Merrily We Roll Along: The 2023 Broadway Revival

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

"Here's to us. Who's like us? Damn few". 

The fall and rise of a friendship and collaboration is given the musical treatment in Merrily We Roll Along. When the musical premiered in 1981, it met with almost vicious reviews and closed after only 16 official performances. This was a stunning turnaround for the creative team behind Merrily We Roll Along. Its composer was Stephen Sondheim. Its director was Harold Prince. These were two Broadway titans. To have any show of theirs flop in such spectacular fashion was almost unheard of. However, Merrily We Roll Along slowly started getting reevaluated. Eventually, it was brought back for a 2023 revival. The show that became one of Sondheim's most notorious disasters returned in triumph, winning four Tony Awards out of seven nominations. Now the filmed version of the Broadway musical has brought Merrily We Roll Along to a wider audience. With some wonderful performances and a good songbook, Merrily We Roll Along should please Sondheim fans and most general audiences, though I can see why some audiences might not embrace it.

Merrily We Roll Along chronicles in reverse order the various lives and collaborations of three individuals, staring in 1976 and ending in 1957. Franklin "Frank" Shepard (Jonathan Groff) is at the top of the Hollywood game. His newest film, an adaptation of Musical Husbands, is the toast of the West Coast. That Frank, everyone says. While married to Broadway diva Gussie Carnegie (Krystal Joy Brown), he is giving great attention to the film's ingenue, Meg (Talia Robinson). Frank's quippy friend Mary Flynn (Lindsay Mendez) can only drunkenly comment on how Frank is not the same man who loved music and musical theater. A ghost from the past is revived when someone mentions Frank's former musical partner, Charlie Kringas. They had a falling out in 1973.

Here, Charlie (Daniel Ratcliffe) is shocked to discover that Frank has more than optioned their big Broadway hit Musical Husbands for film. Charlie, already bitter and upset about that, is more bitter and upset when he learns that Frank has a three-picture deal. It is not so much that Charlie has been cut out of the process as he has no interest in film. It is that he learned about it just before a live joint interview. Charlie openly humiliates Frank in Franklin Shepard, Inc. Frank, understandably enraged at being humiliated so openly, cuts Charlie out of his life forever. As time goes back, we see that Frank and Charlie had a good working relationship, starry-eyed dreamers who with Mary recognize the specialness of Old Friends. Frank, unlike Charlie, is struggling with the aftereffects of his divorce caused by his affair with Musical Husbands star Gussie. 

That divorce from Beth (Katie Rose Clark) cost him more than a happy marriage. It cost him a closer relationship with Frankie, Jr. However, the divorce may be the best thing that ever could have happened, as Now You Know. What they do know in 1964 is that Musical Husbands is a surprise hit for Franklin Shepard and Charles Kringas, their generation's Rodgers & Hammerstein. They can now turn to their passion project, Take a Left, their Leftist political musical. Musical Husbands producer and Gussie's husband Joe (Reg Rogers) urges them to wait on Take a Left until they are more established. 

In 1960, the trio of music by Frank Shepard, lyrics by Charlie Kringas, and up-and-coming singer Beth do a cheerful revue of the incoming Kennedy Administration. The revue delights Broadway producer Joe, who is squiring his secretary and aspiring Broadway diva Gussie Carnegie (not her real name). Frank is too excited and distracted by his impending marriage to Beth, whom he knocked up, to care much about anything other than a chance to write for Joe with his bestie Charlie by his side. At last, our trio of Frank, Charlie and Mary meet up on the roof in 1957. They see in Sputnik a new beginning both for the world and for themselves. Mary compliments Frank's music. A casual comment from him about "having met the girl he's going to marry" prompts a lifetime of unrequited love and devotion. For them, this is Our Time.

Having some familiarity with Sondheim, I found Merrily We Roll Along to fit within his style musically and thematically. The title alone is quite ironic as there is nothing merry about the Frank, Charlie and Mary triumvirate. I have found that Stephen Sondheim loves two things in music: irony and a rapid-fire patter in the lyrics. Two strong examples of his penchant for both are in Franklin Shepard, Inc. and Now You Know. In the former, you have Daniel Ratcliffe's Charlie almost rush through the lyrics, pouring out Charlie's anger to rage at how Frank is focusing on business deals instead of creating. If one merely reads the lyrics of Franklin Shepard, Inc., one wonders when anyone singing it (or sing-talking it) can find time to breathe. In the latter, you have a good number of the surprisingly small cast advise Frank about how this divorce might be ultimately for good. Now You Know has that rhyming pattern that Sondheim so loves.

