Merrily We Roll Along
August 21, 2021 4:19 PM Subscribe
Stephen Sondheim was a hot property in 1981. Riding the momentum of Sweeney Todd, his next musical would be Merrily We Roll Along [Wikipedia], and that would be a gigantic flop, closing after over 50 previews, dozens of rewrites, and only 16 performances. The show would be rewritten again a couple of times before this 2012 London production was filmed [2h15m].
True Broadway diehards might enjoy this document, an audience filming of the original 1981 production [1h55m] from sometime in the 2 weeks it ran. The quality is poor, but it exists!
The rewriting process involved the composer and the writer, as told here by Randy West who was doing an early restaging in Phoenix.
Netflix has a terrific 2016 documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened [2m30s trailer] made by original cast member Lonnie Price, which documents the original production with current and then interviews and footage. Accompanying that film's release, here is a Q&A at New York Film Festival [20m], and a cast panel from Broadway Sings [45m].
The story being told backward across 20 years, it seems that making-movies-across-time Master Richard Linklater has begun production on a movie musical that will be complete in time for a 2040 release, allowing the same actors to age from young idealists to bitter middle age, with production starting up ever couple of years to film.
True Broadway diehards might enjoy this document, an audience filming of the original 1981 production [1h55m] from sometime in the 2 weeks it ran. The quality is poor, but it exists!
The rewriting process involved the composer and the writer, as told here by Randy West who was doing an early restaging in Phoenix.
Netflix has a terrific 2016 documentary, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened [2m30s trailer] made by original cast member Lonnie Price, which documents the original production with current and then interviews and footage. Accompanying that film's release, here is a Q&A at New York Film Festival [20m], and a cast panel from Broadway Sings [45m].
The story being told backward across 20 years, it seems that making-movies-across-time Master Richard Linklater has begun production on a movie musical that will be complete in time for a 2040 release, allowing the same actors to age from young idealists to bitter middle age, with production starting up ever couple of years to film.
There are also multiple posts of a production by Los Angeles troupe Chromolume Theatre (the chromolume is an invention featured extensively in the second half of "Sunday in the Park with George").
"Best Worst Thing" is terrific - there's a lengthy anecdote about a party that I won't spoil here, but it still makes me smile. (I joined Netflix for a month specifically so I could watch "Best Worst Thing.")
I had listened to the cast album a fair amount, but it wasn't until I actually saw actors embodying the work that I really understood the transformation of "Not a Day Goes By."
Even a flawed work can have some real magic.
Thanks for posting all these great links, hippybear!
posted by kristi at 6:27 PM on August 21, 2021
"Best Worst Thing" is terrific - there's a lengthy anecdote about a party that I won't spoil here, but it still makes me smile. (I joined Netflix for a month specifically so I could watch "Best Worst Thing.")
I had listened to the cast album a fair amount, but it wasn't until I actually saw actors embodying the work that I really understood the transformation of "Not a Day Goes By."
Even a flawed work can have some real magic.
Thanks for posting all these great links, hippybear!
posted by kristi at 6:27 PM on August 21, 2021
Musically, lyrically, it is fucking perfect.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:19 PM on August 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:19 PM on August 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
I hate musical theatre, but the documentary linked above ("Best Worst Thing...") was really good.
posted by fatbird at 10:27 PM on August 21, 2021
posted by fatbird at 10:27 PM on August 21, 2021
My community theatre group put this on: it was fun! It's a total downer of a story, though, with no-one getting what they want, and everyone ending up unhappy, and you know that from the first scene because it runs backwards, so it is unsurprising to me that no-one does it.
In fact, MERRILY got me into Sondheim years ago via the show-within-a-show - that big number that runs into "It's a Hit!"
posted by Exercise Bike at 12:11 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
In fact, MERRILY got me into Sondheim years ago via the show-within-a-show - that big number that runs into "It's a Hit!"
posted by Exercise Bike at 12:11 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I fell in love with the original cast recording on first listen, although when I watched the video of the original production it was pretty clear why it flopped in context. The weirdest bit was hearing Jason Alexander, who sounds exactly like you would expect him to.
