Lyric Stage, the Southwest's only professional musical theater, produced a concert version of the seldom-done Follies, February 20-22, 2004 at the Irving Arts Center in Irving, Texas. Though boasting a book by James Goldman and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, there are reasons Follies rarely receives a full production. The cast is large, making it an expensive show to produce. In addition, it has not aged well. Except for three memorable songs, Follies doesn't have much to recommend it.
The time is 1971. The story revolves around a group of aging Follies chorines who meet for a reunion at a once-lavish but now crumbling theater on the eve of its demolition. The "girls" reminisce as they reunite for a final send-up of their glory days of yore.
From this otherwise forgettable musical, three great songs emerge: The hopeful "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here," a paean to perseverance sung by every aging performer who ever trod the boards (Barbara Cook gave it a lusty rendition a number of years ago in her one-woman show at Theater Three, and Elaine Stritch performed the ultimate version for local audiences last season in her Broadway-originated show, Elaine Stritch at Liberty on the stage of the Majestic Theater), and the comic/bittersweet "Could I Leave You." The rest is just filler. And the performers here run the gamut from extremely talented to near-caricature.
