The Follies, the Providence Newspaper Guild's musical-comedy romp through Rhode Island politics, marked its 39th annual side-splitting performance Feb. 24.
As usual, the event was a who's-who of state politics, with Gov. Lincoln Chafee, U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Rep. David Cicillini and other state and local leaders among the crowd of 1,000, as well as top executives from the Providence Journal, the state's AFL-CIO president and national Guild officers Bernie Lunzer and Carol Rothman. Benefitting the local's scholarship fund, the Follies was first held to heal the wounds from a bitter 12-day strike at the Journal in 1973.
Each year, the show concludes with a mystery newsmaker, whose identity is kept tightly under wraps until the final number. This year it was Robert Flanders, the state-appointed receiver for the bankrupt city of Central Falls. He appeared on stage dressed as an executioner. But politics wasn't the only thing lampooned: One number, "Buy Me," sung to Blondie's "Call Me," parodied the Journal's efforts to increase readership at a time of declining circulation.