For over a decade, Victorian Opera (VO) has elevated the entertaining, idiosyncratic and intellectually rich canvas of works by the late musical theatre legend, Stephen Sondheim. Sunday In The Park with George (2013), Into the Woods (2014), Sweeney Todd (2015 and 2024) and A Little Night Music (2019) have all been brought to life with excellent stagings.
Now, stepping further back into Sondheim’s past, Follies takes over the Palais Theatre stage in a glittering, fabulously realised production with a stunning conglomeration of long-proven Australian artistic talent – captivating in its concept start to finish.
Based on a reunion of middle-aged and elderly former showgirls at the fictitious, soon-to-be-demolished Weismann Theatre in New York, where they danced between the two world wars, Sondheim establishes a poignant connection between decay and renewal through place and relationships.
Set in 1971, the year the show premiered on Broadway, the story centres around two couples in unhappy, messed up marriages. Ex-showgirls Sally (Antoinette Halloran) and Phyllis (Marina Prior) were former roommates back in 1940. Their respective once-enamoured husbands, friends Buddy (Alexander Lewis) and Ben (Adam Murphy), waited for them each night at the stage door.
But things got complicated. Sally is married to Buddy but has been forever in love with Ben. Buddy is still in love with Sally but admits to cheating on her. Ben is a self-possessed philandering piece of work who never loved Sally and married Phyllis who likewise notches up her own marital shortcomings.
Youth, glamour and dreams have morphed into festering regrets, bitterness and a dismal charade. Around them, personality-rich characters are in attendance and, moving in and out to join them in their reminiscences are spectral-like figures of showgirls and younger versions of the four main characters.
It’s an impactful device that is later employed thoughtfully in four concocted vaudevillian sequences, each a showcase of song and dance to reflect the folly of each of the four leads. It’s all threaded together cleverly with lyrics containing the hallmarks of Sondheim’s coruscating wit – stark, truthful and tirelessly entertaining – sparked from James Goldman’s book.
Fortunately, they are enunciated and sung with crystal clarity across the board to a wonderfully nuanced score that draws on numerous 20th century styles. Musical director Phoebe Briggs powers it with seductively achieved tempi and dynamics, steering over 30 musicians of Orchestra Victoria in the pit in faultless form.
On stage, director Stuart Maunder renders the inbuilt psychological elements efficiently and effectively while Yvette Lee’s choreography is thrillingly and dashingly juxtaposed with it.
And what a spectacle it becomes under the spell of award-winning stage designer Roger Kirk’s inspired, flamboyant costumes. Set against grimy brick walls and scaffolding that creates an upper mezzanine, this lofty space is moodily enhanced by Gavan Swift’s precision lighting design.
The first sight of the spectral-like showgirls, snugly outfitted in sequins and large white feathered plumes, is eye-catching enough. But, when they later appear in mirror-encrusted costumes as part of Who’s That Woman?, a roaring, inner wow surely crossed everyone’s mind.
What certainly brought the audience to their feet at Saturday’s opening night were the all-out vivid and impeccable performances – no easy feat for a show that requires the resources of a large multi-talented cast.
Plush-voiced Halloran, who starred as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd, is superb, reinventing herself as the chattery and emotionally fractured Sally who plummets into a hopeless delusional state expressed in the aching song, Losing My Mind.
Prior is outstanding as elegant socialite Phyllis, imbuing her with affectingly contrasted sensitivity and steeliness. Lewis is a master singer-actor, making you want to sympathise with his seemingly supportive and imploring Buddy before sensationally sealing several minutes with The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues while Murphy is commanding as Ben with his sickly mix of suavity and distasteful self-entitlement.
The smorgasbord of highlights extend beyond the four leads with many memorable numbers performed by the aged former showgirls in re-enactments of their past lives. Among these, Geraldene Morrow is a delightful cracker as a diminutive Hattie while punching out Broadway Baby with enormous pizzazz.
Rhonda Burchmore illuminates the stage while leading the company and relishing the chance to tap dance in Who’s That Woman? and Anne Wood is a gliding, magnetic force as the film star Carlotta, defiant and authoritative in her great showstopper, I’m Still Here.
Drenched in operatic sublimity, Heidi’s One More Kiss is an unforgettable vocal blend of long-admired soprano Merlyn Quaife and Nina Korbe as her young counterpart in a tenderly realised highlight. At the other end of the spectrum, Colette Mann and Tom Blair as Emily and Theodore Whitman inject pitter-patter charming energy into Rain on the Roof.
As the younger versions of the four leads, Mia Simonette (Sally), Taao Buchanan (Phyllis) Jacob Steen (Buddy) and Jack Van Staveran (Ben), create a remarkably fluid and engaging chemistry and, on top of several other brilliantly cast roles, an ensemble of 13 electrify the stage.
With just six performances on offer, VO’s Follies is a short-lived season that deserves every seat occupied. And where, perhaps, it is not only the leads who wake up one day and realise they’ve lost your way. Once again, to VO’s credit, Sondheim’s unique thought-provoking and entertaining style shines brightly.
FOLLIES
Palais Theatre, Lower Esplanade, St Kilda
Performance: Saturday 1 February 2025
Season continues to 6 February 2025
Information and Bookings: www.victorianopera.com.au
Image: Adam Murphy, Marina Prior, Alexander Lewis and Antoinette Halloran in Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | The Cast and Ensemble of Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | Taao Buchanan, Marina Prior and Ensemble in Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | Antoinette Halloran, Rhonda Burchmore, Colette Mann, Marina Prior, Stephen Smith, Merlyn Quaife, Evelyn Krape, Anne Wood and Geraldene Morrow in Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | Antoinette Halloran in Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | Antoinette Halloran, Everlyn Krape, Geraldene Morrow, Rhonda Burchmore, Anne Wood, Colette Mann, Marina Prior and the Ensemble of Follies – photo by Jeff Busby | Taao Buchanan, Jack Van Staveren, Mia Simonette and Jacob Steen in Follies – photo by Jeff Busby
Review: Paul Selar