SONDHEIM'S FOLLIES IN GLASGOW (November 26, 2008)
Walter Paul Productions will present Stephen Sondheim's FOLLIES in Gilmorehill G12, from 26th to 29th November 2008. The Music Director is Andrew Nicol and Walter Paul directs the production, assisted by Maureen Brown; the production is presented in association with J.M.Simpson & Co., Nino Salernitano of La Bussola Restaurant, and The Haslemere Wardrobe.
FOLLIES is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman, and is a show nostalgic in tone, set in the 1970s; it takes place on the stage of the soon to be demolished Weissman Theatre, where a reunion has been arranged to honour the beautiful Weissman chorus girls who once performed there. They all arrive, and we soon discover that the Follies refer not only to the wonderful shows of the 1930s, but also to the decisions the characters have made during their lifetimes, with particular reference to the four main characters of Sally and Buddy, Phyllis and Ben - and their younger ghostly always-present figures.
Several of the songs have become Broadway and West End standards, and include "Broadway Baby", "I'm Still Here", "Too Many Mornings", "Could I Leave You?", and "Losing My Mind". FOLLIES was nominated for eleven Tony Awards and won seven of them, and the show, a financial failure when it first opened on Broadway, is now hailed as one of Sondheim's masterpieces.
Walter Paul's new production is the first fully staged production of FOLLIES to be presented in Glasgow, since a one-off concert version was presented in the Concert Hall in 2005; a large, experienced cast has been assembled, comprising an amazing who's who of Glasgow musical theatre from the past thirty years to the present day, and Andrew Nicol as Music Director now joins Walter Paul to renew their successful partnership which brought Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" to G12 in June 2007, (for The Orpheus Club).
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