I’ve always found “Franklin Shepard Inc.” to be a particular tour de force for an actor, with a growing breakdown as the song goes on.
posted by graymouser at 2:00 AM on August 22, 2021
I’ve always found “Franklin Shepard Inc.” to be a particular tour de force for an actor, with a growing breakdown as the song goes on.
posted by graymouser at 2:00 AM on August 22, 2021
My freshman year of high school we had a new, fresh drama club advisor who was in the vaguely avant garde music scene in our NYC-adjacent area wanted to do something different for his first year on the job and chose Merrily for the spring musical.
The innate qualities of the musical aside, having a bunch of high schoolers trying to play jaded middle aged adults ruing their life choices about their careers in the arts was... something.
posted by damayanti at 5:24 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
The innate qualities of the musical aside, having a bunch of high schoolers trying to play jaded middle aged adults ruing their life choices about their careers in the arts was... something.
posted by damayanti at 5:24 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I saw that 2012 production, it was a great show. I didn't realise at the time it wasn't one of Sondheim's more popular productions, I thought it was a lot of fun and very real and human, which definitely appealed to me at the time, having just moved to London to pursue a career in the arts.
I still catch myself humming some of the tunes, if that isn't a mark of a good time I don't know what is.
posted by fight or flight at 5:42 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I still catch myself humming some of the tunes, if that isn't a mark of a good time I don't know what is.
posted by fight or flight at 5:42 AM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
Merrily We Roll Along features in Lady Bird as the high school musical production as well. A lot of articles have been written about Greta Gerwig's use of Sondheim (along with her partner, fellow filmmaker Noah Baumbach). I would recommend Lady Bird.
My high school performed Merrily. As has been noted, the main issue is it's a total bummer. As someone who has been exposed to musical theater my entire life and is not a fan, it's one of my favorites though.
The other musicals my high school put on in my era were 42nd St, Leader of the Pack and No, No, Nanette, none of which I remember the plot of.
I still can't hear "Kurosawa" without thinking of Merrily and pretension.
posted by ecreeves at 6:00 AM on August 22, 2021
My high school performed Merrily. As has been noted, the main issue is it's a total bummer. As someone who has been exposed to musical theater my entire life and is not a fan, it's one of my favorites though.
The other musicals my high school put on in my era were 42nd St, Leader of the Pack and No, No, Nanette, none of which I remember the plot of.
I still can't hear "Kurosawa" without thinking of Merrily and pretension.
posted by ecreeves at 6:00 AM on August 22, 2021
So has Linklater actually starting shooting his 20 year project? And does his have a designated heir to pick it up if he dies before he finished?
posted by octothorpe at 6:04 AM on August 22, 2021
posted by octothorpe at 6:04 AM on August 22, 2021
The innate qualities of the musical aside, having a bunch of high schoolers trying to play jaded middle aged adults ruing their life choices about their careers in the arts was... something.
This was literally the problem with the original production. Prince wanted to do a show with young people, and they went with this plot that starts with them all being middle-aged and progressing backward to something close to their actual actor ages.
Many of the cast were teenagers when Follies was on Broadway. The aforementioned Jason Alexander was born in 1959, so he was maybe 23 when the show opened.
One thing that excites me about the possibility of Linklater completing his project is how the end product will be exactly what the show strives to be.
The ONLY way I could see doing a better stage version would be to double-cast all the principles with look-and-sound-alikes 10-15 years apart in age, and swap out the cast for the second half with the younger actors. It would be REALLY FUCKING DIFFICULT to carry that off, but if done well, it could play on stage. Linklater has the only real solution to the problem.
That initial video linked, the 2012 London production, one of the things you notice is the later in the play, the more the actors actually mention their age. "Well, gee, I'm only 25...", etc. Because that actor is NOT 25, at all.
