ReviewsResurrecting the echoes Follies' revival cast recording captures more material than any previous version e are now 40 years removed from the 1971 Broadway opening of Follies, as distant as that show was from the actual Ziegfeld productions that inspired it. The 2011 Broadway revival is not only summoning the spirits of the Broadway era of George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Cole Porter, but the memories of director Harold Prince and choreographer Michael Bennett's staging of the original Follies. PS Classics has done an excellent job resurrecting those echoes in its cast recording of the Broadwayrevival, released in late November 2011. Clocking in at one hour and 46 minutes on two CDs, this recording (produced by Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin) includes more of James Goldman's libretto than any previous Follies album. It relegates most of the speeches to separate tracks while wisely keeping the underscoring of the onstage pit band throughout much of the show. Most significantly, almost all of the dialogue of the "ghosts" of the four main characters (Lorra Lee Gayer as Sally, Christian Delcroix as Buddy, Kirsten Scott as Phyllis and Nick Verina as Ben) has been retained, and they have a much stronger presence here than on earlier Fogies recordings. While recent Broadway audiences have grown accustomed to pareddown pit accompaniment, Follies is one show that requires a larger-than-life sound, and Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations for the 28-piece orchestra have never sounded clearer or, in the cases of "Losing My Mind" and "One More Kiss," more poignant. The 2011 album generally displays the musical's four central protagonists to their best advantage. Bernadette Peters, who since the mid-1980s has become the premier Sondheim interpreter, brings a genuine vulnerability to the role of Sally. During the "Prelude" she introduces herself as "Sally Durant ... Plummer," and that pause before her married name speaks volumes about her disillusionment over what her life has become. If Barbara Cook's renditions of "In Buddy's Eyes" and "Losing My Mind" on the 1985 Avery Fisher Hall recording remain two of REVIEW BY ANDREW MILNER W The image for Follies' revival production was designed by Frank "Fraver" Verlizzo. It's used as the cover for the new cast recording. the best performances of Sondheim material, Peters does a better job in these songs of capturing Sally's self-delusions. Jan Maxwell handles her numbers skillfully while embodying the reserve of Phyllis, although she goes emotionally overboard at the climax of "Could I Leave You?" It might have been better to keep cool throughout that entire song to contrast with the unleashing of "The Story of Lucy and Jessie." (This recording, unlike the 1971 original cast album and the 1985 Avery Fisher Hall live recording, includes the dance break.) Ron Raines draws out Ben's vulnerability during the dialogue sections and "The Road You Didn't Take." Danny Burstein clearly conveys Buddy's exasperation, from his attempt to tell a corny joke during the "Overture" through "The Right Girl" and "The-God-Why-Don't-You-LoveMe Blues." The rest of the ensemble comes off equally brilliantly. Elaine Paige understands the worldweariness of Carlotta. and her "I'm Still Here" builds in confidence and defiance, rivaling Yvonne De Carlo's original performance as the definitive version of this standard. Terri White brings more personality to the role of Stella Deems than earlier performers, with an especially vivid lead on "Who's That Woman?" Rosalind Elias and Leah Horowitz perform an exquisite "One More Kiss," the nod to operetta that could serve as the theme to the entire musical. The booklet features the complete lyrics and many full-color photos from the Marquis Theatre production. Patrick Pacheco of the Los Angeles Times has also contributed a slightly portentous introductory essay, which tries too hard to draw parallels between the despair of the early 1970s characters and the malaise of the real world 2011: "America, it would seem, has finally caught up to Follies. The worth of the Georgian silver in Phyllis's dining room, the sophisticated socialite, might have inflated from $30,000 to $60,000 in the intervening four decades, but it's the deflated dreams and tarnished hopes now loosed throughout the land that have brought American society into such sharp accord with the harsh and unvarnished truths of Follies." If recordings of the original Broadway production of Follies (official or bootleg) remain the ultimate standard for many Sondheim fans, PS Classics has nevertheless added to the public's understanding of this masterpiece with its vital cast album. |TSR| ANDREW MILNER reviews books and CDs for Philadelphia's City Paper. He has been a TSR contributor since 2004. 46The Sondheim Review