Follies!

I know people who don't go to the theatre.  I know people who don't even like the theatre.  I can understand people who don't go - theatre tickets are abusively expensive now.  I used to have a brass key chain that was a replica of a Broadway theatre ticket to A Chorus Line, circa 1975.  The price for an orchestra seat showed $15.00.  No kidding.  Now orchestra seats start at $150.00.  I blame Andrew Lloyd Weber for that- but that's another rant.

I can like a person who doesn't like the theatre, but I can't understand them.  So when I am still floating down from the ceiling after having seen a truly great show, I am frustrated by those who look at me as if to say "that's nice, but its not my thing".  And I've been seeing that look all day long.

Last night Bob and I went with Sheila Shaw to see the Broadway production (with original cast minus Bernadette Peters) of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.  It is at the Ahmanson for a limited time.  We decided sort of last minute to go.  We weathered the traffic getting to downtown and paid $25.00 for a tablespoon of risotto in a big bowl at the outrageously priced Kendall's (but it is right downstairs from the theatre so what are you going to do?) but the show was nothing short of miraculous.

We nearly missed it.   There was a day when Bob and I saw everything at the Ahmanson or the Pantages or the Playhouse but we haven't been regular goers in years.  And we live far away now.  I knew this show was coming - I wanted to go - but was it worth the effort?  We decided to pass (what has happened to me????)  Anyway, my friend Cyndy saw it and said seeing it made her cry so I decided to go.  Soooooooooooooooo worth it!

I am from a generation of theatre lovers who were around when all of Sondheim's shows were brand new.  He's had a few failures but mostly gems.  Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, and arguably Merrily We Roll Along and Pacific Overtures were his big hits.  He also wrote lyrics for Gypsy and West Side Story.  As a theatre junkie and aspiring actress back in the 70's and 80's, I knew these scores by heart.

But Follies!

Although today - today - I am appalled!  I have no one to gush with.  I am thrilled beyond measure for having experienced such a memorable evening of musical theatre and I can't relive it at the water cooler with anyone!  Apparently it wasn't just me.  It seems that everyone has stopped going to the theatre.  Such a letdown. 

The only good thing about this inexplicable lack of interest in this production is that tickets are now half price.  So I am thinking of going again - and maybe taking Grace so that she might hopefully experience the same thrill I have experienced seeing it, and remember that she shared that experience with her mother.  Because this is the kind of thing your really do remember.

There is a bit of melancholy in this story though.  While I was turning 40 and sadly waiving goodbye to all the leading lady roles I had wanted to play that I was now too old to play, always in the back of my mind was the thought : "...there's still Follies!"  Well, unless I miraculously get an agent who has magical powers to get me into a production of it somewhere in the world - after not having been in a union show in 15 years, I will be saying good bye to that dream as well.  Because I am on the long end of the right age for the part in this show I'd love to play...  And in fact, if I remember back 35 years in my own life - like the lead characters in the show do - I'd be about the age I was when I first heard this score.

"It's like I'm losing my mind..."