“Follies” has been met with limited financial success and conflicting reviews ever since it made its Broadway debut in 1971. The musical is the story of two couples who come back to a dilapidated theatre in New York City for a reunion of the Weismann girls who performed musical reviews, follies, in the years between the wars. Emotional issues from the time the four of them were friends have carried over into modern day and develop as the play progresses. Through a combination of scenes from the reunion, scenes from the past and songs from the original follies, a story unfolds.

The plot arc gets convoluted by a less than straightforward telling. A musical that is told in such a variety of ways requires that clear choices be made, lest the audience be confused.

The MOC’s production failed both in making clear choices that clarified the musical’s complicated structure and in creating the sympathetic characters needed to make this show a success.

This musical hinges upon the audience’s ability to, if not relate, at least have compassion for the older characters. They may be foolish and stuck in a bygone day, but they should also seem tragically human in their actions.

The words of the songs are lovely, individual lines reveal meaning and truth in life, but by the performers just don’t make you care about them.

The love between Sally, played by Cheryl Woetz, and Ben, played by Paul Salvatoriello, seemed dirty, old and stale, like a moth-eaten sweater overdue for the garbage. Phyllis, Ben’s wife played by Linda McConoughey, is a shell, devoid of feeling and emotion, rather than a complex woman who has been alienated by her husband. They seemed more caricatures than characters. They said the lines, went through the motions, but didn’t move the audience.

The only one of the main characters who managed to have emotional depth was Buddy, Sally’s husband played by Joe Vierno. If there is any victim in this whole show, it’s him to be sure.

There was the potential for Sally and Ben to each have her/his own tragic flaw, as their younger counterparts seem to, but it just didn’t work. They were so unsympathetic as people that it tainted any feelings the younger actors earned.

Young Sally, played by Janine Lynn, Young Ben, played by John Sechrist, Young Phyllis, played by Enchantee Carter, and Young Buddy, played by George Adamo, were wonderful. Their performance throughout was poignant and “The Folly of Youth” was undeniably one of the best numbers in an otherwise dull show. However, it also served to highlight how poor the rest of the show seemed in comparison to this one shining scene.

This is a difficult show to be sure. Sondheim is not known for light and fluffy show tunes. So why choose to do this piece in community theatre? Such a bold choice in musical selection requires equally bold choices in direction. With little more than a plot introduction and no director’s note in the program, the audience is left to flounder on assumptions instead of attempting to understand choices.

One line, “underneath it (the show) illustrates how time and memories shape and blur the realities of the past, and the present,” in the very beginning of the program, gives any indication of the dizzying dream the audience is in for.

Technically the show looked lovely, boasting a high quality of both set and costumes. But they at times seem as purposeless in the play as anything else.

The unit set, although lovely and interesting, was ill-used. What specifically each section represented was unclear. One side looked like the outside of the building or backstage - it was used in both ways - one section opened up in the second act to reveal a small staging area for the follies that are performed, and lastly one section was beautifully decorated as what the stage for the girls must have looked like in its former glory. Most scenes took place in front of the outside or backstage section, and but a handful in front of the grand staircase side. The set would change to this decorated side at odd moments that didn’t allow the audience to understand the purpose for this change.

For as much time and money clearly went into constructing that side, it was used perhaps a handful of times. Its use was so infrequent and confusingly timed that you spent the time it was visible looking around at the sweeping staircase and white walls, trying to determine exactly what it was supposed to be and why it was used.

MOC clearly has a choice pick of the area’s younger talent and is well funded as evident by superior costumes and set, yet they pick a complicated show that brings out the flaws of some of their older performers instead of celebrating their diverse talent pool.

Elizabeth Martin can be contacted at: martin@northjersey.com.