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Funny Lines in Merrily We Roll

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1981 musical

Merrily We Scroll Forth
MerrilyWeRollAlong.jpg

Original Broadway affiche for Sondheim-Furth musical
Music Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics Stephen Sondheim
Book George Furth
Basis Merrily Nosotros Roll Along
by George Due south. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Productions
  • 1981 Broadway
  • 1985 La Jolla
  • 1994 Off-Broadway
  • 2000 W End
  • 2012 Encores
  • 2013 West Cease revival
  • 2019 Off-Broadway revival
Awards
  • Drama Desk-bound Honour for Outstanding Lyrics
  • Laurence Olivier Award for All-time New Musical
  • Laurence Olivier Laurels for Best Musical Revival

Merrily We Curl Along is a 1981 American musical with music and lyrics past Stephen Sondheim, and a book past George Furth. It is based on the 1934 play of the same proper noun by George Due south. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Merrily premiered on Broadway on November 16, 1981, in a production directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator Hal Prince, and featuring a cast about exclusively of teenagers and immature adults. Nonetheless, the show was not the success the previous Sondheim/Prince collaborations had been: after a cluttered serial of preview performances, the evidence opened to widely negative reviews, and eventually closed later on a run of 16 performances and 52 previews.

However, in the years since, the show has been extensively rewritten, and has enjoyed several notable productions, including an Off-Broadway revival in 1994, and a London premiere in 2000 that won the Laurence Olivier Honour for Best New Musical.

Premise [edit]

The show tells the story of three friends, and how their lives and friendship change over xx years; it focuses particularly on Franklin Shepard, a in one case-talented composer of musicals who, over those twenty years, abandons his friends and songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. Like the play on which it is based, the show's story moves backwards in time. It begins in 1976 at the friends' lowest moment, and gradually moves back until 1957, at their youthful best.

Background and original production [edit]

The idea for Merrily originated from a suggestion by Hal Prince's married woman, Judy, that he exercise a testify about teenagers; somewhen he decided that a musical version of the 1934 George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart play Merrily We Roll Along would be a practiced fit, and when he called Sondheim nigh the idea, Sondheim "said yes on the phone."[1]

The original play told the story of "Richard Niles, who is revealed on the opening dark of his latest play [in 1934] to be a pretentious playwright of successful just forgettable light comedies", and, over the course of the play, gradually moved backwards in time until it reached "Niles at his higher graduation [in 1916], quoting with all the fervor of idealistic youth the words of Polonius: 'This above all, to thine own cocky be true'." The play concerned, overall, "three friends, their artistic ambitions, the cost of fame, and the changes in American guild from World State of war I to the Low[.]"[ii]

For the musical adaptation, the story was relocated to accept place between 1955 and 1980, and the characters were inverse: "Richard Niles", a playwright, was at present Franklin Shepard, a composer; "Jonathan Crale", a painter, was at present Charley Kringas, a lyricist and playwright; and "Julia Glenn", a novelist, was now Mary Flynn, a journalist and eventually a critic.

George Furth was brought on to write the musical's book (i.east. the script); this would make Merrily a reunion for Sondheim, Furth, and Prince, who had all worked together previously on the landmark 1970 musical Company; in add-on, Merrily would eventually premiere at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway, where Company had likewise premiered.

As part of the original idea of doing a show about teenagers, and in social club to, as theater historian Ken Mandelbaum put information technology, "enhance the ironies of the story",[three] Prince made the decision to cast the show entirely with teenagers and young adults, who would play their characters both in youth and middle-historic period. Prince and Sondheim had conceived of the show every bit "a vehicle for young performers",[4] and Prince was besides charmed by, every bit he said at the time, "the beginnings of [the bandage'south] artistry, the roughness of their craft, their inexperience. I was charmed as hell past that[.]"[5]

The production blueprint of the prove was also informed by this notion: the set consisted of a group of movable bleachers, lined with lockers, and a screen on which projections would be shown "to set the mood and period." Prince'due south original idea for the staging had been to "take no scenery", only rather "racks of dress and these kids would come in looking like footling kids, and they would pretend to be their parents as they see them" — but this was discarded due to Prince's perception of what Broadway audiences, paying Broadway prices, would accept from a show (as he later put information technology, "[1000]uess what? I lacked the courage.")[6]

