Relationships on the Rocks, Part I: Sally and Buddy

When I first started writing this post, I thought of commenting on all four principals in Follies: Sally, Buddy, Phyllis, and Ben at once. As I starting writing it, it became clear to me that I could write a lot on each, so I am dividing this into two posts. There are many possible ways to discuss these four – by gender, by couple, by possible couple, by their follies sequence – among other possible mental mixings. I’ve decided to talk about them as the couple they are at the beginning of Follies. So, let’s look at Buddy and Sally.

Sally Durant Plummer is the first to arrive at the reunion of the Weissman Girls, nearly flying onto the theater stage with a determination to not miss a thing. She looks like a nice lady, anxious to meet up with her fellow follies chorines for this big party, but it becomes clear that she is on a mission: she wants to meet up with the love from her youth, Benjamin Stone. Benjamin left her thirty years ago for her friend and roommate, Phyllis Rogers, and though devastated at that break up, Sally is still in love with him. She hopes that Phyllis comes to this reunion and bringing Ben, for she wants to see if Ben thinks he made a mistake marrying Phyllis. She hopes so, because that is a mistake she wants to correct.

How did Sally get to this point in her life? And why has she harbored this hope for the love of her youth? She married Ben’s friend, Buddy Plummer, a man who was crazy about her and loved her fully. Here she is – 49 years old, perky, seemingly optimistic, a not-so-stylish, suburban housewife who has raised her sons, hoping for her lost love to return to her. She has been with this desire for thirty years and not acted on it, but she sure has thought about it. No matter who you are, that kind of Walter Mitty dreaming is going to affect your head and how you see the world.

This party at the Weissman Theatre is filled with hope for Sally. She can finally get on with her life, a life that has been tolerated – or wasted, would we dare say? She has lived comfortably, both emotionally and financially, with Buddy, but she has not had passion for him. And that discussion is one that is avoided in the Plummer home. Still there are hints of emotional cracks and distress in her. As a character, Sally ranks right up there in drama where seemingly functioning women that, in the right circumstances (or perhaps it is better saying the wrong circumstances), become unhinged because the reality they must face is not acceptable. Sally does not have the coping skills to handle it. Nor will any of us if we hold onto a memory and read into it our present hopes and dreams, and then start acting on it.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I’d rephrase that saying: Those who cannot remember the past correctly are condemned to repeat it even worse.

I love words and their meanings, as you probably know if you read my first post. I looked at Sally’s name and thought about her maiden name – Durant. Is there more to it? It looked like a French name to me, so on a whim, I looked up the meaning of “durant” in a French dictionary. The meaning of the French word “durant” is during, whereas, while, whilst. It’s a preposition – not even a noun or a verb – indicating doing one thing at the same time you are doing another. Can you believe it? Sally is the beginning of a prepositional phrase between Ben and Buddy. It’s a stretch of linguistic analysis for teasing the meaning of her name into understanding who Sally is, but the name doesn’t seem to be an accident. Not in a Sondheim piece.

Of course this leads to the name of Buddy Plummer. Buddy is, well, a buddy… to Sally. He’s a pal, a confidante but he is certainly not a lover. There’s affection but not passion. And the meaning of Plummer is interesting too. One meaning of the verb “to plum” is to displace or take the place of something. Buddy is a buddy who takes the place of someone. In Sally’s mind, that someone is Ben.

Buddy is a kind man, passionately in love with his wife for all their thirty years together, even as it is clear to him that she does not feel that way about him. To handle this lack of affection, he’s engaged in extramarital affairs and when this reunion takes place, he has had a regular mistress named Margie who really loves him. He, on the other hand, is still in love with Sally. It’s this emotional workaround that is the basis of his comedic folly.

He embodies the classic qualities of a good salesman. He’s affable and outgoing with strangers. He talks easily and he is a good listener. Of the four leads, I get the sense that Buddy really does listen to what the others tell him. And he is not afraid to remember the past since he’s more afraid of the future. He’s smart but not deep and has the hide of a salesman; he can take no and not believe it. He’ll just come back wanting it to become a yes the next time he sees you.

While Sally is looking to accomplish something at this reunion, Buddy is on his own mission: he comes to make sure that his wife does not leave him. To do that, he is willing to go through all the pain his happy-go-lucky self has to face to make sure. It’s going to be fascinating creating the history of this couple with the actors playing Sally and Buddy, because it will require determining the degree of how much has been said and done in their life about Sally’s holding onto Ben. Has this come out in marital spats or when they have drunk too much? How much has been said about Ben’s place in Sally’s heart?

When Buddy completely loses it, after seeing Sally and Ben embrace – which motivates his singing of the ‘The Right Girl’ – what is new about this that triggers his emotional outburst? It’s tied to the fact that he actually sees this thing that he has feared come to life. It’s a challenging staging moment too, because, ‘The Right Girl’ is the only time in Follies that dance is used to communicate the emotionally conflicted state of a ‘live’ person. All the other dance in Follies is tied to ghosts, the re-enacting of stage memories, or part of the follies vaudeville sequence. I think Goldman and Sondheim are telling us something about Buddy – when he hits his limit, the salesman’s words fail him and he has to become physical to express himself.

By contrast, Sally heads the other way. When confronted with the hope of having Ben in ‘Too Many Mornings’ and then being immediately rejected by him, she freezes, becoming nearly emotionless and almost catatonic. Sally is the one lead whose story is nearly complete by the time of the follies vaudeville sequence happens. How the actor playing Sally handles the fight between the four of them (and their young selves) and her famous solo, ‘Losing My Mind’ will be fascinating to develop in rehearsal since she’s already shell shocked and reeling. She’s a ghost of the person she was when she came to this party when she leaves the theater at the end of the night.

The story lines of Sally and Buddy are disturbing for many of us that are in comfortable relationships in our middle age. Sally and Buddy look an awful lot like many of us. Does it make you wonder if your spouse is thinking of the passion of a past lover when you are looked at? Would they act on it if given the chance? Would you?

Next up: Relationships on the Rocks, Part II: Phyllis and Ben.

For additional information about the production itself, go to The Arlington Players website: www.thearlingtonplayers.org.

If you have questions for the director, feel free to respond to the blog or email him at folliesdirector@gmail.com. Responses to the blog may be posted publicly; email correspondence will be private.