Score: Stephen Sondheim; Book: James Goldman. At: Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Chicago Ave. Phone: 312-595-5600; $55-$75. Runs through: Nov. 13
It's almost unfair to review Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's 1971 musical Follies at Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) after having seen the current Kennedy Center transfer of the same show in New York.
The Broadway Follies has a bigger budget, a larger cast and plays in a theater more than double the size of CST. However, don't brush off the benefits of seeing Follies on a more intimate and personal scale at CST.
Chicago Follies director Gary Griffin has made a name for his compelling work on Sondheim musicals and he continues his legacy by smartly adapting a big show like Follies for the cozy confines of CST's Courtyard Theater space. True, there might not be as much splashy spectacle to be seen, but the characters' dilemmas crucially ring true.
Behind the proscenium is a great 12-member onstage orchestra conducted by Valerie Maze that gets a great Broadway sound, while Griffin and choreographer Alex Sanchez stage most of the action on the thrust portion of the stage. That allows the audience to get intimately caught up in all the characters' personal and frequently dysfunctional love lives as they reunite for a reunion of former Broadway showgirls.
As the wealthy couple Ben and Phyllis Stone, Broadway veteran Brent Barrett and Australian-British actress Caroline O'Connor both show plenty of steely resolve and drunken bitterness. Barrett particularly shines with his handsome baritone voice while O'Connor dazzles in her big dance number "The Story of Lucy and Jessie." (O'Connor's American accent is confidently in place, but it's more brassy instead of classy.)
Susan Moniz and Robert Petkoff both showed an appropriate fragility as the unhappily married couple of Sally and Buddy Plummer. But the fact that both look so youthful gives the impression that their characters have more opportunities to make right with their lives instead of what is hinted at in the script.
There are lots of smaller specialty numbers for other cast members to shine and they definitely grab the opportunities in CST's Follies.
Hollis Resnik makes for a particularly glamorous Carlotta Campion singing the show biz paean to survival "I'm Still Here," while Marilynn Bogetich gets plenty of laughs as the one-time looker Hattie Walker who sings "Broadway Baby." Mike Nussbaum makes for a great showman Dimitri Weismann, complete with an inappropriately young trophy companion by his side.
Now those seeking out a definitive production of Follies won't find it at CST. However, Griffin's intimate take on Follies is still a must-see for both die-hard fans and newcomers to this introspective musical that masterfully celebrates and challenges the nostalgia and idealism of musical theater from the first half of the 20th century.