A "Follies" Assessment at the Kennedy Center.

Follies at Kennedy Center. Music and Lyrics: Mr. Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Goldman. Starring Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines, Danny Burstein, Linda Lavin, and Elaine Paige.

Well folks, I finally saw the holy grail of Sondheim musicals: The brilliant, unnerving and uneven Follies at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Starring my favorite Broadway diva Bernadette Peters; supported by Broadway veterans Jan Maxwell, Ron Raines, Danny Burstein, Elaine Paige, and Linda Lavin, it probably is the ALMOST truly satisfying musical theatergoing I’ve ever experienced. And don’t get me started that on the afternoon I decided to see the show down in Washington DC (an 8-hour round trip bus ride), I find out on the grapevine from a rabid Bernadette Peters and Sondheim fan that Playbill.com announced that Follies will be transferring into a Broadway run!

Follies’ book and script has always been plagued with problems, from its pacing and abstract vision of two couples’ mental breakdown and marital collapse juxtaposed with the demolition of the legendary theatre of where they had once performed thirty years earlier.

Set in 1971, the now married former show-biz couples, Buddy and Sally (Danny Burstein and Bernadette Peters) and Phyllis and Ben (Jan Maxwell and Ron Raines) all meet together and their respective former co-stars at the soon to be demolished Weissman Follies Theater in New York. The theater is being demolished in favor of a parking lot for one last show together. The last hurrah, the last performance of where they’ll all see one another together performing.

Sally once had an affair with Phyllis’s husband Ben; and Ben coldly ignores Phyllis, who is begging to be appreciated; while Sally ignores Buddy, who is a hapless joe very much in love with his depressive and manic depressive wife.

Perfect ingredients for a musical, right? No, more like a couple’s psyche and breakdown of a marriage.The first act is well acted and choreographed for the most part. There is a rousing tap-number led by Terri White called “Who’s That Woman?” where the older ladies’ younger selves appear as ghosts and the ghosts and the women all dance together for a last hurrah.

Linda Lavin makes a five minute appearance singing the standard “Broadway Baby” then disappears for the rest of the afternoon, not coming back out till the finale.

Bernadette Peters and Ron Raines sing the heartbreaking duets “Too Many Mornings” and “Don’t Look At Me” with devastating clarity.

Clad in a red cocktail dress that suggests her plan is to seduce, Ms. Peters quietly sings a song of self-delusion (“In Buddy’s Eyes”) trying to tell herself that she married her husband for love, but its Ben she still has eyes for.

But Act I has two bizarre and even slightly cringe-worthy moments that make you wish you had a spray or some kind of spatula to scrape off these parts that otherwise, hinder this musical from true greatness.

First is the casting of French cabaret singer Regine in the number “Ah, Paris”—a supposedly wistful tune about the joys of singing in the French follies. She sings like a foghorn, and is quite as terrible as Stockard Channing was in the last revival of Pal Joey.

The other moment is Elaine Paige’s delivery of the classic and supposed-to-be rousing 11 o’clock number, “I’m Still Here”. The British dame of theater has first of all, trouble acquitting herself to an American accent. Secondly, she flubs her lines by repeating herself a la Elaine Stritch. But Elaine Stritch she ain’t. She doesn’t even try to save herself by improvising her way through the difficult lyrics of the song. She sings the song that from what I saw, was in a conversational style that she uses to address her fans; then to a buildup of anger and jubilation that she experiences proudly after rattling off her accomplishments and witnessing much of the 20^th century’s historical achievements. Very strange interpretation indeed.

However, whatever shortcomings Act I had is truly made up in Act II’s stunning “Loveland” sequence. The rest of the characters are jettisoned to focus on the emotional and psychological breakdowns that Buddy, Sally, Phyllis and Ben all collectively share.

Danny Burstein is the revelation of the production. His “Buddy’s Blues”—a song of unrequited love for his unstable wife, disguised as a vaudeville number is number of desperation and at one last grasp to understand what went wrong in his marriage and in Sally’s betrayal of him for Ben. I found myself tearing up in parts that were supposed to create the illusion of joy amidst the heartbreak of infidelity.

Jan Maxwell is quite a dancer and sings well in her two numbers “Could I Leave You?” and “The Story of Lucy and Jessie” (a satire on her friendship/anger towards Sally and Ben’s infidelities) with zing. She’s also dressed to kill in both acts, in Act I, a cream colored chiffon gown; and in Act II, a devilishly red skirt with straps. She’s quite forceful, and an icy volcano waiting to erupt.

Lastly, I’ll save Bernadette last.

What else can I say?

She’s stunning. She’s sexy. She’s unhinged. She’s heartbreaking. Period. Her “Losing My Mind” is probably the most uninhibited, most heartrending version I’ve ever heard of this torch song. Her voice goes from vibrato, raspy growl, to lilting and fragile soprano within seconds of each other. She rips your heart out in one grab that you’re left crying your sockets out with pity that this woman has been so unhappy all her married life and you wonder what’s left for her, after the show is over.

Basically, Follies is the heartbreaking musical of how love went wrong for these four tragic characters. Phyllis and Ben may end up okay in the end. But for Buddy and Sally, the question is up in the air.

Follies—the verdict: Devastating. An afternoon of almost perfect theater.