Arts & Entertainment

Rickety reunion

Uneven ‘Follies’ finds footing in second half

Published

15 years ago

May 26, 2011

Patrick Folliard

Bernadette Peters in ‘Follies.’ (Photo by Joan Marcus; courtesy Kennedy Center)

‘Follies’
Through June 19
The Kennedy Center
$45-$150
202-467-4600

The applause begins early at the Kennedy Center’s lavish production of “Follies.”

It breaks out when the orchestra strikes up Stephen Sondheim’s gorgeous overture, and continues (loud and long) as well-known cast members like Bernadette Peters, Elaine Paige and Linda Lavin make their entrances. There’s another burst when one by one these ladies and others playfully strike stagey poses harking back to their middle-aged characters’ long ago careers as showgirls.

Eventually the clapping sufficiently quiets for Sondheim and writer James Goldman’s 1971 musical to unfold.

On the eve of the demolition of his once grand Broadway theater, aging impresario Dmitri Weismann (local actor David Sabin) has gathered a party of former Weismann (think Ziegfeld) girls and their husbands beneath crumbly, gilt proscenium for one final reunion.

Two of the couples — Sally (Bernadette Peters) and Buddy (Danny Burstein), and Phyllis (Jan Maxwell) and Ben (Ron Raines) – share a history beyond the old shows. Way back when, promising young Ben fooled around with Sally while engaged to Phyllis. Sally was in love with Ben then and remains so 30 years later. She unrealistically hopes the Follies reunion will serve to rekindle their passion and bring them together. For both couples, the evening plays out awkwardly to say the least.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party is taking a less (emotionally) messy trip down memory lane with some of the former Weismann girls performing their old numbers. As a has-been French songstress, Régine valiantly croaks “Ah, Paris!” Next up, a very energetic Linda Lavin delivers “Broadway Baby” in her own sort of offbeat, jazzy style. (Recall the theme song for Lavin’s hit TV show “Alice”? She sang that too).

In the well-received “Who’s That Woman?” Terri White, who is gay, leads some of the ladies (including a very agile Bernadette Peters) in a rousing tap routine. And finally former showgirl-turned-TV star Carlotta (Elaine Paige) directs “I’m Still Here” to a passel of beyond-charmed cater waiters sapping that visceral anthem of some of its punch.

Throughout the show, young actors playing the couples’ pre-jaded, circa 1941 selves weave in and out of the action. Also, tall lithesome showgirls from the theater’s glory days roam the stage in fabulous costumes designed by Gregg Barnes; and while these ghosts don’t create an especially haunting effect, their gravity-defying bodies certainly make a statement on the passage of time.

Directed by Eric Schaeffer and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, the first act is a little uneven, but the second act is nearly perfect. Things really get going with the powerful “Could I Leave You?” in which Maxwell’s fabulously icy Phyllis finally goes off on her rich and wayward husband. Then it’s Schaeffer’s flawlessly staged “Loveland” sequence – a revealing glimpse inside the two couples’ heads (Sondheim is big on psychoanalysis) via a number of the very entertaining, vaudeville-style numbers including Burstein’s caustically comic “Buddy’s Blues,” and Peters’ heartrendingly sung ballad, “I’m Losing my mind.”

Looking great in a tight red slip dress, Peters doesn’t appear the depressed Arizona housewife that Sally has become, but nonetheless she convincingly portrays her character’s sadness and loss of judgment. Burstein is equally good as Sally’s devoted husband who used to wait eagerly for her to meet him at the stage door, and all these years later he’s still stuck on her.

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Books

New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex

‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more

Published

17 hours ago

July 13, 2026

Terri Schlichenmeyer

(Book cover image courtesy W.W. Norton)

‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages

Birds do it.

According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.

If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.

Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”

That might be because animals are not simply binary.

Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.

Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.

The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.

So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”

Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.

Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.

There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.

So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.

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