Follies is a
musical with music and lyrics by
Stephen Sondheim and a book by
James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling
Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies", a musical
revue (based on the
Ziegfeld Follies), that played in that theatre between the world wars. It focuses on two couples, Buddy and Sally Durant Plummer and Benjamin and Phyllis Rogers Stone, who are attending the reunion. Sally and Phyllis were showgirls in the Follies. Both couples are deeply unhappy with their marriages. Buddy, a traveling salesman, is having an affair with a girl on the road; Sally is still as much in love with Ben as she was years ago; and Ben is so self-absorbed that Phyllis feels emotionally abandoned. Several of the former showgirls perform their old numbers, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of their former selves.