I do think the score is utterly amazing, but the transformation of Not A Day Goes By from the first act to the second, when you actually SEE the context... it's chilling. It is one of the most effective moments of theater I can recall, ever. Truly amazing.
posted by hippybear at 12:28 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
This was literally the problem with the original production. Prince wanted to do a show with young people, and they went with this plot that starts with them all being middle-aged and progressing backward to something close to their actual actor ages.
Many of the cast were teenagers when Follies was on Broadway. The aforementioned Jason Alexander was born in 1959, so he was maybe 23 when the show opened.
One thing that excites me about the possibility of Linklater completing his project is how the end product will be exactly what the show strives to be.
The ONLY way I could see doing a better stage version would be to double-cast all the principles with look-and-sound-alikes 10-15 years apart in age, and swap out the cast for the second half with the younger actors. It would be REALLY FUCKING DIFFICULT to carry that off, but if done well, it could play on stage. Linklater has the only real solution to the problem.
That initial video linked, the 2012 London production, one of the things you notice is the later in the play, the more the actors actually mention their age. "Well, gee, I'm only 25...", etc. Because that actor is NOT 25, at all.
I do think the score is utterly amazing, but the transformation of Not A Day Goes By from the first act to the second, when you actually SEE the context... it's chilling. It is one of the most effective moments of theater I can recall, ever. Truly amazing.
posted by hippybear at 12:28 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
Lordy, Jason Alexander was NOT in Follies. I'm getting Sondheim-addled.
posted by hippybear at 12:41 PM on August 22, 2021
posted by hippybear at 12:41 PM on August 22, 2021
My lovely wife saw one of the original 16 performances in 1981 and still says (as recently as yesterday) that it was the worst thing she ever saw. She has had an aversion to musicals in general and Sondheim in particular ever since, poor thing.
The problem is right there in the basic concept: telling a story backwards in time, getting the audience to engage with worldly, cynical and unsympathetic middle-aged adults long enough to learn about the idealistic and naive youths they once were. The source material, a 1934 play by George Kaufmann and Moss Hart, had the same problem, analyzed like this by Herman Mankiewicz: "Here's this wealthy playwright who has repeated successes and earned enormous sums of money, has mistresses as well as a family, an expensive town house, a luxurious beach house and a yacht. The problem is: How did the son of a bitch get into this jam?"
On top of everything else, as many commenters have already said, it's almost impossible to cast performers who can play both teenagers and 40-somethings. Sondheim said later that only one actor in the original production could pull it off, "a remarkable performer named Jason Alexander, who at twenty-one seemed like an old pro; it was if he had been born middle-aged."
I've seen and enjoyed multiple productions since (never once with my wife) and it's probably my favorite of Sondheim's scores. I hope I make it to see the 2040 film!
posted by How the runs scored at 1:52 PM on August 22, 2021 [4 favorites]
The problem is right there in the basic concept: telling a story backwards in time, getting the audience to engage with worldly, cynical and unsympathetic middle-aged adults long enough to learn about the idealistic and naive youths they once were. The source material, a 1934 play by George Kaufmann and Moss Hart, had the same problem, analyzed like this by Herman Mankiewicz: "Here's this wealthy playwright who has repeated successes and earned enormous sums of money, has mistresses as well as a family, an expensive town house, a luxurious beach house and a yacht. The problem is: How did the son of a bitch get into this jam?"
On top of everything else, as many commenters have already said, it's almost impossible to cast performers who can play both teenagers and 40-somethings. Sondheim said later that only one actor in the original production could pull it off, "a remarkable performer named Jason Alexander, who at twenty-one seemed like an old pro; it was if he had been born middle-aged."
I've seen and enjoyed multiple productions since (never once with my wife) and it's probably my favorite of Sondheim's scores. I hope I make it to see the 2040 film!
posted by How the runs scored at 1:52 PM on August 22, 2021 [4 favorites]
I directed a production of Merrily at theater camp in the mid-80's. It was even more ridiculous than the original B'Way production, of course, but damn the music and lyrics are flawless.
