Original-Cin Q&A: Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez & Jonathan Groff on Stage Hit’s Leap to the Screen
By Bonnie Laufer
There are few Broadway revivals that capture lightning in a bottle quite like Merrily We Roll Along.
Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s emotional time-bending musical has always held a beloved place in theatre history, but this latest production turned it into a phenomenon. Audiences flocked to witness its extraordinary chemistry — a story of friendship, ambition, and heartbreak told in reverse, powered by a cast whose connection felt undeniably real.
Now, that same energy is being preserved on film and this adaptation is a new chapter — a time capsule of a moment that reinvigorated a classic.
Broadway sensations Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez took audiences by storm with their unforgettable revival of Merrily We Roll Along, turning Sondheim’s reverse-told story of friendship, ambition, and heartbreak into a cultural moment.
The Merrily We Roll Along revival was nominated for seven 2024 Tony Awards, winning four: Best Revival of a Musical, Groff for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Radcliffe for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and Jonathan Tunick for Best Orchestrations.
Bonnie Laufer spoke with Radcliffe, Mendez and Jonathan Groff about reprising their roles for the screen ahead of the film’s December 5 opening in theatres across Canada.
ORIGINAL-CIN: Daniel, when you work so hard on a Broadway show, eight shows a week for nine months, how special is it for you to be able to bring it to the masses and share it with people who weren’t able to see it live.
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: It's really wonderful and so exhilarating. It is so lovely that this now exists both on a selfish level, so that in 20 years we can all kind of nostalgically look back and go, ‘Ah, wasn't that cool? Weren’t we amazing (laughs)?’
Also, as you say, there's so many people who couldn’t see the show. Fortunately, we got a lot of people that were able to come and see us live but there's infinitely more out there who were not able to either travel to New York or make it to us. So, I am thrilled this film now exists in perpetuity, for people who didn’t see it, and for those who did who just want to relive it and see it again. It's nice that there is something to come back to now.
O-C: Lindsay, what really holds this show together, aside from all your talent, is the friendship that exists. Not just on the stage and on the screen, but behind the scenes. You and Jonathan had known each other before. You didn't know Daniel before. Tell me about the secret why it worked so well with the three of you.
LINDSAY MENDEZ: Well…. let me let you in on why (all three laugh)! You know, I think in a lot of ways it was just the right place, right time, right people. We all got linked together. I think Jonathan started a text chain between us then we started sending videos. We forced Dan into a friendship but honestly, just from the very beginning, there was just an ease about what we had together. We had so much fun making this show and all three of us were very honest and very dedicated to making this show work, to giving the best that we could for Sondheim and for all the fans of this show who loved it.
O-C: It didn’t hurt that the three of you have Broadway experience and immediately gelled so well with this material.
LM: We loved it and believed in it, and we believed in Maria Friedman, our director. And our common goal was working as a cohesive team. There was no, ‘Where am I? Who am I?’ It was, ‘What are we doing? How are we doing this together?’ And I think for all three of us who have led things on our own it felt really good and feels really good to share the load of a show together. It was thrilling and yes, the friendship was the easy part. It was just the three of us being ourselves.
O-C: Jonathan, is there anything you cannot do? I truly marvel at your extraordinary talents.
JONATHAN GROFF: How much time do you have (laughs)?
O-C: When you were shooting for film, were you aware of the cameras surrounding you? Is that more pressure and does that affect your performance? This show is like a Jenga puzzle. It's so complicated.
JG: I really felt when we were talking about potentially doing this capture of the show, in my gut I was feeling ‘Get these cameras up here.’ I wanted it captured so bad for many reasons. For the history of the show as a time capsule for us, like we said, but also because I really felt that by the time we had gotten to the end of our run, there was so much nuance that in a subconscious way in the theater, the audience could feel. When we were up there, I was seeing things happen between the actors on stage that were so small and real and lived in that it felt like bringing in cameras to capture this felt like it would be completely organic.
There are certain theater shows where it's a bit broader, or it's a bit song and dance, but Maria Friedman directed this like we were doing a film from the very beginning. Even when we were performing on the stage, she would say, I don't mind seeing your back. I don't mind you going really broad. I want us to feel like we're peeking in on these relationships and these friends. I want us to have to lean in and so the acting of it was quite similar, because we were sort of acting intimately throughout the whole run of the show.
O-C: Daniel, to be able to sing Sondheim, my goodness, that’s not an easy feat. What was it like for you because these songs are not easy.
DR: None of the songs are easy in the delivery, but they are easy in the fact that they make the acting so easy because they are so beautifully written. When you perform the songs, it takes you to the emotional places that you need to be. That makes it incredibly easy to do because the acting is built into the music and lyrics somehow. It was truly a gift to do all of them, and to be able to say that I have done a Sondheim musical on Broadway is something I don't think I necessarily ever thought that I would be able to say. I'm so honoured and thrilled.