Bennett will get to belt out Sondheim's anthem of survival, “I'm Still Here,” originated by Yvonne De Carlo in the original Broadway production and most recently performed by Olivier winner Elaine Paige in the 2011 Broadway revival.
The cast, under the direction of Dominic Cooke, will also include the previously reported Imelda Staunton as Sally Plummer and Janie Dee as Phyllis Stone with Peter Forbes and Philip Quast as their husbands. Bill Deamer will choreograph.
The production will reportedly use Goldman's original book rather than the version Goldman reworked for the 1987 London revival starring Julia McKenzie and Diana Rigg.
Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre, previously provided Playbill.com the following statement: “We are thrilled Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee will return to the National in 2017 in Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's masterpiece Follies. Musical theatre is hugely important and of course, like audiences all over the world I love Stephen’s work. Imelda’s performance in Guys and Dolls at the NT is the stuff of legend and I am delighted she is to take the lead in Follies under the direction of Dominic Cooke.”
The 1971 musical is set at a late-life reunion of singers and dancers from Broadway’s long-vanished Weismann Follies. As the participants try to sort out the mistakes of their lives, they are surrounded by the glamorous ghosts of their younger selves.
Dorothy Collins originated the role of Sally. The show has been revived on Broadway twice: in 2001 with Judith Ivey as Sally and in 2011 with Bernadette Peters as Sally.
