"Good times and bum times
I've seen them all and, my dear
I'm still here
Plush velvet sometimes
Sometomes just pretzels and beer
But I'm here
I've stuffed the dailes
In my shoes
Strummed ukeleles
Sung the blues
Seen all my dreams disappear
But I'm here
I've slept in shanties
Guest of the W.P.A.
But I'm here
Danced in my scanties
Three bucks a night was the pay
But I'm here
I've stood on breadlines
With the best
Watched while the headlines
Did the rest
In the depression was I depressed?
No where near
I meet a big financier
And I'm here"

"Follies contains a lesson in sub-text, a song called "In Buddy's Eyes." It's a woman's lie to her former lover in which she say's that everything is just wonderful and she's having a terrific time at home, she's so happily married. Nothing in the lyric, not a single word tells you maybe it isn't true. Nothing in the music tells you, although there is something in the ochestration. The actress has to tell you, and if you watch her deliver that song with intense anger because she feels that she has been had, because she was jilted by Ben (the former lover) 30 years before, the whole song takes on a very peculiar quality....Jonathan Tunik, the ochestrator, also understands something about sub-text because every phrase in that song which refers to Buddy, her husband, is dry. It's all woodwinds. Whenever she refers to herself it's all strings again...Not one person in a thousand would get this but...it's there and it helps in forming the song."

-Stephen Sondheim

In Brief: On the eve of its destruction, the once-glorious Weissman Theatre is filled with the ghosts of its past as showgirls from 40 years ago reunite to glamorize the old days and relive lost memories of promise and splendor.

For two weary middle-aged couples, coming face-to-face with what might have been proves to be an eye opening experience. The score by Sondheim and book by Goldman create a dreamlike illusion of past and present combined. By eploying lush era musical theatre pastiche, with an intriguing tale to tell not only does Follies tell the story of Ben, Phyllis, Sally and Buddy...Ah, but undernteath it illustrates how time and memories shape and blur the realities of the past, and the present.

Follies opened on April 4, 1971 at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for 522 performances . It closed July 1, 1972. Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by James Goldman; Produced by Harold Prince in association with Ruth Mitchell; Directed by Harold Prince and Michael Bennett; Choreography by Michael Bennett. Tony Awards : Best Music and Lyrics (Stephen Sondheim ) , Best Director (Harold Prince and Michael Bennett), Best Actress in a Musical (Alexis Smith), Best Choreographer (Michael Bennett), Best Scenic Design (Boris Aronson), Best Costumes (Florence Klotz), Best Lighting (Tharon Musser).

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