Sondheim's score was a mix of the traditional and the anarchistic. In basic course and sound, the songs were written in the style of traditional Broadway show music of the 1950'due south (where Merrily's story "began") and earlier, a clear departure from the musically circuitous work of Sondheim's previous shows. Even so, the score was also written to embody the show's backwards structure in its apply and repetition of certain sections of music. For example, "Not a Day Goes By" is kickoff heard in its "reprise", sung bitterly by Frank's wife Beth after their divorce – before beingness heard in its "original" form late in the 2d act, sung past Frank and Beth every bit they get married. Additionally, "Adept Thing Going" is gradually deconstructed throughout the musical earlier reaching its final—but "initial"—form near the end of the show, every bit "Who Wants to Live in New York?" This technique was at times used, said Sondheim, to show how "the songs that had been important in the lives of the characters when they were younger would have different resonances as they aged"; Sondheim also used some of these musical repetitions to correspond "undercurrents of retentiveness" in the characters in their later years. Considering of the strictures practical by Sondheim to his writing, Merrily's score was one of the most difficult of his career to write.[4]

For budgetary reasons, Merrily did not go an out-of-town tryout production,[seven] and instead the product put on over 50 tryout performances—which were really previews—on Broadway earlier the official opening.[8] The tryouts, beginning on Oct 8, 1981, had a poor reception, with audiences walking out. Past October 21, The New York Times reported that original leading man James Weissenbach had been replaced by Jim Walton, and the Broadway opening had been postponed.[nine] Field was replaced with choreographer Larry Fuller.[10] [11] [12] The opening was delayed a second fourth dimension, from November ix to November xvi, 1981.[13] Looking back on that "painful calendar month", Sondheim later recalled "that month of fervent hysterical activity was the most fun I've ever had on a single show."[7] By opening night, the production team "idea we'd fixed the show," just in retrospect, they had only "bettered it, not fixed it," and the disquisitional response was "merciless."[vii]

The Broadway production, directed by Prince and choreographed by Fuller, opened on Nov sixteen, 1981, at the Alvin Theatre. The show opened to mostly negative reviews. While the score was widely praised, critics and audiences alike felt that the book was problematic and the themes left a sour gustation in their mouths. Hampered by the several critical reviews published prior to its official opening, besides as more than negative ones published afterward, it ran for a total of 16 performances and 52 previews.[14]

In his New York Times review, Frank Rich wrote, "As nosotros all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one'south center broken at regular intervals."[15] Clive Barnes wrote, "Whatever you lot may have heard virtually it — go and meet information technology for yourselves. It is far likewise expert a musical to be judged by those twin kangaroo courts of word of oral cavity and disquisitional consensus."[16]

The cast included Jim Walton (Franklin Shepard), Lonny Price (Charley Kringas), Ann Morrison (Mary), Terry Finn (Gussie), Jason Alexander (Joe), Sally Klein (Beth), Geoffrey Horne (Franklin Shephard age 43), David Loud (Ted), Daisy Prince (Meg), Liz Callaway (Nightclub Waitress), Tonya Pinkins (Gwen), Abby Pogrebin (Evelyn), and Giancarlo Esposito (valedictorian).[17] Judith Dolan designed costumes for the product.[18]

The audition had trouble post-obit what was going on in the story. Consequently, the actors all ended up wearing sweatshirts with their characters' names. Co-ordinate to Meryle Secrest, "Prince ... dressed everyone in identical sweatshirts and pants. Then he had to add names emblazoned across the sweatshirts because the audience had difficulty telling the actors autonomously".[nineteen] [20] [21] [22] Sondheim afterward remembered: "I rather liked it; the paying audience did non."[7] The failure of Merrily meant the "glory days" of the Sondheim-Prince collaboration were over, and the 2 men did not piece of work together again until Bounciness (2003).[7]

Subsequent production history [edit]

Throughout the years, with Furth and Sondheim'southward permission, the musical has been staged with numerous changes. Sondheim has contributed new songs to several of the show'due south incarnations, most notably "Growing Up", added to the La Jolla 1985 product.[23] [24]

Off-Broadway [edit]

A "streamlined" Off-Broadway revival, directed by Susan H. Schulman, opened on May 26, 1994, at the York Theatre in St. Peter's Church, where information technology ran for 54 performances. The cast included Malcolm Gets as Franklin Shepard, Adam Heller as Charley Kringas, and Amy Ryder as Mary Flynn.[25] A bandage recording was released by Varèse Sarabande.[17] [26]

