Follies

The Broadway revival of "Follies" will retain much of its principal cast when it moves to Los Angeles this season. Actors Jan Maxwell, Danny Burstein, Ron Raines and Elaine Paige will appear in the musical when it opens at the Ahmanson Theatre on May 9. Victoria Clark will take over the role currently played on Broadway by Bernadette Peters. Clark, whose Broadway credits include the current "Sister Act" and 2005's "The Light in the Piazza," will play the role of Sally Durant Plummer.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard the arguments on both sides of California's Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, the smart bet seems to be that, though both restrictions on same-sex marriage are very likely to be struck down, the court is not going to make a sweeping ruling that will allow homosexuals to marry in all 50 states. That means the political fight will go on and on. Yes, the new conventional wisdom is that gay-rights advocates are certain to win the war, but, without a clear declaration from the high court that marriage equality is a constitutional right, there are many battles yet to be fought.

After spending countless hours poring over images of architectural follies from around the world, L.A.-based architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena weren't content with merely displaying their selections for "Folly -- The View From Nowhere," at MOCA Pacific Design Center; they had to design their own. "Folly I," a behemoth structure constructed inside the exhibit space, offers a mock 360-degree view of L.A. Organized along with MOCA...

In "Jacob's Folly," Rebecca Miller has landed on a narrative voice that's antique, droll, racy and occasionally cutting - imagine an 18th century French rake being played by David Niven. But instead of putting an elegant, handsome man behind that voice, Miller has given it to a fly. A common housefly, yes, but more importantly, it's the proverbial fly on the wall. Embodying that metaphor so literally is silly but also brilliant; in a sense this is what writers do, spy on their invented worlds, eavesdrop on their characters.

"The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" won the Tony Award for revival of a musical, beating out the recent revival production of "Follies" that ran at the Ahmanson Theatre. "Porgy and Bess,"which stars Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, opened last year at American Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts before transferring to Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in January. The production, directed by Diane Paulus, garnered controversy for altering certain narrative aspects of the original Gershwin musical for what some people saw as commercial reasons.

“Follies” bid farewell to the Ahmanson Theatre on Saturday night, and the emotion in the house was as charged as the emotion coursing through the Weismann Theatre, where the ex-Follies girls have gathered with their significant others, old dreams, lingering disappointments and faltering hopes.   Jubilation, nostalgia and, yes , the ache of anticipated loss - the complex rush of feelings was in complete sync with James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 classic. It was a fitting ending here for a revival that began at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., made a splash on Broadway after a few cast changes and tweaks and, riding high after its L.A. triumph, should walk away Sunday with a few Tony Awards.

There's a flicker of uncertainty in Danny Burstein's friendly brown eyes as he greets a reporter backstage at the Ahmanson Theatre, as if he half-expects her to step around him on her way into the dressing room of one of his "Follies" costars. "When I heard that The Times wanted to talk to me, I said, 'Are you sure?'" he says, after being persuaded that he, and not Ron Raines, Victoria Clark, Jan Maxwell,Elaine Page,or any of the show's other big guns, is meant to be the subject of this interview.

Fantastic rehearsal. Pretty good show. Theater people will adore every minute of " 'Follies' in Concert" (9 p.m. Friday, Channels 28, 15), but the first part is the gold. That's when director Michael Houldey takes us backstage to watch Stephen Sondheim and friends hammer together a platform version of Sondheim's 1971 musical, "Follies," in a mere four days. We're told that the entire process took two years.

The Academy Awards telecast has been such a snooze in recent years. By the time the ceremony rolls around, the winners are completely predictable. What was the big surprise last year? That Meryl Streep, the most decorated actress alive, won over Viola Davis. Not even the master of impersonation herself could feign being all that shocked. For those who like their awards shows with a modicum of suspense, Sunday's Tony Awards ceremony, otherwise known as prom night for glee club geeks, should provide a refreshing change.

'Follies' Cast: Juliet Prowse and Shani Wallis will play former showgirls, Dorothy Lamour will sing "Broadway Baby," and Yma Sumac will warble "One More Kiss" in her first "legit" appearance since 1951. They'll all be in Long Beach Civic Light Opera's staging of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies," March 1-18. Other prominent players will include Harvey Evans, Karen Morrow, Billy Barnes and Ed Evanko.

