It's quite a feat that Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) could proceed with its first-ever production of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's landmark 1971 Broadway musical Follies—especially since a Broadway revival of the same show is also currently playing in a different staging at the Marquis Theatre in New York.
Typically, when a classic musical receives a first-class Broadway revival, the rights to the property get restricted or pulled from major regional theaters. However, the Broadway Follies revival actually started out as a limited engagement starring such Broadway luminaries like Bernadette Peters, Elaine Paige and Jan Maxwell earlier this year at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Thanks to glowing reviews, the D.C. production made the leap to Broadway for another critically rapturous reception.
So now the Tony Award-winning CST is emphasizing that its Follies staged by director Gary Griffin is going to be a distinctly Windy City production as part of the company's 25th-anniversary season. CST's Follies comes complete with a cast of more than 40 onstage musicians and local actors like Susan Moniz, Robert Petkoff, Hollis Resnik and Mike Nussbaum. However, Chicago Shakespeare's Follies isn't without its own talent from Broadway and London's West End.
In addition to Griffin's directing credits in New York (The Color Purple, The Apple Tree) and London (Pacific Overtures), the cast of CST's Follies features Broadway and West End theater veterans Brent Barrett and Caroline O'Connor.
Though born in England, O'Connor was raised in Australia and initially trained to be a ballerina before she became a convert to theater and film. O'Connor has major theater credits in Australia (the 2005 Judy Garland drama End of the Rainbow), the U.K. (a major 1990s Mack and Mabel revival) and the U.S. (the musical Chicago). However, O'Connor is most widely known for her appearances in high-profile films like Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! (as the shady Nini Legs In The Air) and the Cole Porter bio-pic De-Lovely (as a brassy Ethel Merman).
Barrett has had small roles in films like Longtime Companion and The Producers (as the leather-harnessed set designer in the "Keep it Gay" number). Musical theater aficionados will remember Barrett, however, from his many 1990s historical musical recordings on the EMI label (Brigadoon, The Busby Berkeley Album), plus televised stage tapings as Fred Graham/Petruchio in London revival of Kiss Me, Kate from the 2000s and his ever-popular appearance as the dancing Baron alongside Michael Jeter in the Grand Hotel song "We'll Take a Glass Together" from the 1990 Tony Awards. Barrett was also widely acclaimed when he co-starred alongside country star Reba McEntire in a hit Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun.
Barrett and O'Connor are appearing together in their first regional production in Chicago, and they're both appreciating the chance to sink their teeth into such rewarding, albeit challenging, material with Follies.
"I don't know if people know what to expect when they come to see Follies," Barrett said, adding that many people are familiar with famous songs from the show like "Broadway Baby," "Losing My Mind" and "I'm Still Here," but are less so with the story.
"It's a little difficult to explain other than it's a Follies reunion at a Broadway theater that is about to be torn down," Barrett said. "Everyone comes, some kicking and screaming, to be confronted by their past and having to come to terms with where they are now."
Barrett and O'Connor respectively play the moneyed husband-and-wife roles of Benjamin and Phyllis Rogers Stone. The duo offset the musical's other unhappily married couple of failing businessman Buddy Palmer (Petkoff) and his dwelling-on-the-past wife, Sally Durrant (Moniz). These four characters used to be friends back in the early 1940s when the women were showgirls in the Ziegfeld-like "Weismann Follies," and now the reunion has conjured up memories of their younger selves (physically and ghostly depicted on stage by other actors).
"You get to a certain age you look back on your life and you examine the choices that you made," Barrett said about his character's "incredibly toxic" marriage to Phyllis and his rekindled love for Sally. "[Ben] was focused and very direct on his career, and all of a sudden he's 53 and he's thinking, 'Is that all there is?'"
O'Connor is relishing the chance portray another complex Sondheim character like Phyllis, especially after recently appearing as Mrs. Lovett in the Paris premiere of Sweeney Todd. O'Connor is also cast as Madame Rose in a forthcoming U.K. regional production of the classic Jule Styne/Arthur Laurents/Sondheim musical Gypsy.
"That's three Sondheims in a row," O'Connor said, happy to be tackling a character very different from the showy leading ladies she often portrays.
"[Phyllis] is quite dry and stoic and contained," O'Connor said. "And frustrated on the inside, but you would never see it—there's such a haughty veneer there with this woman."
O'Connor is also up for the challenge of Phyllis' iconic Follies songs "Could I Leave You?" and the big follies dance number "The Story of Lucy and Jessie."
"I've always been a dancer, but I'm no spring chicken," O'Connor said about choreographer Alex Sanchez's tricky choreography for the latter number. "I've always loved dancing and it's very difficult to give it up as you grow older, even when it hurts."
Both Barrett and O'Connor said they're grateful to Griffin for casting them in CST's Follies, and added they're getting along with the company of largely Chicago-area actors.
With all the emphasis on CST's Follies being one to celebrate Chicago-area musical theater talent, I thought I'd point out that both Barrett and O'Connor can sort of claim to be "Windy City actors" since they are veterans of the hit 1996 Broadway stage revival of the musical Chicago (Barrett on tour and on Broadway; O'Connor in Australia, the U.K. and on Broadway).
"If you put it that way, I guess we are 'from Chicago,' too," O'Connor said with a laugh.
Follies continues in previews before its official press opening Wed., Oct. 12. Performances continue through Nov. 6 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier, 800 E. Grand Ave. Tickets are $44-$75; call 312-595-5600 or visit www.chicagoshakes.com/follies for more information.
CST at the 2012 London Olympics
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) has been chosen with theaters from around the world to participate in London's 2010 Cultural Olympiad's 37-play "Globe to Globe" festival at Shakespeare's Globe Theater on the south banks of the Thames River in London.
CST is commissioning a world premiere of Othello: The Remix from The Q Brothers, who are also famed for fusing Shakespeare with hip hop in pieces like in Funk It Up About Nothin' and Bomb-itty of Errors.
Othello: The Remix is one of only two English-language plays in the "Globe to Globe" festival of Shakespeare presented in different languages (the other English production will be the Globe Theatre's Henry V). Othello: The Remix will first be seen in Chicago in May 2012 before crossing the pond for the Olympics.
