“Merrily We Roll Along,” the 2024 Tony Award-winning “Best Revival of a Musical,” will finally hit the movie theaters Dec. 5, domestically and internationally.
This is the celebrated Stephen Sondheim project, with collaborator George Furth, that featured a dream cast, starring Daniel Radcliffe as Charley Kringas, Jonathan Groff as Franklin Shepard, and Lindsay Mendez as Mary Flynn. Their chemistry and performances at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway were filmed for posterity toward the end of its New York run. So ultimately, the feature film beckons from Sony Picture Classics and Fathom Entertainment.
“Merrily” wasn’t always merry and does not boast a conventional story motif. When it first made its debut at the Alvin Theatre (now, the Neil Simon Theatre), on Nov. 16, 1981 the show was a humiliating dud, doing 44 previews and a mere 16 performances before shuting down due to bad reviews.
Clearly, the show was kind of an oddity, told in reverse chronology. It starts in 1976, and works backward to 1957, so it requires a different mindset when viewing.
But for Sondheim devotees, this is the ultimate musical in scope and in style. So what if story unfolds backward. This gimmick is part of its charm.
Thematically, “Merrily” is a genuinely appealing exploration of friendship among colleagues, comprising three office pals who share dreams, goals, and conflicts in a show biz climate. Frank is a rich Hollywood producer, who hosts a party, often alienating his best buddies, Charley and Mary. Their see-sawing inter-action reflects the rhythm of life. To punctuate the timetable a skosh, there’s a scene where the three-some are sky-gazing, and they witness Sputnik from a garage roof. Whoopie!
Over time, Sondheim’s fans have generally adored his music, but occasionally his lyricism can be distancing. The collection of tunes in “Merrily” includes some singable ditties with lasting appeal; you needn’t be a trained crooner to sing such feel-good titles like “Old Friends” and vocalize to the swirl of warmth in the show’s title song. This isn’t “Into the Woods” or “A Little Night Music,” but there’s vision and substance in the score.
When “Merrily” was reinvented for a Broadway run, the show recouped its $12 million capitalization by March of 2024, and by the time of its finale on July 7, 2024, it became the highest grossing ever for a Sondheim musical. Throughout its residency, it was a top-grossing show, often bypassing the usual chart giants, “Wicked” and “The Lion King.”
The show won a Best Orchestrations Tony for maestro Jonathan Tunick.
According to Playbill, another version of “Merrily” – not to be confused with the one with Broadway creds opening in December – and has been an obscure project of Richard Linklater, the director best known for his 2024 film, “Boyhood,” tracking a lad’s aging over the decades. Linklater’s adaptation of “Merrily” is said to track actors like Ben Platt, Beanie Feldstein, Paul Mescal and Hannah Cruz, who will be filmed sequentially a la “Boyhood” till each performer becomes the actual age of the role he/she is enacting. If he’s lucky, director Linklater will wrap it up in 2039, lord willing. Not so merrily a roll is this…
‘Wicked’ still rules the Broadway grosses
“Wicked” continues to defy gravity, and soars at the No. 1 in Broadway’s weekly gross charting. “The Lion King’ (No. 2) swapped slots with “Hamilton” (No. 3).
The Top 10:
1—”Wicked,” $2.311 millon
2—”The Lion King,” $2.190 million
3—”Hamilton,” $2.136 million
4—” Sunset Blvd.,” $1.974 million
5—” Aladdin,”$1.456 million
6—”MJ,” $1.354 million
7—”Maybe Happy Ending,” $1.341 million
8—”Just In Time,” $1.287 million
9 –“Death Becomes Her,” $1.255 million
10—”The Outsiders,” $1.157 million
The complete list of shows, for the week ending July 13, courtesy the Broadway Guild:
And that’s Show Biz…