The San Francisco Playhouse production of Follies was supposed to happen two years ago, then was delayed again due to COVID-19 outbreaks among the cast. But I finally got to see the show Saturday night, and it was worth the wait.
While I know the show reasonably well from cast recordings and various clips I've run across, this is the first time I have seen it in person. The San Francisco Playhouse is a regional company that does a good job with its musicals, but this is real bear of a show to do. The degree of difficulty is quite high, and this is apparently the first time there has been a production of Follies in San Francisco.
The cast of 21 does fine work. Natascia Diaz, who is normally not on the West Coast, makes for a wonderful Sally Durant Plummer, emphasizing her sadness and desperation and nailing her big solos. Veteran Bay Area actress Maureen McVerry plays Phyllis Rogers Stone, and acts the part with the right mixture of venom and hurt. Both of the leading men acquit themselves nicely. Anthony Rollins-Mullens has a powerful voice and is a terrific Buddy, especially in "The Right Girl." Veteran actor Chris Vettel does well as Benjamin Stone, most notably in the "Loveland" finale. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Broadway veteran Jill Slyter, who now works as a hospice nurse according to the program, and is wonderful as Solange; Chloe Wintersteen, a recent Stanford University graduate whose enthusiasm and skill as an understudy getting a chance to play Young Sally was infectious; and Danielle Cheiken, who doubles as Young Phyllis and Young Heidi, serves as the dance captain, and whose skills are shown off in "The Story of Lucy and Jessie."
The San Francisco Playhouse is situated in a hotel in the Union Square area. It features not many seats (just nine rows in the orchestra) but a pretty large stage. It has a rotating stage that's a discount version of the one at Lincoln Center's Beaumont Theater. I ended up in the second row. The only disadvantage is that it's almost too close given the many things going on. I found myself turning my head to try to catch everything, and I'm sure I missed a few moments anyway. But what one loses occasionally in perspective is made up for in intimacy.
Follies is, of course, a rather brutal show, full of pain and cynicism and dashed hopes and misguided nostalgia. And when you're that close, you feel it all. I think I underestimated the show's in-person impact, especially as emotions get hotter and characters start falling apart. In the meantime, director Bill English does a wonderful job staging a lot of the more difficult group numbers. "Who's That Woman" is a triumph. I really didn't expect the choreography by Nicole Helfer to be that crisp given its complexity. There's so much happening in that dance, and the performers not only tap danced the hell out of it, they acted it too.
The hybrid nature of the show - the story of the four main characters alongside the individual songs by a number of minor characters - sometimes causes it to lose a little momentum. But when the "throwaway" songs are as good as the ones Sondheim wrote, it's easy to be forgiving. English hasn't quite solved the problem of where to end the first act in what was originally a one-act musical. [He ended with "I'm Still Here.”] While it felt like an odd place to stop, the advantage is that it really emphasizes the main story of the two miserable couples in the second act. And Diaz's Sally, deluded though she might be, did a wonderful job breaking my heart. In a play, Sally might not be a terribly sympathetic character, and one can argue that she's not really worse off at the end of the show than at the beginning.
But in this musical, Diaz's poignant performance left me feeling like Sally is one of the most tragic characters in musical theater history. It's not that the other lead characters are that much better off. But they leave with a little hope, or resignation, even if they're just kidding themselves. Sally leaves with nothing.
The SF Playhouse's production of Follies runs through Sept. 10. As I can attest, good seats are available. Who knows when, or if, this musical will be back again?
Updated On: 8/2/22 at 03:45 AM
