…that is, assuming tomorrow is the day you go see the production of Follies currently playing in L.A. at the Ahmanson Theater. It's the recent Broadway revival minus Bernadette Peters…and though we sure love us some Bernadette Peters, Victoria Clark is so good in that part, I can't imagine Bernadette being any better.
I've seen Follies several times including the previous Broadway revival. They run through Times Square about as often as the Q Train and they're usually as crowded. This is easily the best Follies I've seen and oddly enough at Intermission, Carolyn turned to me and voiced the same reason I'd been thinking: It's the clearest. We could hear and understand every line and not just because the sound system was pretty darn good. It was the performances. The actors had such clarity of who they were and what was going on around them that I found myself understanding much that I'd missed in previous productions. (We were sitting, by the way, in the fourth row of the Mezzanine and we didn't miss a line, a facial expression, a nuance, anything.)
The actors? Jan Maxell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines and Ms. Clark played the two couples who discuss roads they didn't take and might still. The other ladies of the Weismann Line included Elaine Paige, Jayne Houdyshell, Terri White and Susan Watson, most of whom managed to stop the proceedings with solo turns. The "Mirror, Mirror" number led by Ms. White and featuring all the one-time showgirls intermingling with ghosts of themselves was one of the best things I've ever seen on a stage.
I wish I had time to rave more but I have things to do and probably, before the night is out, a soup can to post. I am incredibly busy at the moment but I am so glad Carolyn and I went to see Follies last night. This has been a frantic week of problems and headaches, but for around two and a half hours at the Ahmanson, everything went right and I sure needed that. It's there through June 9. If you're local, get tix. If I can find the time, I may go back.