Upon re-watching the London production linked above it struck me that the opening number of Merrily (1981) musically, lyrically, and thematically sits at a midpoint between the opening number of Company (1970) and the finale of Assassins (1990), and that... illuminates a larger story about the progress and direction of the American zeitgeist over those 20 years.
posted by tzikeh at 2:10 PM on August 22, 2021
Upon re-watching the London production linked above it struck me that the opening number of Merrily (1981) musically, lyrically, and thematically sits at a midpoint between the opening number of Company (1970) and the finale of Assassins (1990), and that... illuminates a larger story about the progress and direction of the American zeitgeist over those 20 years.
posted by tzikeh at 2:10 PM on August 22, 2021
MetaFilter: My lovely wife saw one ... and still says (as recently as yesterday) that it was the worst thing she ever saw.
posted by hippybear at 2:11 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 2:11 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's very weird in the documentary to see Jason Alexander waxing regretful over not doing much else after Seinfeld, after choosing to be a very present parent to his boys. He was a star on Broadway, then a star in one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, and he still wonders what he might have accomplished?
Many would (correctly, IMHO) see taking the opportunity to be primarily a parent after achieving great professional success as the perfect capstone to such a career.
posted by fatbird at 5:52 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
Many would (correctly, IMHO) see taking the opportunity to be primarily a parent after achieving great professional success as the perfect capstone to such a career.
posted by fatbird at 5:52 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]
I didn’t realize the show used in Lady Bird was real and remember thinking it’s badness was another great aspect of Lady Bird’s screenplay.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:30 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Tandem Affinity at 7:30 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
My fiance is a huge Sondheim fan; I had not really known Sondheim's work until we started dating. I have now been exposed to just about the entire ouevre and while there is a lot that leaves me cold (Sweeney Todd does not do it for me), Merrily is my absolute favorite. I love the complicated time structure and the music and the overhwelming sense of melancholy. Thanks for this post, hippybear!
posted by Neely O'Hara at 10:03 AM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Neely O'Hara at 10:03 AM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thanks for posting this, hippybear! I love musical theater in all of its various shades of glory and awfulness. I'll take whatever! For anyone who enjoys the time structure of this one, you might like The Last Five Years.
posted by missmobtown at 10:31 AM on August 23, 2021
posted by missmobtown at 10:31 AM on August 23, 2021
When I was an early teen, I went to the Intensely Theater Kid Stagedoor Manor camp, where Sondheim was a god. The camp song was "Our Time" and, oof, is that an appropriate song for a group of teenagers who love theater so much they spend the summer in a pressure-cooker competitive camp dedicating about 16 hours a day to it. I've always had a sentimental love for the song, which turned to wistfulness when I first realized I wasn't going to be pursuing a career in the performing arts and then stopped doing shows at all.
And then seeing the documentary about "Merrily We Roll Along," never having seen the show itself, made me realize how ironically perfect that song is, even beyond the superficial themes of the lyrics.
(If there are any other former theater kids who want to feel real wistful, there's a great documentary about Stagedoor Manor that I think is probably interesting even if you didn't go there, you can watch it on youtube.)
posted by lunasol at 1:42 PM on August 23, 2021
And then seeing the documentary about "Merrily We Roll Along," never having seen the show itself, made me realize how ironically perfect that song is, even beyond the superficial themes of the lyrics.
(If there are any other former theater kids who want to feel real wistful, there's a great documentary about Stagedoor Manor that I think is probably interesting even if you didn't go there, you can watch it on youtube.)
posted by lunasol at 1:42 PM on August 23, 2021
Ah! I saw that 2012 production, at the Chocolate Factory. I think it gets more awesome as you go through it, and the forward-echoes get more resonant and more ironic. Delicious.
posted by Pentickle at 2:01 PM on September 11, 2021
posted by Pentickle at 2:01 PM on September 11, 2021
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