Another Off-Broadway revival, directed past Noah Brody with choreography by Lorin Latarro, began Jan 12, 2019, opening February 19 and originally set to run to April seven, 2019 (extended to April 14, 2019), past Roundabout Theatre'south resident company, Fiasco Theater, at the Laura Pels Theater. The reduced bandage includes Manu Narayan, Brittany Bradford, Jessie Austrian, Ben Steinfeld, Paul L. Coffey, and Emily Immature.[27]

New York Theatre Workshop has announced that stage and screen star Daniel Radcliffe will lead the production as Charley in its upcoming revival planned for late 2022.[28]

San Diego and Washington D.C. [edit]

A production directed by James Lapine opened on June 16, 1985 at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, where it ran for 24 performances. The cast included John Rubinstein as Franklin Shepard, Chip Zien as Charley Kringas, Marin Mazzie as Beth and Heather MacRae every bit Mary Flynn.[24]

An Loonshit Phase production, directed past Douglas C. Wager and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, opened on January thirty, 1990 at Washington, D.C.'s Kreeger Theater, where it ran slightly more than two months. The cast included Victor Garber, David Garrison, Becky Ann Baker and every bit in San Diego Marin Mazzie as Beth. In his review of the Arena Stage product, Rich noted that "Many of the major flaws of the 1981 Merrily, starting with its notorious gymnasium setting, take long since been jettisoned or rectified in intervening versions produced in La Jolla, Calif., and in Seattle." He chosen the score "exceptional."[29]

A 2007 Signature Theatre production also ran in Arlington, Va.

United Kingdom [edit]

The Uk premiere of Merrily We Roll Along was at the Guildhall Schoolhouse of Music and Drama on May 11, 1983.[30] The outset professional production in the UK was past the Library Theatre Company in Manchester in 1984, directed by Howard Lloyd Lewis and choreographed by Paul Kerryson.

Paul Kerryson directed a production of the show at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick and music direction by Julian Kelly. The product opened on 14 April 1992 with a cast that included Michael Cantwell as Frank, Maria Friedman as Mary and Evan Pappas as Charlie.[31] A cast recording of the production was released in 1994 which included extended cuts and dialogue. The testify finally received its W End premiere at London's Donmar Warehouse on 11 Dec 2000 in a production directed by Michael Grandage, running for 71 performances following eight previews. The cast was led past Julian Ovenden as Frank, Samantha Spiro every bit Mary and Daniel Evans as Charley. Spiro and Evans received Olivier Awards for their performances, and the production received the Olivier for Best Musical.[32]

Karen Hebden'southward product for Derby Playhouse in May 2007 featured Glyn Kerslake every bit Frank, Glenn Carter every bit Charley, Eliza Lumley equally Mary, and Cheryl McAvoy every bit Beth.[33]

Maria Friedman directed a revival of the musical at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, which opened on 28 November 2012 and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the W Finish on 1 May 2013. The principals in this product were Mark Umbers, Jenna Russell and Damian Humbley.[34] The revival won the Peter Hepple Award for Best Musical in the 2012 Critics' Circumvolve Theatre Awards.[35] It was filmed and broadcast to select cinemas in 2013.[17]

Reunion concert [edit]

The original Broadway cast reunited to phase a concert version of the show for one nighttime September 30, 2002, with both Sondheim and Prince in attendance.[36] [37]

Encores! [edit]

The Encores! staged concert at New York City Center ran from February 8, 2012 to Feb 19. This production was directed by James Lapine and featured Colin Donnell as Franklin Shepard, Celia Keenan-Bolger every bit Mary Flynn, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Charley, Elizabeth Stanley as Gussie Carnegie, and Betsy Wolfe as Beth. This version incorporated parts of revisions done for the 1985 La Jolla Playhouse production and 1990 and 1994 productions.[38] Many members of the original production were invited to attend on Feb fourteen and joined the Encores! bandage and Stephen Sondheim on stage post-obit the performance to sing "Old Friends."