SACRAMENTO - The nutty notion that a citizen can be heavily enough armed to fight off the government went up in smoke near Big Bear Lake. This may sound crazy to most normal people, but there are some obsessed gun owners - although a minority, surely - who believe they need to arm themselves to perhaps combat government oppression. One reader wrote recently that he supported gun control "as long as I'm armed as well as the police," whom he didn't trust and felt he needed to be prepared to battle in a shootout.

"Once" is once again in the awards spotlight. The original cast recording for the popular Broadway show is among the Grammy nominees this year in the category of musical theater albums. The show features songs by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the duo who won an Oscar for the 2006 original movie. Rounding out the nominees are the cast albums for "Follies," "The Gershwins' Porgy and  Bess," Disney's "Newsies" and "Nice Work If You Can Get It. " "Once," which is based on the indie movie, opened on Broadway in March and scooped up eight Tony Awards, including the prize for best musical.

It's Day 20 for the Benghazi CSI-team hostage crisis. That's how long an FBI forensic team has been trying to gain access in Libya to what the State Department still calls a crime scene - the Obama administration's preferred term for the location of the first assassination of a U.S. ambassador since 1979 and the first successful Al Qaeda-backed attack on U.S. soil since the 9/11 strikes (our embassies and consulates are sovereign U.S. territory)....

USC's reign as college football's No. 1 team lasted as long as it took the Trojans to play a game. The Trojans dropped one spot, to No. 2, Tuesday in the Associated Press media poll. Yet, in the USA Today coaches' poll, USC moved up a notch, from No. 3 to No. 2 — for the same 49-10 victory over Hawaii. Welcome to poll vaulting at the 2012 BCS Olympics. This, folks, is one reason why we're going to a four-team playoff in 2014. This just shows how silly polls can be and why they have been, for decades, a hilariously unreliable way to pick champions.

After the coffee. Before turning off my email for a week. The Skinny: I will be on vacation next week and unlike other vacations where I still do the Morning Fix, I'm actually taking the time off for real. The very able Ben Fritz and some other fine co-workers will guest host for next week so you'll be in good hands. Friday's Fix includes the weekend box office preview stories, the controversy over having Jimmy Fallon host the Oscars and reviews of"Total Recall" and"Killer Joe. " Daily Dose: With former ABCscheduling chief Jeff Bader joining NBCin the same capacity, it will be interesting to see if he tries to tweak the network's schedule before the start of the season.

“Follies” bid farewell to the Ahmanson Theatre on Saturday night, and the emotion in the house was as charged as the emotion coursing through the Weismann Theatre, where the ex-Follies girls have gathered with their significant others, old dreams, lingering disappointments and faltering hopes.   Jubilation, nostalgia and, yes , the ache of anticipated loss - the complex rush of feelings was in complete sync with James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim's 1971 classic. It was a fitting ending here for a revival that began at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., made a splash on Broadway after a few cast changes and tweaks and, riding high after its L.A. triumph, should walk away Sunday with a few Tony Awards.

CBS-TV once again ended up in the rough Sunday with another repeat of its golf follies. The Atlanta tournament ran late because of a 50-minute rain delay, so the network had to cut away at 3 p.m. PDT with four holes to play. The reason: a CBS special report. Valid enough. But the report was shown at that time only in the East. Viewers in Los Angeles got a game show, "Anything for Money." CBS has been continually plagued with golf tournaments running too long.

Whenever a regime tumbles, among the first steps a regretful nation takes in trying to turn its horrors into history is to form a commission devoted to "truth and reconciliation." By now, the phrase has acquired a self-evident ring, as if seeking one automatically leads to the other. Historians, journalists, judges and psychoanalysts are conditioned to believe in the cleansing power of truth.

"The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" won the Tony Award for revival of a musical, beating out the recent revival production of "Follies" that ran at the Ahmanson Theatre. "Porgy and Bess,"which stars Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis, opened last year at American Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts before transferring to Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in January. The production, directed by Diane Paulus, garnered controversy for altering certain narrative aspects of the original Gershwin musical for what some people saw as commercial reasons.

The Academy Awards telecast has been such a snooze in recent years. By the time the ceremony rolls around, the winners are completely predictable. What was the big surprise last year? That Meryl Streep, the most decorated actress alive, won over Viola Davis. Not even the master of impersonation herself could feign being all that shocked. For those who like their awards shows with a modicum of suspense, Sunday's Tony Awards ceremony, otherwise known as prom night for glee club geeks, should provide a refreshing change.