Bernadette Peters to Star in the Kennedy Center's Follies Revival

Bernadette Peters, currently starring in Broadway’s A Little Night Music revival, will soon be stepping into another Sondheim role. The Tony winner is set for the Kennedy Center’s revival of Follies, directed by Eric Schaeffer and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. Follies begins performances at Washington D.C.’s Eisenhower Theater on May 7 for a limited run through June 5.

Peters will take the stage as Sally Durant Plummer, a onetime showgirl in the vein of the famed Ziegfield Follies, who gathers for a reunion with her fellow troupers in a rundown theater to recount their loves, losses and glittering past. The Kennedy Center production, which has been gestating for four years, aims to replicate the original with a full 28-piece orchestra and sprawling cast of 41.

A Tony Award winner for Song and Dance and Annie Get Your Gun, Peters also received Tony nominations for Gypsy, The Goodbye Girl, Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, Mack & Mabel and On the Town and won a Theatre World Award for George M. Her other Broadway credits include the original cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods and her debut 50 years ago in The Most Happy Fella. She has released six solo albums and is a popular concert artist.

Follies had its Broadway debut in 1971, starring Dorothy Collins as Sally, going on to play 522 performances and win seven Tony Awards. Originally directed by Harold Prince with choreography by Michael Bennett, the show includes such favorites as “Losing My Mind,” “I’m Still Here” and “In Buddy’s Eyes.”