Other major productions [edit]

The first Australian professional person production was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company at the Footbridge Theatre in May–July 1996. It featured Tom Burlinson, Tony Sheldon, Peta Toppano, Greg Stone and Gina Riley, and was directed by Wayne Harrison.[39]

In 2002, the bear witness ran for approximately 120 performances at the Shaw Festival in a production directed by Jackie Maxwell and featuring Tyley Ross every bit Franklin, Jay Turvey equally Charley and Jenny L. Wright every bit Mary.[40]

As part of the Sondheim Celebration at the Kennedy Centre, a limited engagement of 14 performances opened on July 12, 2002 at the Eisenhower Theater. The bandage featured Michael Hayden (Franklin), Miriam Shor (Mary), Raúl Esparza (Charley), and Emily Skinner (Gussie).[41]

A Derby Playhouse product ran from Apr 19 to May 19, 2007, starring Glyn Kerslake, Glenn Carter and Eliza Lumley in the lead roles.[42] A Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) production, directed by Eric D. Schaeffer, opened on September 4, 2007 and ran through October 14, 2007.[43] The production received four Helen Hayes Award nominations,[44] with a win for Erik Liberman as Charley.[45] John Doyle directed a production running at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, from January 16, 2008 through March 8, 2008. It featured Sam Kenyon (Franklin), Rebecca Jackson (Gussie), Elizabeth Marsh (Mary) and Thomas Padden (Charlie).[46] [47]

Available Light Theatre (AVLT) presented the revised version at the Vern Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio, from August xix, 2010 through September 4, 2010. Information technology was directed by John Dranschak and featured Ian Short as Frank, Nick Lingnofski as Charley, and Heather Carvel every bit Mary. The musical manager was Pam Welsh-Huggins.[48] The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park presented a revival directed by John Doyle, using the histrion-musician concept, opening on March 3, 2012. The cast included Malcolm Gets (Franklin Shepard), Daniel Jenkins (Charley Kringas), and Becky Ann Bakery (Mary Flynn). This production used the 1994 York Theatre revisions.[49]

Clwyd Theatr Cymru at Mold in North Wales performed the musical May 12 – June 2, 2012, directed by Nikolai Foster.[l] PAN Productions staged Merrily We Roll Along in 2014 at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre for the first time in Due south Due east Asia. Directed by Nell Ng with music direction past Nish Tham. This production featured Peter Ong (Franklin Shepard), Aaron Teoh (Charley Kringas), Chang Fang Chyi (Mary Flynn), Nikki Palikat (Gussie Carnegie), Stephanie Van Driesen (Beth Spencer), and Dennis Yeap (Joe Josephson).[51] [52]

Astoria Performing Arts Center produced an off-off-Broadway product in 2015[53] starring Jack Mosbacher every bit Franklin Shepard, Ally Bonino as Mary Flynn, and Nicholas Park as Charley Kringas. The production won Outstanding Production of a Musical at the 2015 New York Innovative Theatre Awards.[54]

The Wallis Annenberg Center for The Performing Arts in Beverly Hills ran a production from November 23 to December eighteen, 2016. Directed by Michael Arden, the product stars Aaron Lazar as Franklin Shephard, Wayne Brady as Charley Kringas, and Donna Vivino equally Mary Flynn.[55]

The Huntington Theatre Visitor produced Maria Friedman'due south version in Boston, running from September 8, 2017 through October fifteen. This product won the 2012 Critics' Circumvolve Theater Award.[56]

The Hayes Theatre in Sydney staged a product directed by Dean Bryant which was intended to offset its run on xvi April 2020,[57] but was delayed past the COVID pandemic. The production finally premiered on 21 October 2021, with an expected run to 27 November 2021.[58] The production was well-reviewed,[59] [lx] [61] and extended its run to nine December 2021.

Synopsis [edit]

This is a synopsis of the revised 1994 York Theatre version of the prove, not the original i performed on Broadway.

Human activity I [edit]

Franklin Shepard is a rich, famous, and influential songwriter and motion picture producer ("Merrily Nosotros Roll Forth"). As the years whorl back over 20 years of his life, we run into how he went from penniless composer to wealthy producer, and what he gave up to get there.

In Frank'south swank Los Angeles pad in 1976, after the premiere of his latest film, a party is in full swing. Frank's Hollywood peers are there, and bestow lavish praise on him ("That Frank"). His oldest friend, theatre critic Mary Flynn is too at the party. She is disgusted by the shallow people Frank has chosen to associate with and by his abandonment of music – the one thing he was truly good at – for the earth of commercial film producing. Frank seems happy, but tenses up when a invitee mentions a Pulitzer-winning play by Charles Kringas, Frank'south former best friend and lyricist. Frank and Mary get a moment alone together, and she chides him for missing his son's graduation. Frank admits to Mary that his new pic is just a formula motion-picture show, but he promises: just wait for the side by side film! But Mary has given up waiting, and becomes more and more inebriated. She gives a drunken toast, castigating Frank and insulting his guests, and storms out of the political party (and Frank's life) in a drunken rage.

Frank'south married woman Gussie arrives and they start to debate. She is angry that the leading role in Frank'due south movie, which she had planned to star in, went to a younger extra, One thousand thousand. He has been stung past Mary'due south rant, and confesses that he has concentrated so completely on being a "success" that everything and anybody he nigh valued at the beginning of his career has gone. The evening ends traumatically when Gussie confronts Frank with noesis of his infidelity with 1000000, the leading extra in his moving-picture show. He ends their marriage, and she viciously attacks 1000000 past splashing iodine in her eyes.

The years roll back to 1973 ("Merrily We Roll Forth – Start Transition"). Frank and Charley Kringas are about to be interviewed in a New York Goggle box studio. Mary greets Charley backstage, and Charley tells her that Frank never has time to write shows anymore with him. Mary, whose drinking is steadily worsening, confesses that she has gear up upward the interview to force Frank to publicly commit to writing the testify he and Charley have been trying to write for years, but Charley is frustrated and bitter. Mary wonders plaintively why can't their collective friendship exist "similar it was" ("Quondam Friends (Part I)- Like It Was"), and Charley realizes that Mary, after xx years, is nonetheless in dear with Frank. When Frank finally arrives, his new wife Gussie in tow, tensions are clearly running high. Gussie is trying to avoid her ex-hubby, Broadway producer Joe Josephson, who is striking her up for money, and Frank is fretting over how to tell Charley that he has signed a three-moving-picture show deal. Unfortunately, just before the interview begins, the host lets the news slip, infuriating Charley. As they go live on air, an increasingly angry and nervous Charley launches into a furious bluster on the way his composer has transformed himself into "Franklin Shepard Inc.", pleading with Frank to return to doing what he does best. Later the cameras are close off, Charley is remorseful, but the harm is done. Frank disowns Charley and walks out – their friendship is over.

It'south 1968, and Mary, Charley and Frank are in Frank'southward new apartment on Central Park Westward ("Merrily Nosotros Roll Along – 2d Transition"), welcoming Frank back from a cruise. Charley has brought along Frank'southward young son, Frankie, whom he has not seen since his divorce. Frank has brought a gift for each of his friends: a re-create of Mary's acknowledged novel in Spanish and a contract for a film option on his and Charley's show, Musical Husbands. Charley refuses, and an statement is sparked. Frank wants to choice the film version for the coin, which he needs afterwards a contentious divorce, but Charley says that it volition make it the way of writing annihilation new. Mary calms them downward, reminding them nearly the importance of their friendship ("Old Friends"), only it is clear that nothing is that simple anymore. Frank'south producer Joe and his wife Gussie go far. Gussie has brought champagne, which the teetotaler Mary refuses. Information technology becomes clear that Frank and Gussie are having an thing, and Charley, Mary, and Joe are all aware of it. Mary, who has been in dear with Frank for years, is devastated by his irresponsibility and takes a generous gulp of champagne to bear witness a point. When anybody leaves, Charley lingers and advises Frank to finish the affair, encouraging him to join him and Mary for a get-together at the club where they got their start. After he leaves, Frank plays through an old song and attempts to make sense of his choices. He seems to be on the verge of composing a new slice simply is interrupted when Gussie returns, announcing that she intends to live with him and divorce Joe. ("Growing Up").

On to 1966 ("Merrily We Roll Along – Tertiary Transition"). Frank is being divorced by his wife Beth, and they fight over the custody of their young son in a courthouse. Reporters flock effectually the scene, anxious to catch gossip since Gussie has been subpoenaed. Frank confronts Beth, who confesses that she withal loves him, merely that she tin't live with him knowing he was unfaithful to her with Gussie ("Not a Day Goes Past"). She drags their son abroad, heading to Houston to live with her male parent. Frank collapses in despair but is consoled past Mary, Charley, and his other remaining friends. His pals convince him to have a cruise, forget and start anew, stating that this was the "best matter that e'er could have happened" ("Now You Know").

Human activity II [edit]

In 1964, Gussie appears to be singing about Frank's infatuation with her, but the scene transforms, and nosotros see that Gussie is performing the song onstage, equally the star of Musical Husbands, on the opening dark of Frank and Charley's starting time Broadway testify. The curtain comes downward on the show, and equally the audience applauds, Charley and Frank, who are backstage with Joe, Mary, and Beth, realize they have a hit on their hands ("It's a Hit!"). Charley'southward married woman, Evelyn, is in labour, and he and Beth rush to the hospital. Mary asks Beth to stay behind and make sure Frank is not left lone with Gussie, but Beth chooses to trust her hubby and leaves Frank on his own, listening to the audio of the audience applauding.

In 1962 ("Merrily We Ringlet Along – Fourth Transition"): Frank, Beth, Charley, and Mary take been invited to a party in Gussie and Joe'due south elegant Sutton Place flat, where they stand starstruck past the glamours and the influential oversupply. ("The Blob"). Deliberately spilling wine on Beth's apparel, Gussie pulls Frank abroad from the partygoers, confiding her unhappiness to him, and convinces him to write the commercial testify Joe is producing, Musical Husbands, rather than the political satire he and Charley are trying to become produced. ("Growing Upward" (Reprise)). Returning to her guests, Gussie invites the songwriters to perform their latest song, "Good Affair Going". The guests dearest information technology and Gussie implores them to do an encore. Charley urges Frank not to, but Frank agrees. They play the song once more, just the guests apace lose involvement and resume their noisy cocktail churr ("The Blob" (Reprise)). Charley storms out, as Mary looks on worriedly.

Fourth dimension turns dorsum to 1960 ("Merrily We Scroll Along Р5th Transition"). Charley, Frank, and Beth are performing at a small nightclub in Greenwich Hamlet, with a supportive Mary lending a paw. Trying to appear bright and sophisticated, they perform a song celebrating America's new First Family ("Bobby and Jackie and Jack"). Joe is in the tiny audience and he's quite impressed, as is his new fianc̩e (and former secretary) Gussie, who is strongly attracted to Frank at this get-go meeting. After the show, Frank explains to them that he and Beth are marrying. It becomes clear that the wedding ceremony is due to her pregnancy, but Frank professes his happiness anyway. With Mary, Charley, and Beth's disapproving parents looking on, the happy couple exchanges vows as a lovelorn Mary tries to swallow her feelings for Frank ("Not a Day Goes By" (Reprise)).

In 1959 ("Merrily We Roll Forth – Sixth Transition"), Frank, Charley, and Mary are busy in New York, working their mode up the career ladder ("Opening Doors"), taking whatsoever job they can and working feverishly at their respective songs, plays, and novels. (Sondheim claims this is the "just autobiographical song [he's] ever written... Information technology'due south near all of us [writers] in the 50s knocking on the doors of producers and trying to get heard.")[62] The men audition for Joe, but he wants more than "hummable" tunes, and instructs them to leave their name with his secretary. So they decide to do their own prove and in an ensuing musical montage, end upwardly auditioning and hiring Beth and forming a cabaret show together.

Finally, it is Oct 1957 ("Merrily We Gyre Along – Seventh Transition"). Early on in the morning, Frank and Charley are on the roof of an onetime apartment firm on New York Metropolis's 110th Street, waiting for the first-e'er earth-orbiting satellite. Frank, who is about to be released from the Army, tells Charley how much he likes Charley's plays and proposes that they turn one, a political satire, into a musical. Mary, their neighbour, arrives to view the satellite, and meets the boys for the first time. She has heard Frank's piano from her apartment, and she tells him how much she admires his music. He speaks eloquently on how much composing ways to him. Suddenly, Sputnik is there in the sky, and at present, for the young friends, anything is possible ("Our Time").

Musical numbers [edit]

The original 1981 Broadway production[63]

1994 Off-Broadway revival [edit]

From the 1994 Off-Broadway revival at York Theatre, which has remained the produced version since:[17]

Recordings [edit]

The original Broadway cast recorded the prove the day following their terminal performance. The recording was released past RCA equally an LP album in Apr 1982, then compact disc in 1986. A 2007 remastered CD release from Sony/BMG Broadway Masterworks includes a bonus rail of Sondheim performing "It'southward a Hit".[64]

A bandage recording of the 2012 Encores! revival was released by PS Classics as a two-CD set,[65] featuring Colin Donnell, Celia Keenan Bolger, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jessica Vosk, and Elizabeth Stanley.

Various artists have recorded the testify's songs, including Carly Simon, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, Cleo Laine, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, Patti LuPone, Barry Manilow, Audra McDonald, Michael Crawford, and Lena Horne. The songs "Not a 24-hour interval Goes By", "Good Thing Going", "Old Friends", and "Our Time" frequently appear on the cabaret circuit.

Documentary [edit]

Original bandage fellow member Lonny Price later directed a documentary produced past Atlas Media titled Best Worst Affair That E'er Could Have Happened, describing the "thrilling, wrenching experience" of the original product. The documentary opened on November 18, 2016, in New York City,[66] [67] followed by a question-and-answer session with Price, moderated by Bernadette Peters.[68]

Film adaptation [edit]

In 2019, it was announced that Richard Linklater would be filming an adaptation of the musical. Like Linklater's 2014 film Boyhood, it will be filmed for more than a decade, allowing the actors to age with their characters. Ben Platt, Blake Jenner, and Beanie Feldstein are attached to play Charley Kringas, Franklin Shepard, and Mary Flynn, respectively.[69]

The 2017 film Lady Bird includes a school production of Merrily We Roll Along in its story.[70] One of the students in the production was played by Beanie Feldstein, who would afterward be bandage in Linklater'due south adaptation.

Awards and nominations [edit]

Original Broadway product [edit]

Year Award Category Nominee Issue
1982 Tony Award Best Original Score Stephen Sondheim Nominated
Drama Desk Honor Outstanding Music Nominated
Outstanding Lyrics Won
Theatre World Laurels Ann Morrison Won

1994 Off-Broadway production [edit]

Yr Honour Category Nominee Upshot
1995 Drama Desk-bound Award Outstanding Musical Nominated
Outstanding Actor in a Musical Malcolm Gets Nominated

Original London production [edit]

Year Award Category Nominee Result
2001 Laurence Olivier Award Best New Musical Won
Best Actor in a Musical Daniel Evans Won
Best Extra in a Musical Samantha Spiro Won
Best Theatre Choreographer Peter Darling Nominated

2012 London production [edit]

Yr Laurels Category Nominee Result
2012 Critics' Circle Theatre Honour All-time Musical Won

2013 West Terminate production [edit]

Year Honour Category Nominee Consequence
2013 Evening Standard Theatre Award All-time Musical Won
2014 Laurence Olivier Honour Best Musical Revival Won
Best Actress in a Musical Jenna Russell Nominated
All-time Supporting Role in a Musical Josefina Gabrielle Nominated
Best Director Maria Friedman Nominated
Best Sound Design Gareth Owen Won (necktie)
Best Costume Blueprint Soutra Gilmour Nominated
Outstanding Achievement in Music The Orchestra Nominated

References [edit]

  1. ^ Secrest, Meryle. "Chapter 16, Old Friends", Stephen Sondheim A Life, Knopf, 1998, ISBN 0679448179, p. 309 (paperback edition, ISBN 0385334125
  2. ^ "Merrily We Roll Along (1934)". Georgeskaufman.com . Retrieved 2021-05-20 .
  3. ^ Mandelbaum, Ken (1991). Not Since Carrie: Forty Years of Broadway Musical Flops. p. 131.
  4. ^ a b Sondheim, Stephen (2010). Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 381. ISBN978-0679439073 . Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  5. ^ Klemesrud, Judy (1981-11-15). "PRINCE: 'THERE WERE More CHANGES THAN I'M USED TO'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-21 .
  6. ^ Secrest, Meryle. "Affiliate 16, Old Friends", Stephen Sondheim: A Life, Knopf, 1998, ISBN 0679448179, p. 317 (paperback edition, ISBN 0385334125
  7. ^ a b c d eastward Sondheim, Stephen (2010). Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 382. ISBN978-0679439073 . Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  8. ^ Harrison, Thomas (2011). Music in the 1980s. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 136. ISBN9780313366000 . Retrieved 5 Dec 2021.
  9. ^ "New Leading Homo in 'We Roll Along'". The New York Times. October 21, 1981. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  10. ^ "'Merrily We Roll' Gets A New Choreographer". The New York Times. Oct 24, 1981. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
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External links [edit]

  • Merrily We Roll Along at the Internet Broadway Database
  • Merrily We Whorl Forth on The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide
  • Merrily We Coil Along at Sondheim.com
  • Merrily We Curlicue Along at the Music Theatre International website
  • Background information about the musical and the play

marianiruence.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrily_We_Roll_Along_%28musical%29

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