Director/Musical Director team of Rob Lindley and Doug Peck, respectively, had to make excellent and difficult choices in creating a concert version of what turned out to be a sold to the rafters performance of Stephen Sondheim’s well titled Follies. The hour-ish long presentation meant that some of Follies’ tunes had to be cut. We ended up, though with its most delicious morsels.

The program included many highlights including Peggy Roeder in an upbeat and unique take on “I’m Still Here.” Rebecca Finnegan delivered masterfully three iterations of the song for the character Phyllis that in most productions ends up as “The Story of Lucy and Jessie,” but in some “Ah, But Underneath” is substituted. (The third was “Uptown, Downtown.”) Finnegan delivered another showstopper with “Could I Leave You?,” slicing through Sondheim’s acid-laced response song with the most deft of scalpels.  Jonathan Weir nicely captures the narcissistic Buddy in “Buddy’s Blues.” Barbara Robertson found delightful moments that were simply too too in “Ah, Paris!” Hollis Resnick was a standout both in duets like “Don’t Look at Me” (performed with Kevin Gudahl) and two powerful solos with “In Buddy’s Eyes,” and the iconic “Losing My Mind.”  While diminutive Renee Matthews was shrill in her duet of “One More Kiss” (with Emily Rohm), it is easy to forgive this smiling octogenarian. Doug Peck at the piano along with his four-piece symphony gave the singers just the right support and energized this fine presentation.

Carla Gordon
Cabaret Scenes
November 9, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org