"I mean 'big SUPRISE'/People love you and tell you LIES/Bricks can tumble from clear blue SKIES", Mendez's Mary sings rapidly (emphasis mine). I have found that Sondheim has many songs where rhyming words flow at an almost frenetic pace. The ultimate example is Company's Getting Married Today. Merrily We Roll Along, however, does have quite a few songs where this rapid-fire manner appears. A case in point is the 1960 revue, where we are treated to Bobby and Jackie and Jack, a celebration of John F. Kennedy's election and upcoming Administration. Here, Ratcliffe, Jonathan Graff's Frank and Katie Rose Clarke's Beth cram in every member of the Kennedy family. Sondheim even manages to have Charlie, Frank and Beth struggle and stumble over "Sargent Schriver", constantly guessing different military ranks until they stumble on "Sargent". 

That patter fixation of Sondheim's does allow for the slower songs to stand out. I think the one song that has filtered through from Merrily We Roll Along is Old Friends. The song appears twice. The second time it is a more upbeat rendition, reflecting how despite their growing distances they still value each other. The first one though is slower, more reflective. It is mostly Mary with Charlie, attempting to smooth the fraying relationship between Charlie and Frank. Unlike other Stephen Sondheim songs, Old Friends is dare I say more optimistic. It does reflect how this trio has a bond that they do genuinely want to hold.  

Another standout is Not a Day Goes By. Like Old Friends, it is sung twice. The first time is a solo from Beth, the second a duet by Beth and Frank, with Mary joining in off to the side. Not a Day Goes By is first a deep song of lament as Beth sees her marriage end. The second time around, it has a tinge of optimism for a new life as a married couple, while Mary recognizes that she has lost her secret love. 

Two of Merrily We Roll Along's three nominated players won Tonys for their performances. Jonathan Graff in his Tony-winning role is a standout as Frank. The play allows us to see that Franklin is not a bad man. He just makes bad choices, over and over again. Graff gives him a solid transformation because he shows Frank's moments of regret. Graff makes Frank sympathetic even as he goes upstairs to sleep with Gussie. Vocally, Jonathan Graff is strong, keeping a firm grasp on Sondheim's music.

Daniel Ratcliffe won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his Charlie Kringas. His voice is higher, and I think a bit thinner, than Graff. However, it worked for the character, whom I found slightly nebbish. A standout section for Radcliffe is Franklin Shepard, Inc., where he has to not just go through Sondheim's patter number but also add vocalization and physicality. He does a strong job as well.

Lindsay Mendez was the only Merrily We Roll Along cast member who lost her nomination (the musical also losing in the Directing and Sound Design categories). I thought she was fine as Mary Flynn, the quippy former teetotaler who is in love with the unaware Frank. I do not know though if Mary ever really fit into the overall story. I felt that she was just there. I simply never understood why she wasted her time with Frank. Yes, he's attractive. However, I never saw a great bond between Mary and Frank that justified her hanging around.  

I would have substituted Krystal Joy Brown's Gussie for Lindsay Mendez's Mary for a Tony nomination. As this Broadway diva who starts out as a secretary, Brown was delightfully over-the-top when needed, alluring when needed, even meek when needed. She also has a standout number in Act Two Opening. Slinky, coquettish and amusing, I found myself impressed by Brown's number and her massive high kick.

I think that Merrily We Roll Along please a bit of Stephen Sondheim's ego on his self-perception. I can picture him imagining both It's a Hit and Opening Doors speak to him about himself. That creative process in Opening Doors, down to how people found his songbook "not hummable. The triumph of It's a Hit both struck me as how Stephen Sondheim struggled to get numbers to the general public and would want all his shows to be hits. That Merrily We Roll Along was an initial disaster must have been a strange irony for him given those two songs.

I do not understand why Merrily We Roll Along was so hated at its premiere, though this version may not be what 1981 audiences saw. This revival is pleasant, with strong performances from the cast. The structure of reverse storytelling might still put people off. The fact that despite the optimism of the conclusion Merrily We Roll Along is still a bit of a downer might also put people off. On the whole though, Merrily We Roll Along is both a good revival and a good way to introduce people to Stephen Sondheim, both his melodic mannerisms and lyrical quirks. 

8/10