BROADWAY
CHEERS
THE FOLLIES
People
September 23, 1985
RCA was there to record it for October release. PBS and Showtime showed up to videotape it for airing next year. And a black-tie audience of 5,480 shelled out from $50 to $5,000 a charity ticket for the privilege of watching it in person and supping afterward with the stars on cold raspberry soup and rare roast beef. The man who got them there was Stephen Sondheim, the Boss of Broadway.
With such full-bodied scores as Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and the Pulitzer-crowned Sunday in the Park With George, the ground-breaking Sondheim, now 55, has stood virtually un-challenged as the contemporary musical theater's greatest composer. But on this September weekend in Manhattan, for two performances only with the New York Philharmonic, Sondheim didn't come with any new music. This was re- discovery time.
In
1971 Sondheim had written one of his richest scores for Follies
, an opulent musical about a disillusioning reunion of chorus girls.
It closed after a year on Broadway, lost its entire $800,000 investment and
was preserved only by an edited, cheaply produced version of the score. RCA
Records' Thomas Z. Shepard dreamed up the idea of re-recording the work live
at Lincoln Center in an all-star concert version. They wanted and won a dream
cast from Broadway, TV, film and opera: among them Lee Remick, Carol Burnett,
Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, Barbara Cook and Elaine Stritch. To avoid budget
problems the stars agreed to take a cut in their fees. Four days of 14-hour
rehearsals left the cast "exhausted" (Hearn), "excited"
(Cook) and "scared as hell" (Remick). "It was like being shot
out of a cannon," says Burnett. The critics agreed. "Historic,"
raved the Times, echoing an audience that cheered itself raw. With typical
understatement Sondheim, joining the cast for an emotional curtain call, had
the last word. "We had a good time, too," he said. The royal "we"
was apt, not arrogant. Broadway had long ago proclaimed him King. This night
at Follies was merely the coronation.
