BTW I have almost the same problem with Company, plus the fact that the set up of a man with 6 married couple friends doesn't ring true for me unless he is Gay, which the book emphatically states he is not. I can't warm to any of the characters including Robert who I played in the original production, late in the run as a replacement.
You were in the original production of Company and never learned how many married couples were in Robert's orbit? It was never 6; it's always been 5.
And outside of Sally, your breakdown of the characters in Follies is very confused. Generally speaking, none of the characters have come to terms with the choices they've made, but your thumbnail sketches of the other three misses the mark. Buddy's not the one who never learned to "like himself" - that's Ben. And it's Ben's great fear that everything was too easy for him & he'll be exposed as a fraud. Buddy fell head over heels for a woman who clearly never loved him, and he can't fall out of love with someone who makes him feel like a failure. As for Phyllis, she's not comfortable with the woman she's become since marrying Ben; there's a duality in her personality, and she can't help longing for the woman she originally was. |
