Director Matthew Warchus is currently in discussions to mount a possible upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Warchus' London representative, Pauline Esper, said talks were underway, but that nothing has been signed. Warchus, the director of the Olivier Award and Tony Award winning play Art, is due back on Broadway this spring with a new production of Sam Shepard's True West.
Roundabout sources could not confirm Warchus' involvement at this time but did say the show is scheduled to run at the Roundabout's new home, the former Selwyn on West 42nd Street, which is still under construction.
"Follies will run at the Roundabout's new theatre, but the show is still a year and a half away from opening," a production source told Playbill On-Line.
The original Hal Prince production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies in 1971 was co-directed by Prince and Michael Bennett. Bennett choreographed the show. Costumes were by Florence Klotz. In all, says longtime Prince press agent Mary Bryant, the show won seven Tony Awards. With book by James Goldman and sets by Boris Aronson, Follies had a pre- Broadway run at Boston's Colonial Theatre before opening on Broadway at the Winter Garden. Broadway's original Follies closed in 1972. The show employs a then-and-now look at a chorus line; that is, Follies portrays the aging cast members at a 1971 reunion juxtaposed with their "younger selves" as they last appeared together in 1941.
Follies has been revived sporadically, and the New York Philharmonic performed a successful concert version of Follies in 1985 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. That performance, which was recorded for RCA and produced by Thomas Z. Shepard, featured Barbara Cook, Carol Burnett (still on Broadway with the Sondheim revue, Putting It Together), Lee Remick, Mandy Patinkin and Elaine Stritch. Warchus' credits include Sejanus: His Fall (Edinburgh), Master Harold and the Boys (Bristol Old Vic), The Suicide, Coriolanus (National Youth Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (West End, Shakespeare's Globe), The Life of Stuff, an earlier production of True West (Donmar Warehouse) and Volpone (Royal National Theatre, Evening Standard Best Director Award). For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Warchus directed Henry V (Evening Standard Best Director Award), The Devil Is an Ass, Hamlet and Yasmina Reza's The Unexpected Man. For film, Warchus directed and co-adapted the Sam Shepard play Simpatico, starring Jeff Bridges, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte and Sharon Stone.
