Review – The Will Rogers Follies (2009)
“Never Sang a Song I Didn’t Like”
| By: | John Threlfall, Monday Magazine |
| For: | The Will Rogers Follies |
| Who: | The Victoria Operatic Society |
| Where: | McPherson Playhouse |
| When: | May 2009 |
Published: May 6, 2009
Ah, the beloved American musical. Find a likeable national icon, hire a veteran music-and-lyrics team to wrap his story around a bunch of songs that can’t help but make you smile, surround him with dancers decked out in extravagant costumes and—hey, presto!—you’ve got a Tony-winner like The Will Rogers Follies. But as cynical as that sounds, somehow it all works—especially in this stellar production by the Victoria Operatic Society, which is far and away the best show I’ve seen them do in years.
Penned by famed songwriting team Comden and Green (of Singin’ in the Rain fame) with music by Cy Coleman (Sweet Charity), Follies is a 1991 Broadway charmer that metatheatrically encapsulates the rise to fame of noted early 20th century American humourist Will Rogers—arguably America’s first multimedia celebrity, thanks to his work on stage and in radio, film, print and, surprisingly, politics. Best known today for his homespun homilies (“I never met a man I didn’t like”), the humble Rogers succeeded by speaking his mind at a time when people wanted, and needed, the truth. But rather than present a standard biographical musical, Follies is set amidst the very Ziegfeld Follies that helped Rogers achieve his fame.
VOS veteran Chris Newstead (The Music Man) is the perfect choice to play Rogers: with his bright teeth, boyish good looks, strong voice and believable charm, Newstead is the ideal lead for this show; not only can he dance his way around a difficult rope trick but he also has the emotional range to really make the audience care about him. (Indeed, my six-year-old daughter was in tears by the end of the show.) There’s also some great supporting work here by Angela Ireland as Rogers’ wife Betty Blake, as well as Lynn Spargo as a Ziegfeld dancer and a Hee Haw-worthy Paul Miles as Rogers’ father, Clem.
Excellent production work help bring these Follies to life—notably David Hardwick’s simply stunning range of costumes (of which Ziegfeld himself would have been proud), John Britt’s Broadway-steps style set, Adam Wilkinson’s gala lighting and music director Heather Burns’ strong pit orchestra and chorus.
But much of the credit for the success of this show goes directly to director-choreographer Matthew Howe, best known locally for his work with the Canadian College of Performing Arts. Howe is definitely the right person for this production, as he has managed to pull big-ticket performances out of the non-professional cast. Both the male and female chorus work overtime here, energetically belting out the songs and hoofing it with the best of them. It all starts off with a real show-stopper (“Will-A-Mania”) that had me a bit worried—okay, how can you top that?—but by the time the girls came out dressed like sunflowers, Newstead started doing Rogers’ famous rope tricks, the full cast tackled some fancy hand-dancing and then launched into a hilarious glowing black-light cowboy dance number, well, I was fully won over.
The scant quibbles I have lie not with this VOS production but with the original show itself (few of the numbers are truly memorable, his wife should have more songs, this is exactly the style of musical that The Producers set out to spoof), but that shouldn’t stop anyone from catching The Will Rogers Follies. And I dare anyone not to be moved by Rogers’ heartfelt Depression-era speech in Act II, which offers a shocking parallel to the current economic climate—a coincidence VOS could not have foreseen when they planned this season. With great work all around, The Will Rogers Follies is sure to be one of the most memorable musicals of recent years.