Merrily We Roll Along - Broadway Pro Shot

If you haven't heard of Merrily We Roll Along before now, how on earth have you stumbled on this blog lol. 

Merrily has a complex and often troubled history. The brainchild of musical theater legends Stephen Sondheim and Hal Prince, based on the play of the same name by Kaufman and Hart, the show originally opened in 1981 and closed after only 16 performances. The score has long been heralded by musical theater fans, but pretty much everyone agreed that the show itself just didn't work. 

The piece moves backwards in time and explores how our lives can head down wildly different tracks (often with compromised, cynical results) than we ever imagined or intended. Specifically, the show follows three "Old Friends" - composer Frank, playwright Charlie, and novelist Mary. At the beginning of the play we see jaded, "sell out" Frank giving an incredibly depressing address to the graduating class of his alma mater. One of the students asks "How did you get to be here?" How did he go from a idilic artist, to someone who should never speak to hopeful, impressionable young people? As we journey back in time we see how Frank had a falling out with his best friend and collaborator Charlie, pushed away his other best friend, Mary, not to mention his son, and his first two wives. We see the three friends working to make inroads in their chosen artistic fields, finally getting success, and then discovering it's not exactly what they imagined ("Wicked"'s "Thank Goodness" would work well dramaturgically in this piece.) The beginning of the piece is Frank at his own graduation, giving a hopeful, passionate commencement address.

The show has a lot of potential pitfalls...performers are playing characters that age from about 21 to 50, moving in anti chronological order (the original production had actors wearing shirts, "Charlie Brown" style with their character name slapped on the front in a desperate attempt to help the audience track who was who through the various times and locals. But, most problematic of all, the show was pessimistic and depressing. The number one complaint that has historically been leveled at it is: "What's the POINT? That life sucks, we're all going to sell out and there's no hope?" No one knew what they were supposed to take from the piece except "life ends in despair and then you die, no matter how hopeful you start out."

Needless to say, the show wasn't mounted often. Songs are frequently brought out for concerts ("Not a Day Goes By" has become a musical theater staple) but everyone pretty much bemoaned that a great score was trapped in a lousy show. 

But then in 2012 Maria Friedman directed a production at the Meiner Chocolate Factory in the UK. It transferred to the West End and subsequently got a pro shot (I believe streamed with Broadway HD.) And, boy, did it WORK. Friedman got permission from Sondheim to make some subtle, but brilliant dramaturgical changes and suddenly the piece soared. The central change is incredibly simple, but so smart. Gone are the bookends of college graduation speeches. Instead, now, the show opens with Frank walking through his posh L.A. house...alone. The opening song (with the lyrics, mentioned above, "How did you get to be here"?) begins, but now the singers are, for lack of a better description, ghosts from Frank's past. This is no longer the "young, hopeful" new generation grilling Frank, but Frank in sudden rumination about how he ended up where he is in life. Indeed, he doesn't seem to thrilled about the choices he's made. The show continues backwards through time, but it now ends back where it started - with Frank in the "present" in his L.A. house. The whole show has been a kind of memory play - Frank looking back at his life. And now, the POINT, that so eluded the original production is... it's never too late to reassess where you're going and make a "U" turn. One leaves this production with a sense of hope... no matter what Frank does after the curtain comes down, we are acutely aware that he has OPTIONS... he can call Charlie. He can apologize. He can repair his relationships. He can make an attempt to connect with his son. He can finally be honest and tell his ex wife what really happened that ended their relationship... he can finally ask Mary on a date... This is no longer a situation of watching a car crash. We see the options Frank has, and that makes us see the options in our own life. The show now GALVANIZES. We can apologize. We can call an old friend. We can turn down the "sellout" job offer and return to our passion. The shows reason for existence is now bright and clear.

Friedman brought her concept to NYC in 2022 (HOW did it take so long?!) in an off-Broadway production at New York Theatre Workshop starring Jonathan Groff (Frank), Lindsay Mendez (Mary) and Daniel Radcliffe (Charlie). That production transferred to Broadway in 2023 (winning several Tonys) and is now available for streaming in a pro shot now available on Netflix. 

