Fine and fun Follies performances at the Venus

Great time last night at the Venus for the 43rd (?!) Providence Newspaper Guild Follies; once again, the gods have been kind to the Follies crew, providing plenty of material from 2016, and the crew capitalized on the bounty. Have to say that the UHIP number, a take on the Adele smash Hello, with Alisha Pena as a woman deprived of benefits and Cheena D'Arauja - Desir as a hapless benefits officer, was not only the highlight of the show but probably, pace Michael Evora, the best vocal # in Follies history - they just killed it, with beautiful, simple staging and scoring as well. Other great moments included Tracy McGraw, Gina Raimondo's double, as the ice queen from Frozen, all the women in the cast in a great Yoga Pants Parade # to the tune of "You Don't Own Me," a funny skit on the Russian sub sighted off the R.I. coast, and a hilarious Cooler-Warmer # at the top of the show w/ half the cast in beach attire and the rest in ski jackets and wool caps. Over the years, the backstage crew has gotten better and better, and this year the costumes were outstanding - anyone who's seen the backstage space at this show will be even more amazed at how they can execute all the costume and props transitions in a (mostly) seamless process. The "Smith Brothers," Andy and Steve did a great job directing and more than held their own on stage as well. Mystery guests? Less said the better - but at least they didn't eclipse the fine and fun performances from the Follies crew.