{"id":1734,"date":"2019-02-25T15:12:26","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1734"},"modified":"2019-02-25T22:55:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T22:55:04","slug":"propwatch-the-feather-boa-in-follies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/02\/propwatch-the-feather-boa-in-follies.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the feather boa in Follies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Solange LaFitte is mooching backstage at the dilapidated New York theatre. Everyone has arrived at the Weismann follies reunion party, revisiting the venue where they were once the dazzling epitome of showgirl glamour. They\u2019ve all grabbed a drink, squealed at long lost buddies and curled a lip at long-grudged rivals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Sondheim\u2019s musical Follies<\/a><\/em> (directed by Dominic Cooke at London’s National Theatre) may be set in 1971, but Solange sets about networking before the term existed. The former artiste is flogging her own-label perfume \u2013 Caveman by Solange for the gent who has everything, Magic for the lady who wants to hold onto what she has. She treats every encounter as a chance to make an entrance \u2013 vigorously platinumed head thrown back, slinky still in turquoise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conversation, she\u2019s always on \u2013 but alone, she pokes about\nbehind the scenes. In Vicki Mortimer\u2019s design, it looks as if the wrecking crew\nhas already moved into the theatre: the walls are semi-demolished, seats are as\nmuch dust as plush. A rubble of discarded dreams piles up beside the stage. And\nsomething sticks out of an old props basket \u2013 a shabby feather boa. Solange fishes\nit out, sizes it up. It\u2019s grey \u2013 soft-toned down or just deeply-embedded grime?\nEither way, she snatches it with a scavenger\u2019s pragmatism. Just what she needs\nto give her old signature number some feathery ooh-la-la.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it does, as she sings Ah, Paree, a gazetteer of amorous\npossibilities (\u2018I have been to Moscow, it\u2019s very gay – \/ Well, anyway, \/ On the\nfirst of May\u2019). She presses her curves into service, makes with the wink and moue,\nchums it up with dancing matelots. The boa twirls, teases, stretches out across\nher shoulders. The feathers catch the powdery light and the once-gilt tassels enjoy\nyet one more spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solange \u2013 in Geraldine Fitzgerald\u2019s glintingly unsentimental\nincarnation \u2013 is one of the flintiest of the former showgirls. Most of them\ncheerfully share the triumphs and travails of their post-follies lives \u2013 husbands\nfound and lost, the small business graft that sees them through. Solange,\nhowever, doesn\u2019t dish: even her chat with Dmitri Weismann himself (\u201cMitya!\u201d she\npurrs) is less flirtation, more winsome shtick for her fragrances. (Hey, he\u2019s a\npre-MeToo monster \u2013 he doesn\u2019t deserve genuine conversation.) Her appetite for\nnostalgia is strictly limited \u2013 Fitzgerald takes the golden sash emblazoned with\nthe year she joined the follies, grimaces and immediately turns it inside out.\nWho needs to know she\u2019s been working her coquette act since 1930?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder what backstory Fitzgerald imagines for Solange. Is she even French? Wouldn\u2019t surprise me to learn she\u2019s completely self-invented. (The part was originally created by Fifi D\u2019Orsay<\/a>, who was actually Canadian but scored work in New York after singing Yes! We Have No Bananas in French, claiming to have been with the Follies B\u00e8rgere in Paris. Fittingly for Solange, she took her surname from her favourite perfume.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why pick on this slightly ratty prop, worn by a rackety supporting character? There are far sparklier creations in this visual feast of a show, and roles that hold more attention \u2013 notably the central quartet of miserable marrieds, Sally and Buddy and Phyllis and Ben, who flounder in a swamp of what might have been. That boa may have seen better days \u2013 but who hasn\u2019t? Most of the canny older women at the reunion have slipped off their unsustainable illusions like a pair of too-tight shoes. They\u2019ve made it from doll to dame, through good times and bum times, and they\u2019re still here. Nothing much surprises them, but not too much disappoints them either. Only one, Carlotta, is still a bona fide star, but the others get by. As Ron Fassler wrote about another of the musical\u2019s first cast \u2013 Ethel Shutta<\/a>, who sang Broadway Baby \u2013 \u2018her fingernails always clung to the ledge of show business until her dying day.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solange isn\u2019t wearing the boa when we later see her leave\nthe theatre. She declines an invitation to go on for a  drink (\u2018I need my beauty sleep!\u2019 she trills, prompting\na derisive snort from a former colleague). The boa has served its brief\npurpose. She doesn\u2019t need it, certainly isn\u2019t looking for souvenirs. The past, Follies<\/em> tells us, is heavy with allure. Silvered\nwith memory, shimmering with possibility, who wouldn\u2019t want to visit? But it\u2019s crucial\nto know when to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos: top, Alastair Muir (photos.alastairmuir.com); below, Tristram Kenton<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solange LaFitte is mooching backstage at the dilapidated New York theatre. Everyone has arrived at the Weismann follies reunion party, revisiting the venue where they were once the dazzling epitome of showgirl glamour. They\u2019ve all grabbed a drink, squealed at long lost buddies and curled a lip at long-grudged rivals. Stephen Sondheim\u2019s musical Follies (directed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[542,65,322,321,46,34,566],"class_list":{"0":"post-1734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-musical","8":"tag-national-theatre","9":"tag-props","10":"tag-propwatch","11":"tag-sondheim","12":"tag-theatre","13":"tag-vicki-mortimer","14":"entry","15":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1734"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1739,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1734\/revisions\/1739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}