Film
National Theatre Live Encore Screening: Follies
- Director
- Dominic Cooke
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 210 mins
It’s 1971 and the aging singers and dancers who comprised the Weismann Follies (loosely based on the real-life Ziegfeld Follies) have gathered at their dilapidated Broadway theatre for a celebration on the eve of its demolition. This is, as the impresario Weismann himself announces, an occasion “to glamorise the old days, stumble through a song or two, and lie about ourselves”.
Stephen Sondheim‘s musical is a massive undertaking, with a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 21, which perhaps explains why there hasn’t been a full London staging for 30 years. The Comedy of Errors director Dominic Cooke‘s new production – the first Follies ever staged at the NT – features Tracie Bennett, Janie Dee and Imelda Staunton in the lead roles. The Independent called it “jaw-droppingly great”.
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