'Follies' Is All Dressed Up but Never Really Goes Anywhere

Theater companies have pretty good reasons for shying away from "Follies," composer Stephen Sondheim and writer James Goldman's 1971 musical about the emotionally muddled lives of several middle-aged couples. The show awkwardly joins one of Sondheim's memorable scores with a downbeat, unfocused story.

The score is atypical for Sondheim, combining pastiches of 1920s and '30s Tin Pan Alley numbers that pay homage to the famous composers of Broadway's past with Sondheim's distinctive ballads exploring character and theme.

The original, lavish Broadway production was a spectacular failure: Audiences tended to dislike the show or be confused by it, but the theater community embraced it and gave it seven Tony Awards. The strengths and weaknesses of "Follies" are on full display in the Arlington Players' troubled production.

The title refers to the life choices of the lead characters and also to a 21-year run of the fictional "Weismann Follies," a Broadway revue created between the two world wars by a Ziegfeld-like impresario. When the musical opens, it's 1971, and the theater that housed Weismann's productions is going to be demolished. Aging showgirls and others assemble in the decaying playhouse for a reunion. We focus on a complex love quadrangle -- a pair of former showgirls and the men they double-dated and then married in their hot-blooded youth -- as they confront their pasts, their choices and, perhaps, their futures.

Director Christopher Dykton follows the traditional staging, in which the past and present converge, by having the older characters shadowed by ghosts of their younger selves.

The show requires elaborate staging, and it gets that here. Jared Davis's large set is gorgeous and functionally innovative enough to accommodate the crumbling present and the glittering past. Grant Kevin Lane's costumes for the almost 50 cast members are opulent, Hal Crawford's lighting is colorfully evocative and Leah Kocsis skillfully conducts a full, Broadway-size orchestra.

It all looks great, and much of it sounds great. But some of the singing in smaller roles is weak, as is most of the acting. Several of the area's most talented performers (including Allison Block and Lorraine Magee) are hidden in small roles, while important parts are ill-served by less gifted actors. The cast never ignites much energy in the troublesome first act, which is heavy with exposition and dreary emotional baggage.

The second act is much better, particularly the vaudevillian fantasy segment featuring songs underscoring the leading characters' inner turmoil.

Highlights include Jimmy Payne nailing "The Road You Didn't Take," as the older version of Ben. Payne's powerful voice alternately caresses and soars as he gets deep into this poignant look at the choices people make. Liz Webber, as Stella, brings a nice touch of old-time Broadway glitz, singing and hoofing her way through a scaled-back version of the dance-extravagant "Who's That Woman?," the high point of the first act. Payne is joined by Jean Cantrell, as the older Sally, Ben's former lover, in "Too Many Mornings." It's an old-fashioned duet, beautifully performed. Anissa Hartline, as young Heidi, unleashes an operatic soprano in the Act 2 duet "One More Kiss," paired with RoseAnn Ashby as the older Heidi. Things heat up with Lynn Audrey Neal's older Phyllis singing the scathing "Could I Leave You?" to Payne's Ben. That seems to charge Payne up, because he finally injects some life into his acting. The orchestra really kicks with the swinging "The Story of Lucy and Jessie" from the "Phyllis's Folly" fantasy segment, combining 1930s show-tune styling and 1950s-style dance.

Dykton must have had his hands so full directing and choreographing the production, while managing the demands of a complex, sprawling work, that he neglected to create the haunted ambiance or emotional resonance necessary to make this material work. To borrow Winston Churchill's phrase, it's a pudding without a theme. Thus, when ghostly showgirls wander about the old theater in full regalia, including massively tufted head dressings, they don't glide as apparitions might. Instead, they gracelessly rove, resembling barnyard chickens looking for a stray kernel of corn. Actors huff and puff through expositional dialogue with little sense of regret, excitement, frustration or wonder.

The pudding remains plain, even if it is served up on sparkling dinnerware in a sumptuously appointed dining room.

"Follies" continues through May 2, performed by the Arlington Players at the Thomas Jefferson Theater, 125 S. Old Glebe Rd., Arlington County. Performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and information, go to http://www.thearlingtonplayers.org.