Thanks to a good friend (Amy, you rock!) I was in the audience for the final, electric night of Stephen Sondheim's Follies (1971) by New York City Center's Encores!, which presents semi-staged, concert versions of Broadway musicals with meticulous attention to musical detail. Smack in the middle of the stage and led with verve by Eric Stern, last night's orchestra numbered thirty players, virtually unheard of in today's cost-cutting Broadway.
Highlights (of many): Mimi Hines in a worldly "Broadway Baby" and getting laughs by narrowly avoiding her cat, JoAnne Worley (yes, that's right) leading a triumphant charge in "Who's That Woman?" and a blazing Christine Baranski in "I'm Still Here." Victor Garber and Victoria Clark seemed completely intertwined in a rapturous "Too Many Mornings," followed later by Donna Murphy in the heavenly sarcasm of "Could I Leave You?" Ms. Clark probably had eyes watering all over the house in "Losing My Mind," and then Ms. Murphy tossed off every hilarious turn of the tongue-twisting "The Story of Lucy and Jessie."
Spotted in the audience: Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, Georgia Engel, Fred Willard, Martin Short, and the composer/lyricist himself, just a few rows away.
Update: in my unmitigated gawking spree, apparently I missed Barbara Cook and Bernadette Peters.
[Photo: Stephen Sondheim (1960) by Hans Namuth, from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution]