| re: Ben Brantley on FOLLIES as seen live on stage at the National Theatre. | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 08:15 am EST 11/24/17 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 08:11 am EST 11/24/17 | |
| In reply to: Ben Brantley on FOLLIES as seen live on stage at the National Theatre. - jesse21 04:56 am EST 11/24/17 | |
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| The James Goldman book will be beaten up forever. Once again, Brantley takes aim, though with a pea-shooter if not an AK-15. (Bias owned: saw the OBC twice, in my wide-eyed youth, no doubt informing my reverence.) I always think Goldman gets too little credit. It's almost ahead of its time: a mosaic, non-linear, in every way ambitious. Goldman provided the structure, the lives that intersect and collide, everything that gave Sondheim the bones to work with. Yet his work is so often discussed as the show's liability. I'll go out on a limb and say much of the Follies book, whatever its flaws, holds up better than Furth's for Company, which now can sound like a sitcom, and often a sexist one at that. The women in Follies are era-specific, but possess (more) humanity and depth. As a playwright brought into musical collaboration, Goldman was experimenting with a new form, one that gave one of the musical theater's master's a chance to soar. I can spend time with this quartet of disillusioned people, and be moved anew, because Goldman knew their secrets and Sondheim explored them. | |
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