Will Merrily Roll Along To Broadway?

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 4:29am

I hope so.....



Variety:

Merrily We Roll Along
(N.Y. City Center; 2,256 seats; $125 top)
by Steven Suskin

A New York City Center Encores! presentation of a musical in two acts with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Directed and adapted by James Lapine; choreography, Dan Knechtges; music director, Rob Berman.

Franklin Shepard - Colin Donnell
Mary Flynn - Celia Keenan-Bolger
Charley Kringas - Lin-Manuel Miranda
Joe Josephson - Adam Grupper
Beth Spencer - Betsy Wolfe
Gussie Carnegie - Elizabeth Stanley
Franklin Shepard, Jr. - Zachary Unger

"Merrily We Roll Along" rolls triumphantly back to town as the opening attraction of the 2012 season at City Center Encores! The troubled piece -- a 16-performance failure when it opened in 1981 -- has undergone continual revision by Stephen Sondheim, the late George Furth (who wrote the original book) and director/playwright James Lapine. Built-in problems in the narrative, which lumbers backwards from 1976 to 1957, remain, but this seems the best of all possible "Merrilys." Sondheim fans will heartily approve.

"Merrily" holds a unique place in Sondheim's canon; his 11th Broadway musical, coming just after "Sweeney Todd," was a quick and outright failure, effectively ending the author's 24-year association with producer-director Harold Prince. While "Merrily" was based on a long-forgotten Kaufman and Hart play, the two young artists mapping their creative future in the musical version were consciously patterned on the young Sondheim and Prince.

The Encores! show essentially follows the version devised by Furth and Lapine for the 1985 production at the La Jolla Playhouse, albeit with numerous later changes. Lapine is here credited for the adaptation, which reassigns some songs and has some bigger laugh lines. The show also has been reorchestrated by Jonathan Tunick (based on his original charts), since the post-1981 musical material had never been orchestrated for a Broadway-sized band. Rob Berman leads his 23-piece orchestra with style, and Sondheim's score sounds very good indeed.

Colin Donnell, moonlighting from his gig as leading man over at "Anything Goes," sings well enough but doesn't quite pull off the leading role of Franklin Shepard. Like Bobby in the Sondheim-Furth "Company," the character is difficult in part because the supporting players have showier material. Those supports are well represented here by Lin-Manuel Miranda as Charley Kringas, who makes the most of his nervous breakdown-in-song, and Celia Keenan-Bolger (one of the leads of "Peter and the Starcatchers") as the Dorothy Parker-like Mary Flynn.

Strong assists come from Adam Grupper as producer Joe Josephson, Elizabeth Stanley as stage star Gussie Carnegie (wife to both Franklin and Joe as the plot roles backward) and Betsy Wolfe in the seemingly reduced role of Franklin's first wife. Eight-year-old Zachary Unger, is especially good as the boy stuck in Franklin's custody battle.

This Encores! concert staging is slickly produced, with screens for extensive projections built into the face of the unit set. While the projections (by Wendall K. Harrington) help illuminate the proceedings, they occasionally draw attention from the characters. More extensive than most Encores! sets, this one requires entrances and exits from atop the bandstand, which result in departing actors climbing stairs in full view of the audience, detracting from the scene still in progress.

The show is in for a 15-perf run, as opposed to Encores! standard of five or six. This latest version might not thoroughly solve the piece's inherent problems, but it offers theater fans an entertaining opportunity to catch the little-seen show.

Sets, John Lee Beatty; costumes, Ann Hould-Ward; lighting, Ken Billington; sound, Dan Moses Schreier; projections, Wendall K. Harrington; orchestrations, Jonathan Tunick; production stage manager, Peter Lawrence. Opened, reviewed Feb. 8, 2012, closes Feb. 19. Running time: 2 HOURS, 30 MIN.
With: Whit Baldwin, Rachel Coloff, Ben Crawford, Joshua Dela Cruz, Bernard Dotson, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Marja Harmon, Leah Horowitz, Mylinda Hull, Michael X. Martin, Sean McKnight, Kenita R. Miller, Patricia Noonan, Andrew Samonsky, Pearl Sun, Charlie Sutton, Jessica Vosk, Karl Warden, Michael Winther.

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The Associated Press:

Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' gets wistful
by Mark Kennedy

Shall we start with the distant past? Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" was one of the composing giant's few flops. And when it opened on Broadway in 1981, even he knew it.

