Sondheim’s “The Road You Didn’t Take”: The Blessed Peace
Photo of Joseph Dellger in Signature Theatre’s Follies by Carol Pratt
“The Road You Didn’t Take,” a song which falls early in the first act of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies, is sung by the character Benjamin (Ben) Stone and is the first solo of the main characters in the show. In the scene which leads into the song, Ben is with his old friend Sally. They have found themselves alone and away from the other guests at the reunion party. There is a romantic history between them, but, at this early point in the evening, it has not yet resurfaced. Ben is comfortable, confident, and cool—so cool that, before the song starts, he says, “Success is just being good at what you want to do. Know what you want and do it. That’s the secret.” He speaks in platitudes—what might he be covering up?
Then the song begins, and the lyric draws the listener in. It starts off with, “You’re either a poet, or you’re a lover, or you’re the famous Benjamin Stone.” With this opening—a three-way comparison—Sondheim sets up the positive ideas of being a “lover” or “poet” and then gives us the punch line of the third one. In this lyric, Ben references himself in the third person which suggests there is some distance between what he is saying and what he is feeling. In the other early stanzas, he muses about his life’s choices to Sally in a simple, almost boasting, conversational way. Ah, but there’s more underneath….
When this song is sung out of the context of the show, it loses a piece of important storytelling: the flashbacks. At two points during the song there are short scenes where Ben shares space with the memory of his younger self, a character in Follies referred to as Young Ben. In the first flashback, he is with his friend Buddy, and, in the second, he is with his future wife, Phyllis. Both scenes portray Ben’s attitude towards the importance of money and, in the second one specifically, Young Ben is seen as cocky, eager to take on the world and make it his own. Both scenes focus more on the material than the emotional.
The lyrics which surround the flashbacks let us know that Ben is deeply affected by them. The memories seem unexpected, and he is taken to emotional territory he was not looking to enter. As this happens, the lyric continues with, “I don’t remember” and “I don’t remember at all.” This gives an indication that his focus has been drawn away from Sally and is now focused on his inner world and his memories. Then the questioning begins.
In the lyric, Ben asks himself questions about life like, “where could it have led?” He then asks another question about dreams: “Were they ever there?” Then he starts repeating the question, “Could they?” And that is when it seems like the lady may be protesting too much. Does Ben believe what he is saying? Is he deluding himself? And, if he is deluding himself, is he successful? By the end of the song, Ben actively tries to put the act of relitigating the past in the past by mentioning “a blessed peace” that he feels. He then ends the song with the lyric (now, perhaps, focused back to Sally), “the Ben I’ll never be, who remembers him?” But something unspoken lingers, and he does not answer the question. Try as he might, Ben cannot stop himself from facing a reality check that he was not looking for, and the “blessed peace” he mentions turns out not be so peaceful (his breakdown at the end of “Loveland” in the second act lets us know that for certain).
The power that this old theater has is great and it affects all of the characters in Follies. Each of them has come to visit Weismann’s theater for have a reunion. But the space conjures unexpected echoes of the past and what starts as an evening of chit-chat gives way to comparisons, to individual confrontations of self, and to terrifying questions of “what if?” It is in this way that the micro journey Ben takes in “The Road You Didn’t Take” mirrors the macro journey of Follies itself.
“The Road You Didn’t Take” has stood the test of time. It is a popular offering in cabarets and concerts settings, and, while it is incredibly specific to Benjamin Stone (he names himself in the song multiple times), there is also a universality to it because of the questions it poses. It is often the case that the more specific a song is, the more audience members can connect to it. There is also a resemblance to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Less Traveled,” but, while Frost portrays a character who is at peace with his choices, Sondheim’s version expresses more uncertainly. And when you spend time with a character who is questioning his specific life choices, it has the power to be relatable to anyone who is doing the same thing. Aren’t we all doing that at some point or another?
Dev Bondarin is an NYC-based director and Associate Artistic Director of Prospect Theater Company where she directs an annual musical theater lab which has produced over 100 new, short musicals. She is a former Artistic Director of Astoria Performing Arts Center where she directed Marguerite (NY premiere with Tony Award-winner Cady Huffman), Merrily We Roll Along and Raisin (both earned NY Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Musical), and Caroline, or Change (AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Musical Revival) among others. Additional directing credits: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Little Women (Festival 56), King Lear (American Bard), tours with TheaterWorksUSA, and readings and workshops of new plays and musicals. In 2018 Dev directed an intimate production of Follies in a non-traditional theater space in NYC and it remains one of her most meaningful theater experiences. MFA: Brooklyn College / BA: Brandeis University. devbondarin.com
THE ROAD YOU DIDN’T TAKE
BEN
You’re either a poet
Or you’re a lover
Or you’re the famous
Benjamin Stone
You take one road
You try one door
There isn’t time for any more
One’s life consists of either/or
One has regrets
Which one forgets
And as the years go on
The road you didn’t take
Hardly comes to mind
Does it?
The door you didn’t try
Where could it have led?
The choice you didn’t make
Never was defined
Was it?
Dreams you didn’t dare
Are dead
Were they ever there?
Who said?
I don’t remember
I don’t remember
At all…
The books I’ll never read
Wouldn’t change a thing
Would they?
The girls I’ll never know
I’m too tired for
The lives I’ll never lead
Couldn’t make me sing
Could they?
Could they?
Could they?
Chances that you miss
Ignore
Ignorance is bliss—
What’s more
You won’t remember
You won’t remember
At all
Not at all…
You yearn for the women
Long for the money
Envy the famous
Benjamin Stones
You take your road
The decades fly
The yearnings fade, the longings die
You learn to bid them all goodbye
And oh, the peace
The blessed peace…
At last you come to know
The roads you never take
Go through rocky ground
Don’t they?
The choices that you make
Aren’t all that grim
The worlds you never see
Still will be around
Won’t they?
The Ben I’ll never be
Who remembers him?
