Merrily We Roll Along: Sondheim’s 1981 “Flop” Completes Its Comeback

By Chris Knight

Rating: A-

Turn back the clock on this Stephen Sondheim musical and you’ll find that, while time has been kind to it, the early days were rough. Panned by critics and audiences alike, the original production of Merrily We Roll Along ran for just 16 performances in 1981. It would mark the last collaboration between Sondheim and director Hal Prince until 2003.

But that was then. Reworked and remounted in numerous locations, it has gained a following over the decades. In the autumn of 2022, an off-Broadway revival directed by Maria Friedman opened with Jonathan Groff as Frank, Daniel Radcliffe as his friend and collaboration Charley, and Lindsay Mendez as their good friend Mary.

Read our interview with the cast of Merrily We Roll Along

The following September, for the first time in 42 years, Merrily We Roll Along was back on Broadway with the same cast as that revival, including Katie Ross Clarke as Frank’s first wife, Beth, Krystal Joy Brown as Gussie, his second, and Reg Rogers as Joe, Gussie’s first husband.

That’s the version we can now see on the big screen, filmed at New York’s Hudson Theatre in front of a live and, unfortunately miked audience. Unfortunate because, while the applause sounds authentic, the occasional sounds of merriment resemble a laugh track.

I have another gripe with the film’s camerawork and editing, which struck me as too choppy and close-uppy for a production designed to be watched from a single unmoving seat. But the press notes refer to the perspective being “that of a classic Hollywood production, with emotions conveyed not only through Sondheim’s memorable music but also through our seeing them on the actors’ faces.” So at least it’s intentional.

And there’s no faulting the story. It opens in 1977 with Frank celebrating a success in Hollywood, and Mary miffed that he’s abandoned the world of stage musical, which was his first love. Charley is nowhere to be seen.

Then the years roll back, and it’s 1973. Frank and Charley are about to be interviewed about a new play, but it ends with the friends no longer speaking to one another; 1977 explained.

The further ahead the story goes, the farther backward it reels. 1973 gives way to 1968, then ’64, ’62, and all the way back to 1957, when Frank and Charley and Mary were young and literally starry-eyed. (They watch Russia’s Sputnik satellite go overhead from the roof of an apartment.)

It’s a simple technique but an effective one, presenting the characters as old and jaded, then gradually pulling back to see how they got that way. Groff and Radcliffe are great in two very different roles (each won a Tony last year for their performances) but there really isn’t a weak link in the cast, and the music is grand.

I enjoyed the zippy “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” (Radcliffe is a wizard at quick lyric delivery) and the political ditty “Bobby and Jackie and Jack,” about 1960’s dashing new U.S. president and his family. I’m sure that number had a tinge of wistful nostalgia in its 1981 debut; it has even more of one now, six and a half leaders later.

This Merrily is one of two filmed versions of the musical underway. The other, from director Richard Linklater, is an audacious one-up to his 12-years-in-the-making drama Boyhood. Working with actors Ben Platt, Paul Mescal, and Beanie Feldstein, he plans to shoot the ageing characters in real time, then edit the whole thing back into its retrospective framing, with a release date somewhere around 2040.

Will it be worth the wait? Time will tell. But in the meanwhile, I don’t think even Linklater would begrudge you watching this one.

Merrily We Roll Along. Directed by Maria Friedman. Starring Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe. In theatres December 5.