Follies premiered on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on April 4, 1971, with book by James Goldman and direction by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett. The show was the most expensive Broadway production of its era and ran 522 performances — not long enough to recoup its investment, a commercial failure that became a legend.
A reunion of former Weismann Follies showgirls takes place in the crumbling Weismann Theatre, about to be demolished. The central characters are two couples: Buddy and Sally, Ben and Phyllis. In their youth, Buddy married Sally (who loved Ben), and Ben married Phyllis (who loved Ben’s ambition, not Ben). Thirty years later, all four are miserable in ways they cannot fully articulate.
The show’s structure intercuts past and present: younger versions of the characters (“ghost” doubles) haunt the stage while their older selves try to perform at the reunion. The score contains two kinds of songs: the “book” numbers (realistic, psychologically complex songs the characters “sing” in the present) and the “pastiche” numbers (recreations of Follies-style showstoppers that represent memory, fantasy, and self-deception). The climax — a “Loveland” sequence where each character performs a Follies number that becomes a nervous breakdown — is one of the most devastating sequences in musical theater.
Collecting Follies
Original cast recording (Capitol, 1971): LP.
Market values:
- Original cast LP, sealed: $40–$100
- Concert version recording (1985): $30–$60
- Signed by Sondheim: $200–$500