By Aliza Billet, Senior Arts & Culture Editor
In 1981, legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim — co-creator of smashing Broadway successes like Company, A Little Night Music and Follies — produced an absolute flop of a musical. Merrily We Roll Along, Sondheim’s fourth collaboration with director Hal Prince, closed after only 16 performances. However, after being reworked over the years, the 2023 revival of Merrily We Roll Along played for an extended run through July 2024. This month, a filmed version of that revival was released, which means that the Tony-winning, star-studded Best Revival of 2024 is finally available for the public to see on the big screen and at home. It is a powerful story about friendship, success and failure, and what happens when art is not given the space it needs to breathe.
Merrily We Roll Along follows three characters, Frank, Charley and Mary, over their 20-year friendship. They go from being young college students, optimistic about making their way in the world, to successful 40-somethings who would give it all up in a second if they could. It is a story that has been told before, a cautionary tale about what success can do to a person. But what makes Merrily We Roll Along unique is that it starts at the end; the story is told in reverse chronological order.
The show begins at a party in 1977. Frank, a film producer, is celebrating the release of his new movie, but his friend Mary is disgusted by the shallow Hollywood crowd in attendance. When their third friend, Charley, comes up in conversation, the tension rises, because Frank hasn’t spoken to him since the two fell out during an unspecified incident five years prior. A fight breaks out when Frank’s wife Gussie bursts in and accuses him of cheating on her with the young star of his new film. Then, the chorus starts singing, and the years begin to roll back. Over the next two hours, the context for everything portrayed in this first scene is slowly revealed. The characters get younger and younger, until they are naive undergrad students on a roof in 1957, excited and optimistic to take on the world. It is a tragic story which leaves you with a sense of hopelessness, and it is beautiful.
I was lucky enough to see Merrily We Roll Along at the Hudson Theatre last year. A friend offered me a free ticket, and while I didn’t know what the show was about, I was a fan of both Stephen Sondheim and the stacked cast of the revival: Daniel Radcliffe has gone on to act in some unique movies since the Harry Potter films, Jonathan Groff played, among other things, Kristoff in Frozen and King George in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton and Lindsay Mendez is a famous Broadway name — she’s been in six different Broadway shows, including playing Elphaba in Wicked and Carrie in Carousel.
While I entered the theater excited for the talent and curious about the story, I left it feeling slapped in the face with the reality that hopes and dreams rarely come true the way we expect them to. It’s a stinging, earthshaking truth, especially as an artist, but it’s a truth nonetheless.
Merrily We Roll Along is almost a tragedy in the way that it begins with the end. The audience knows how the story ends, having been introduced to the characters only after their lives have fallen apart. But then they spend two hours learning who the characters were before getting swept up in the throes of disaster. Watching the workaholic, substance-addicted, unhappy moguls turn into the optimistic young artists you relate to, and even see yourself in, is jarring
The actors’ performances make the story especially engaging. Jonathan Groff stands out in the way he encapsulates the character of Frank through every moment of the story’s two-decade timeline. His voice gets noticeably lighter and you can almost see the brightness return to his eyes as the years roll back, and it truly feels like 20 years have reversed in the two-hour runtime. His genuine optimism to get out into the artistic world is contagious, until you remember all the things he is going to do to bring about his own downfall by the time the story ends.
Daniel Radcliffe’s character Charley serves as an important foil to Frank in the way the two behave after achieving success. Charley does not let it consume him; he remains loyal to his wife and children, while Frank cheats on every partner he has and is eventually rejected by his son. Radcliffe’s stage presence captures Charley’s wholesome personality. His navigation of emotionally tense moments is a strong part of his performance.
In the song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” Charley gives a public interview discussing how Frank cares more about success than the artistic quality of his work. Radcliffe’s portrayal of a frantic man scrambling to save his and Frank’s creative partnership while realizing he’s actually accidentally sabotaging their friendship walks the line between humor and emotional devastation, and his performance embodies this nuance throughout the show. Radcliffe utilizes physical comedy particularly well in “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” but also in other moments, like when he hilariously dashes across the stage to catch a taxi because his character has forgotten his wife is in labor.
Lindsay Mendez’s Mary is the glue that ties the show’s focal friendship together; she remains friends with both Frank and Charley, even after the two men have their falling-out. Mendez — who deserves a special shoutout for being seven months pregnant during the filming of Merrily We Roll Along — shines especially in her vocal performance. She is the strongest singer of the three (Radcliffe and Groff readily admit this in interviews), and she excellently blends sound quality with emotional resonance. Mendez also knows how to use her voice comedically; there are multiple moments when she effectively varies her tone for the sake of a joke, rather than just to sound pretty.
Of course, Merrily We Roll Along is not just a three-person show but an ensemble piece with a supporting cast and chorus. Krystal Joy Brown as Gussie, Frank’s second wife, carries such glamor even as she is the main instigator of Frank’s downfall. Reg Rogers as Joe, Frank’s agent and Gussie’s first husband, brings a kind of jazzy charm to the part. He can only be described as bouncy and is a pleasure to watch, especially as his character goes through a wild rollercoaster of circumstances in the background of the main story. Katie Rose Clarke is energetic and powerful as Beth, Frank’s first wife. She sings the heartwrenching “Not a Day Goes By,” as well as its emotionally devastating reprise, but also carries a lighthearted section of the musical in songs like “Bobby and Jackie and Jack.” Also, the rest of the chorus excels in the way they fill in the gaps, stepping in to play side characters like Beth’s parents, the socialites of Los Angeles and more. Tim Jackson’s sharp and snappy choreography shines in their more than capable hands (and feet).
Musicals are often known for their strong first acts and darker second acts. However, by nature of the fact that its story is told backwards, Merrily We Roll Along begins with the darker half of the story, and gets brighter as the runtime progresses. But the context of what is to come, which the audience learns as each scene passes, colors the second half with a kind of tragic shadow: the nice things happening are too good to last. This culminates in the beautiful finale, “Our Time.” Frank and Charley, undergrads at Columbia University, have woken up to watch the Sputnik satellite cross the sky and to marvel at the world’s possibilities. They meet an embarrassed Mary, who didn’t mean to intrude, and the three decide that the moment they have just shared has heralded in a destined friendship. They will be artists — creators — of music and literature, and they will do it together. It is a beautiful, almost inspiring moment for artists in the audience, but the knowledge of what awaits the characters in their next twenty years makes the optimism heartbreaking to see, and that is precisely the point. As an audience member, you understand firsthand the power of storytelling and music — the passions of the characters before you — because you’ve just experienced it. Their story ends tragically, but the story itself succeeds. It’s made you feel; it’s shown you what art can do, and that is inspiring.
Although Merrily We Roll Along flopped in the ‘80s, its creative potential never did. It was always a uniquely-told story for and about creative people, so the fact that creatives have been working on perfecting it for 40 years just fits. It is a favor to the art-loving world that the result of that effort, the 2023 revival of Merrily We Roll Along, was filmed. Take advantage of that, and go see it.
Photo Credit: Aliza Billet