Ensemble of singing actresses are a high note of 'Follies'

From left: Maryann Zschau, Bobbie Steinbach, Deb Poppel, Kerry Dowling, Kathy St. George, Jacqui Parker, and Leigh Barrett in ''Follies'' at the Lyric Stage. (Mark Howard)

The list of women in the cast of "Follies" at the Lyric Stage Company reads like a dream team of Boston musical theater, from Leigh Barrett to Maryann Zschau. And that's only the front and back of the alphabet, in a cast that also includes Kathy St. George, Bobbie Steinbach, Jacqui Parker, and Kerry Dowling.

Clearly, Spiro Veloudos invested a huge chunk of his energy - and of the show's budget - in assembling such a terrific group of singing actresses, many of them reprising roles from the concert version of "Follies" he directed for Overture Productions in 2003. The investment pays off in their renditions of some highlights from Stephen Sondheim's brilliant score: Steinbach evoking a whole wise, wise-cracking lifetime in "I'm Still Here," or Barrett slowly coming apart in "Losing My Mind," or, especially, Zschau giving lethal snap and punch to "Could I Leave You?"

But "Follies" is more than its songs, and a strong production needs to smooth out the occasional stumbles of James Goldman's imperfect book. Set in a faded New York theater on the eve of its destruction, the story presents a flock of former "Weismann Girls" - fictional equivalents of Flo Ziegfeld's legendary "Follies" performers - gathering for a reunion, decades after their last show on this same stage. We see not only the women as they are today, but their own visions of their younger selves, singing and dancing in the old style of their glory days.

This makes for a delicious combination of pastiche and modern songs, but it also means that several numbers drop pretty much from nowhere into the modern-day plot, a tale of regrets and old heartbreaks featuring two couples, Buddy and Sally Plummer and Ben and Phyllis Stone. Sometimes the Lyric production finds ways to ease these transitions; the muted color scheme of Rafael Jaen's early costumes for the bygone performers, for example, gives them a pleasingly old-photo-album feel, though one that's exploded by the wild getups in the fantasy "folly" sequences of Act 2.

But the equally muted set, by the usually excellent Janie E. Howland, just seems muddy and underdone, especially when Scott Clyve's lighting succumbs to too-frequent bouts of murkiness. And some of the costumes Jaen provides for the women in their mature roles are nothing short of mean: muumuus, clingy polyester knits, and even a palazzo pantsuit with high slits revealing a shiny hot-pink lining. Yeah, it's set in 1971, but does it have to be that ugly?

Ilyse Robbins's clever, character-revealing choreography does boost the visual appeal of the show. The old-style production numbers are great fun, and the nostalgic echoes of them by the older performers feel touching and right.

There are other musical high points, too: The duet between Barrett's Sally and Larry Daggett's Ben is so beautifully balanced and emotionally riveting that you can see why Veloudos, despite his usual proud insistence on using local actors, brought Daggett from New York. Peter A. Carey (speaking of local actors) hones Buddy's furious cry of betrayal and frustration, "The Right Girl," to a perfectly bitter edge, and Parker's "Broadway Baby," though it's not the high-energy showstopper it can and should be, imbues a barely written character with real history and feeling.

Too often, though, the singers are fighting to be heard above the band, and that (along with the dark spots around the stage) may be what drains some of the energy from the show. This is a great chance to hear some of Boston's best singers in some of Sondheim's most emotionally accessible songs. It would be even greater to hear them clearly.

Louise Kennedy can be reached at kennedy@globe.com.