It’s opening night for Lyric Musical Theatre of Regina‘s production of Stephen Sondheim’s legendary musical Follies. We’re quite certain this is the first time the show has ever been done in Saskatchewan, and there’s a strong possibility it’s the first time there’s been a fully-staged version of it in Canada (although there have certainly been concert versions of it, most recently at last summer’s Shaw Festival).
Here’s how the website sondheim.com describes the show:
“This musical, with a book by James Goldman, takes place at a reunion of the Weissman (pseudo-Ziegfeld) Follies girls, gathering at their old theatre on the eve of its leveling to become a parking lot. When Sally tries to rekindle her old flame with Ben (who married her best friend from the old days, Phyllis), chaos ensues until Sally, Buddy (her husband), Ben, and Phyllis break down and acknowledge their follies in a dream-Follies sequence, ‘Loveland.’
“The entire show is interspersed with ex-showgirls reprising their old big numbers, and the atmosphere is heightened by the presence of the ghosts of everyone’s former selves, who sometimes sing along, sometimes reenact important events, and sometimes even interact with the present.”
I play Buddy, Dianne Burrows plays my wife Sally, Donna Trainor plays Phyllis and Jeff Tonita plays Ben.
It’s going to be a terrific show: you can see more of the photos I took over the last couple of nights of dress rehearsals (when I wasn’t on stage, of course) in this Facebook photo album.
If you’re in the Regina area, come see it! Tickets are only $25, and you can buy them online. The show runs tonight and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., at the University Theatre, Riddell Centre, University of Regina. Students can get in for $15 at the door tonight only.
Come half an hour before curtain to hear my lovely wife Margaret Anne deliver a pre-show talk in the lobby.
Beautiful girls, wonderful songs, and me looking like a Vaudeville clown for “The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues.” What more could you ask for?
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And they’ve banned it.
BTW – I’d not come across your books before. They look interesting and I’m adding you to my “people to read” list.
Thanks again, Hugh!
Hi. Totally off-topic, but your bio shows up on a Russian language LJ page, which I suspect is a bot. You can see it here: http://tumodada.livejournal.com/profile
I reported this to the LJ Abuse team about 6 weeks ago, but they seem to think it’s not a bot. Perhaps you’d like to enlighten them?
Thanks, Hugh. I’ve contacted LiveJournal.