roles. Billy Boyle and Norma Atallah are absolutely charming as the Whitmans, and their “Rain on the Roof” is a delight. Geraldine Fitzgerald is a drily funny Solange. Di Botcher cannily underplays “Broadway Baby”, so that a song that these days can seem like a cliché feels absolutely fresh. They get to do the trio ending combining their three numbers, and it’s a showstopper. Bruce Graham is a golden-voiced Roscoe, and Gary Raymond is a fascinatingly haunted/haunting Dmitri Weismann. As Stella Deems, Dawn Hope sings the hell out of “Who’s That Woman?”, the memorable tap number in which the ex-chorus girls literally dance with their younger selves. The score is an embarrassment of riches, but so is this cast. As fading soprano Heidi Schiller, Josephine Barstow is simply beautiful. “One More Kiss”, a mockViennese waltz with a sting in the lyric, is the score’s loveliest song; as sung by
The young Sally (Alex Young), Phyllis (Zizi Strallen), Buddy (Fred Haig) and Ben (Adam Rhys-Charles).
“Who’s that woman?” The aging Weismann Girls retread their steps in Bill Deamer’s choreography: DeeDee (Liz Izen), Carlotta (Tracie Bennett), Sally (Imelda Staunton), Stella (Dawn Hope), Phyllis (Janie Dee), Christine (Julie Armstrong) and Sandra (Gemma Page).
Johan Persson
He understands the rhythm of the dialogue as well, and that’s something that also appears to have eluded some directors. Goldman’s script starts out looking naturalistic, at least if you look past the ghosts, but it really isn’t. These are emblems rather than fully fleshed-out characters – remember, the whole show is a metaphor – and that’s a deliberate choice. The characters are simultaneously slightly larger-than-life and slightly less than three-dimensional, and there’s a surreal, arch theatricality to the dialogue that can feel painfully stilted if the actors don’t catch the correct rhythm. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Restoration comedy, only with a darker edge, and it requires the same kind of discipline. Cooke makes it make perfect sense; in this production, the dialogue crackles with electricity and the pace never lets up. Dark as the material becomes, though, the delivery in this production stays just the right side of being too arch; there are laughs too – though not in the last ten to fifteen minutes – and they’re all present and correct, and again that isn’t an easy thing to achieve in material as ostensibly bleak as this. And those ghosts are everywhere. There’s a ghostly entrance parade (way) upstage behind the older women during “Beautiful Girls”, the Whitmans dance with their younger selves in “Rain on the Roof”, Carlotta’s ghost looks down on her as she sings “I’m Still Here”. It sounds like embellishment, but it’s a choice that consistently pays off; everyone in this Follies is haunted by the past, but some are much better than others at facing it down. Cooke also draws fine performances from his actors, right down to the smallest
Johan Persson
The Stephen Sondheim Society
www.sondheim.org
9