There are two ways to talk about the pro shot... one is as a vehicle to talk about the show it captures, the other is on its own merits as a recording.

Let's start with the first.

The show is fantastic, and I'm so glad that it will now be accessible to a wide audience. The performances are fantastic, the concept is great, and it's a musical that everyone should know. Groff, Mendez and Radcliffe famously developed a very real, close friendship through this piece, and it comes through beautifully in the show. Groff strikes a careful balance with Frank - keeping him, if not always likable, than certainly accessible throughout the piece - no easy feet. Frank is charming and talented, but it's questionable as to whether he actually has any other positive qualities, or is just a really smooth operator and manipulator who's only ever out for himself. Did he connect with Charlie and Mary because they had a real connection? Or because they were the people who, at the time of their meeting, were most able to help Frank advance his career? Did their friendship fall apart because life got confusing and complicated? Or because they became "dead weight" holding him back? Merrily exists in a place where none of these possibilities can ever truly be eliminated, and Groff allows us to hold space, miraculously, for all of them at once. We like him, we hate him, we feel for him. Some of that is down to Groff's natural likability, and some to the smart choices he makes in the piece. Mendez and Radcliffe also hit a great balance of being full, complete human beings who (for the most part) remain caught up in Frank's charming web, even though they know he's growing toxic. Radcliffe's performance is especially notable for the way in which the actor suppresses his inherent charisma and star quality and manages to, in the best way, fade into the background... the half of a duo always destined to be in the shadow of his partner. Charlie is smart, passionate and stalwart, but he is not charismatic, charming, or able to "play the game". If you didn't know Radcliffe was playing the role, you would never guess it's him. He also gives a tour de force performance in the show stopping "Franklyn Shepherd, Inc." - the moment when Charlie's meltdown plea to his collaborator, live on national T.V. ends their friendship and professional partnership.

The direction is smart, clear and concise. The performers may be great, but it's down to Friedman that this show works, where previous versions failed. With the exception of the change in the framing device there is little else that's been touched in this version. Friedman did not use this as an excuse to go "hog wild" changing this show (thank goodness!) And she trusts her audience (to be fair, we are now living in very different theatrical storytelling times than when Merrily first premiered... it is now being watched by a generation who grew up on the "milk" of The Last Five Years... when you can easily keep track of two converging stories - one going chronologically, the other backwards in time, the simple reverse timeline of Merrily is a walk in the park. Friedman trusts the material to tell us what we need to know, and the audience's intelligence to keep up. Gone are the names on tees, in are beautiful, era appropriate costumes. Gone is the hard work to move actors up or down in age, in is simply trusting the performers to embody the character at the stage in life they're at at any given time. 

And now for the merits of it as a recording.

The simple truth is, this pro shot exists to preserve the performances of Groff, Mendez and Radcliffe - and for that alone, I'm glad it exists. But... with the obvious exception of the different casts, there is really nothing different between this pro shot and the one of the West End production. Having seen the West End pro shot, it felt pretty much like a straight rewatch seeing the Broadway one. As good as the Broadway cast is, the West End cast is just as good. And the Broadway pro shot sometimes gets a little overly enthusiastic with close ups and constant cutting... it works best when it lets us just see everything that's happening onstage. Some close ups, especially in the opening number, and fast cuts REALLY detract, and keep us from seeing important information happening on other parts of the stage.

If you are new to Merrily, this is the introduction you want. I'm sure that this script is THE version of the show that will always be used moving forward, and I can't imagine the show could get clearer or more effective. If you are familiar with Merrily, then it's likely you're already familiar with the Broadway revival. If you saw it live, I don't think there's any strong reason to see the pro shot (other than to just see the show again.) But that is, of course, a very good reason.

Laura Sele

Merrily We Roll Along is currently available for streaming.