• September 23, 1985
• Vol. 23
• No. 13

With Laughter and Tears, Broadway Cheers the Follies of Its Musical Legend Stephen Sondheim

RCA was there to record it for October release. PBS and Showtime showed up to videotape it for airing next year. And a black-tie audience of 5,480 shelled out from $50 to $5,000 a charity ticket for the privilege of watching it in person and supping afterward with the stars on cold raspberry soup and rare roast beef. The man who got them there was Stephen Sondheim, the Boss of Broadway. With such full-bodied scores as Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and the Pulitzer-crowned Sunday in the Park With George, the ground-breaking Sondheim, now 55, has stood virtually unchallenged as the contemporary musical theater's greatest composer. But on this September weekend in Manhattan, for two performances only with the New York Philharmonic, Sondheim didn't come with any new music. This was rediscovery time. In 1971 Sondheim had written one of his richest scores for Follies, an opulent musical about a disillusioning reunion of chorus girls. It closed after a year on Broadway, lost its entire $800,000 investment and was preserved only by an edited, cheaply produced version of the score. RCA Records Thomas Z. Shepard dreamed up the idea of rerecording the work live at Lincoln Center in an all-star concert version. They wanted and won a dream cast from Broadway, TV, film and opera: among them Lee Remick, Carol Burnett, Mandy Patinkin, George Hearn, Barbara Cook and Elaine Stritch. To avoid budget problems the stars agreed to take a cut in their fees. Four days of 14-hour rehearsals left the cast "exhausted" (Hearn), "excited" (Cook) and "scared as hell" (Remick). "It was like being shot out of a cannon," says Burnett. The critics agreed. "Historic," raved the Times, echoing an audience that cheered itself raw. With typical understatement Sondheim, joining the cast for an emotional curtain call, had the last word. "We had a good time, too," he said. The royal "we" was apt, not arrogant. Broadway had long ago proclaimed him King. This night at Follies was merely the coronation.