Sondheim's Musicals Reunited, Shining and Blazing In the West End

 

It's been nearly half a century since two Stephen Sondheim's internationally renowned musicals about marriage and relationship, "Company" and "Follies," were first shown on Broadway. About fifty years later, "Company" experiences a refreshing gender-flip, and both musicals are performed in London again in the same season, which is once in a lifetime. It is also noteworthy that in these two musicals, intriguing characters that are portrayed by brilliant actors and actresses shine so bright, and highlight the similarities and uniqueness of the two musicals at once. 

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To begin with, female characters from "Company" and "Follies" share similar personalities, as they are so warm and cold, so bright and gloomy, so happy and sad, so bold and afraid. Different from the playboy Bobby, Rosalie Craig's Bobbie is curious about marriage, worried about her relationship, and concerned about her friends, who are also gender-flipped in Marianne Elliott's rearranged version. Bobbie is already 35, an age that is quite embarrassing for a woman who is not yet married. Her anxiety turns bigger when the silver birthday balloons are written "3" and "5" become bigger than her height. Similarly, Phyllis and Sally are also having a sense of fear to face younger selves, as they are haunted by the ghosts of their past.

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Looking through the characters in "Company" and "Follies," Patti LuPone, who plays Joanne, a much-married lady, shares some features with Janie Dee's version of Phyllis. Phyllis sings "Could I Leave You" after seducing a waiter. The chic, 50-year-old lady is wondering if she could live without her husband, Ben, a big man on Wall Street. This song, with lyrics like "You could leave me the stocks for sentiment's sake; and ninety percent of the money you make," demonstrate Phyllis as a smart, sleek, but tart and furious woman.

 

Joanne sings "The Ladies Who Lunch" with an unmistakable note of asperity to help Bobbie follow her heart. In her signature song, Joanne employs a satire to judge the wealthy ladies who are living a meaningless life: "Here's to the girls who just watch—aren't they the best? When they get depressed; It's a bottle of Scotch, plus a little jest." Joanne is drinking while singing this song, which may imply that metaphorically, she is one of those ladies, and experienced these problems herself. Her rage is delivered through her penetrating voice to push Bobbie to think whether she would become a lady who lunches, or become another Joanne when she's at her age.

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Though these two songs sing about entirely different matters, both go from mocking with a sarcastic sense of humour and harshness and then move to pain. Joanne is looking at her past of being a lady who lunches; whereas Phyllis is asking herself seriously whether she will leave Ben or not. On stage, Patti LuPone and Janie Dee successfully express such complex, intense and painful emotion stupendously.

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Besides the brilliant performance given by the leading actresses, there are some other similarities between the two Sondheim musicals. Both stories have happened in New York, so they both share the value of an international city. The difference is that the gender-switched "Company" has a more contemporary setting; whereas the background of "Follies" is in 1971, on the soon-to-be-demolished stage of the Weismann Theatre.

 

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Secondly, both stage settings are in powerful and unconstrained styles. In "Follies," director Dominic Cooke and designer Vicki Mortimer use the stage as the medium to demonstrate the idea of doubleness. The broken wall separates the round stage into two rotatable semicircles, where the stories of the past and present intersect. "Company" stage setting by Bunny Christie involves horizontally moving cubes: separate rooms have different stories happening inside, and Bobbie is the one who holds the keys to unlock the doors. Such a dream-like stage design is similar to Alice in Wonderland. Bobbie is holding a cup of wine while visiting her friends' homes, which are presented as sliding rooms like the rabbit hole down which Alice fell.

 

While "Company" contains the element of purple and blue neon lights, based on the 21st-century context, "Follies" light design on the wall of the theatre is tricky and fascinating. At first, the light on the second letter "N" of "WEISMANN'S Follies" on the wall is dim, showing a shabby condition of the theatre. However, when it comes to each one of them's follies, the light of the logo, "Follies," shines brightly on the 4-letter "lies," which actually applies to all four of them, revealing the secret of once upon a time when everyone has lies.

 

Both "Company" and "Follies" are bittersweet shows about marriage and relationship. People who watch these two Sondheim's world-known musicals in the same month may come up with a curious thought: would Bobbie turn into Sally or Phyllis someday? I don't think so. What about you?