class married couples gather for “company” to have a birthday party for Bobby, a 30-something who is unmarried. They think he should be, even though their marriages are mostly terrible. This was Sondheim’s chance to skewer the lives of the New Yorkers he knew, a societal-critique approach to the musical which revolutionized the form. The structure of the play is a series of mostly non-connected episodes in which Bobby interacts with each couple, or with three different girlfriends. There is no real plot, and the musical ends ambiguously, with the conclusion that most people need “company” to get through life, but marriage may or may not be the way to do it. The weakness of the show, common to Sondheim, is that no one character is developed deeply enough to become really important to us. We relate to the play mostly as we see ourselves or a friend mirrored in one of the character sketches. Bobby, the central figure, is a vehicle for the play, but remains curiously vague as to motivations and feelings, despite plenty of stage time. The ending take on him is of ambivalence. So, as often in Sondheim, I left without a real emotional core feeling.

When I saw this show before, I found all the doting over a middle-aged guy a bit tiresome. That was creatively solved here by some gender flopping. Bobby became Bobbie, a 30ish woman. Sondheim (now approaching 90!) helped with rewrites, and the result was wonderful. For me, the woman going through this married-or-not angst was much more realistic for our era. We should remember that at the play’s debut in 1970, women had not yet entered the workplace in large numbers. So this update was excellent, aided by a terrific performance by Rosalie Craig, who presented a convincing version of an ambivalent character liking her independence, yet seeing a special someone (see her climactic song “Being Alive”). Bobby’s three girlfriends became three flawed guys, including a dim-but-sweet flight attendant and a nice-guy-that got away. But my favorite swap was that one couple became an about-to-be married gay couple, allowing the manically funny Jonathan Bailey, rather than a young female bride, to express pre-wedding panic in the patter song “Getting Married Today”. Here there are some small, choice lyric modifications to accommodate the gay theme, such as changing “go have lunch” to “go have brunch”. I love his hyperactive, over the top-yet-lovable performance very familiar to me from talking to lots of gay men. Another acting standout was famed musical star Patti LuPone, excellent as the hard-bitten, many-times married Joanne; her casting provided a nice historical connection to past Sondheim shows, where she has starred when she was younger (e.g. Sweeney Todd).

These tweaks, plus a number of changes in the dialogue to update the show, made this the best Company I have seen or heard. The set was a vibrant, moving collection of fluorescent lights to frame the individual scenes, and looked very much like the 1970s. The orchestra was placed on a platform above the stage—it’s always nice to see the instruments! I am still not convinced that the show is a great one, as it lacks a central emotional core and a real plot, but this production made an excellent case for it.