FACE THE MUSIC! The Encores! series might grow another exclamation mark this season--that's how good its productions are turning out to be! Follies was a tough act to follow, but the current revival of the Irving Berlin-Moss Hart 1932 musical Face the Music--is a sparkling, revelatory success.

Together with two other Encores! highlights directed by John Rando--Strike Up the Band (1927) and Of Thee I Sing (1931), both by the Gershwins--Face the Music is a reminder of how entertaining and satirical the shows of its period could be. Almost from its first second, it trots out the cliches of a super-wholesome "Let's Put on a Show" musical, but--at least in this restoration involving David Ives [whose program notes are inspired] as well as Bruce Pomahac--it soon subverts them.

Led by a producer who prides himself on squandering investment money, the Depression-era showpeople patch together their Follies with the help of thoroughly corrupt cops and save the show by resorting to naughtiness. You don't have to know the story of Mae West's sensational 1926 play Sex to find the broad comedy in this or make the connections with Mel Brooks's The Producers. It's funny, surprising, and thoroughly delightful, performed by a great singing and dancing cast featuring Judy Kaye, Felicia Finley delivering a torch song to end all torch songs, and the great pairings of Jeffry Denman/Meredith Paterson and Mylinda Hull/Eddie Korbich.

[The timing of this production--during the runs of The Producers and The Drowsy Chaperone and the opening of the B-musical festival at the Film Forum--is excellent.] With Kristin Chenoweth slotted for the next production, Stairway to Paradise, this season promises to be an outstanding [extraordinary] one for Encores!!

Here are Korbich and Hull.

















And here are Patterson and Denman.


















Photos: Joan Marcus

LUPONE SLOTTED FOR GYPSY IN JULY! Today's New York Times reports that Patti LuPone--said to be sensational in a 2006 production of Gypsy at Ravinia--will reprise her role as the driven Mama Rose at Encores! this summer, in a production directed by Gypsy author Arthur Laurents.

The run from July 9 to July 29 (opening on July 12) represents a change in direction for Encores! It's the first summer production for the series, it'll last longer than the usual weekend, and, like the recent production of Follies, it's a revival of a recently revived Sondheim musical. (He wrote the Gypsy lyrics.)

Follies originally marketed itself as a venue for rare revivals of Broadway's hidden treasures, but in recent years it seems to be more divided between rarities and more familiar (commercial?) fare.

Anyway, this is exciting news--just look at how psyched Steve on Broadway is!

It's certainly an opportunity for LuPone to put down her tuba and cut loose in a way that wouldn't have been appropriate in the recent Broadway revival Sweeney Todd.

Here is LuPone's "Some People" from Ravinia--not the same as actually being there, of course!



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BROADWAY FOR MEDICINE: A GALA BROADWAY CONCERT. Playbill is offering discounted nosebleed seats for what looks to be a fun variety show on behalf of the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction. Get your tickets ASAP--I'm surprised they're still available!

The current roster includes

Betty Buckley
Kate Burton
Charles Busch
Manoel Feliciano
Jenn Gambatese
Malcolm Gets
Deborah Gibson
Joanna Gleason--she lit up Dirty Rotten Scoundrels!
Debbie Gravitte
Chester Gregory II
Julie Halston
Mimi Himes--terrific in the Encores! Follies!
Judy Kuhn
Andrea McArdle
Howard McGillin
Donna McKechnie
Hugh Panaro
Rosie’s Broadway Kids
Josh Strickland
Lisa Vroman

In other discount news, you can get $20 rush tickets to Off-Broadway shows 20 minutes before curtain during the week of March 4-March 11, 2007. It's part of the 20to20 promotion. I've heard great things about The Big Voice: God or Merman? (closing soon), I remember Stomp fondly from the previous century, and I was quite amused by Gutenberg! The Musical! when I saw it at Upright Citizens Brigade.

SONDHEIM'S FOLLIES. This weekend Encores! opens its new season with a very strong and thoroughly well-cast revival of Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical Follies. Having enjoyed last night's performance, I now consider it one of my very favorite Sondheim musicals (with Sweeney Todd).

Follies portrays veterans of a show called Weismann's Follies as they gather for their first and last reunion. The main plot revolves around two former actresses and their dissatisfaction with their husbands, whom they met while double-dating during their showbiz days. Over the course of the show, the couples and other characters perform numbers that reflect on their former and current lives. There are varying degrees of interplay between the reuniting cast members and figures representing their younger selves.

Last night Victoria Clark (Sally) and the stunningly glammed-up Donna Murphy (Phyllis) were excellent in their lead roles, shining in their climactic second-act numbers. Mimi Hines (Hattie) was a delight performing "Broadway Baby" and Jo Anne Worley (Stella) impressed with her delivery of "Who's That Woman?" I was tickled to hear Yvonne Constant (Solange) perform the folies-style "Ah, Paris!" And Encores! favorite Christine Baranski (Carlotta) offered an expertly shaped "I'm Still Here," though some of her lyrics did not come through in the nosebleed seats.

The production is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw of The Drowsy Chaperone, a show that also views past musicals with something approximating 20-20 hindsight. An extra performance of Follies has been added on Monday, February 12.

Here's the late Yvonne DeCarlo (the original Carlotta) discussing and singing "her" song, "I'm Still Here," on The David Frost Show.



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Here's Alexis Smith (the original Phyllis) performing a version of "The Story of Lucy and Jesse" at the 1975 Tony Awards.



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Here's little Daisy Eagan with an unusual rendering of "Broadway Baby." What a charmer!



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And here's "Who's that Woman?" from the 1987 London production.



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