FOLLIES IN CONCERT

Porchlight Music Theatre at The Studebaker

"Both Angela Ingersoll, who played the ever-hopeful Sally, and Michelle Duffy, as the cynical realist Phyllis, pulsed with vivacious energy, playing across from Rapp’s sardonic take on wound-tight Ben and Wallem’s deeply sad exploration of Buddy. Ingersoll, a whopping talent in her prime, flies here; her voice blended most delightfully with Rapp’s on 'Too Many Mornings,' and her solo take on 'Buddy’s Eyes' was a knockout. ...Director Michael Weber should strive to come back to this piece, with as many of these artists as possible, and find a way to do a full staging. Along with musical director Linda Madonia, he already achieves a great deal... Pulling off this downtown weekend  really was a signature Porchlight achievement and the kind of show that reminds us of the fortuitousness for Chicago of the renovation of the classic Studebaker, a theater with as many stories to tell as have Sondheim and Goldman’s characters, not to mention these actors, all very much at home with Sondheim and very much still here."
-Chicago Tribune | Read full review

"We got a reminder last weekend about just how essential Porchlight Music Theatre is. Their concert staging of Sondheim’s Follies (at the Studebaker Theater) reaffirmed the company’s willingness to tackle the most ambitious musical‑theater terrain... Even in concert form, it demands emotional precision and a company ready to meet its scale... In a night of many high points, Angela Ingersoll’s performance as Sally was perhaps the highest. Sally is the show’s emotional fulcrum—the character through whom Follies’ collision of past and present hits hardest. Her songs (“In Buddy’s Eyes,” “Too Many Mornings,” “Losing My Mind”) trace the cost of clinging to a fantasy long after it’s curdled, and Ingersoll’s beautiful voice and heartbreaking portrayal gave the role its full emotional force."
-Third Coast Review