"The theatergoers who didn't leave at intermission did a lot of squirming, and with reason: they felt cheated," Sondheim writes in "Finishing the Hat," the second volume of his collected lyrics and commentary.

Now fast-forward to the happy present: New York City Center has dug up a revised version for a short run that started Thursday as part of its Encore! series. No one left at intermission. Sondheim was spotted bashfully sprinting out of the auditorium as the actors bowed for their standing ovation, a smile on his face.

Writing events backward in time is a lot harder than it seems — a fact that Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics and music, and book writer George Furth will probably attest after the once-tortured origins of "Merrily We Roll Along."

But the City Center production gets some fresh help from Rob Berman's music direction and Dan Knechtges's musical staging, not to mention having James Lapine in the director's chair. There's also no denying some fantastic Sondheim songs, including "Not a Day Goes By," 'Old Friends" and the title tune.

The show, already revised by Lapine in 1985, is supposed to be stripped down — a concert more than a full show — but the scripts in the actors' hands have disappeared by the end, and the show, complete with costumes, props and smart projections by Wendall K. Harrington, looks virtually done. It only runs until Feb. 19.

Original audiences of "Merrily We Roll Along" may have been confused by a story that goes from 1976 to 1957 as it examines the friendship of three artists. The use of projections — including doctored photos of the actors posing with Nixon, the Kennedys and the Beatles — capture the time shifting perfectly. Shards of many of the songs filter through time magically.

This all is tricky business: Alcoholics become teetotalers as the show progresses. Divorces lead to secret assignations, which lead to previous marriages. The show also starts with unhappiness, broken marriages and hurt feelings, only to end with hope. Those who stick around through the Act 1 gloom get a bittersweet tale about youth and dreams — and how we all eventually careen off the tracks.

The cast is made up of Colin Donnell, who plays Franklin Shepard, a puffed-up Hollywood mogul who becomes, by the end, an idealistic young Broadway composer. Lin-Manuel Miranda plays Charley Kringas, Shepard's one-time songwriting partner and best friend, and Celia Keenan-Bolger plays Mary Flynn, their loyal but disillusioned friend. Betsy Wolfe plays Shepard's wife Beth, and Elizabeth Stanley portrays Gussie Carnegie, the star of the musical team's first Broadway hit and Shepard's lover.

The voices are often uneven, but the energy and acting chops are there, especially from "In the Heights" writer-actor Miranda, and Keenan-Bolger ("The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"), who both play up the laughs, the awkwardness of geekdom and the sadness of loss. There's a tremendous wistfulness that emerges from watching angry, unyielding people melt into wide-eyed optimists over the course of two hours.

In the show's prologue, one of the lyrics warns "Never look back." Thank goodness City Center did by reviving a once-troubled "Merrily We Roll Along."

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The New York Post:

‘Merrily,’ it gets Encores!
by Frank Scheck

*** (out of four)

Revivals of “Merrily We Roll Along” are a lot like the musical itself: Just as its characters get younger and more idealistic with each scene, there’s a perpetual hope of going back in time and getting this Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical right.

Based on a 1934 Kaufman and Hart play, “Merrily” flopped upon its 1981 premiere, and there have been hopes of reclaiming it as a neglected masterpiece ever since.

The Encores! rendition that opened this week, adapted and directed by James Lapine, is its best incarnation yet — but despite that glorious score, triumphantly performed by a 23-piece orchestra, the show remains problematic.

When we meet the three main characters — composer Franklin Shepard (Colin Donnell), playwright Charley Kringas (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and writer Mary Flynn (Celia Keenan-Bolger) — they’re about 40 years old and thoroughly unpleasant.

But in scene after scene, as the show goes back in time, we see how their youthful dreams and friendship were shattered, both by Franklin’s lust for commercial success at the expense of Charley’s artistic aspirations and his leaving his wife for the glamorous star of one of their shows. But by then we have ceased to care very much.

This version improves on the deeply flawed original. Rather than having ridiculously young performers play dress-up in the early, grown-up scenes, the cast here is essentially age-appropriate. Wendall K. Harrington’s witty projection design effectively depicts both the shifting milieus of the decades between 1976, when the action begins, and 1957, when it ends, along with the characters’ personal arcs.

Surprisingly, for what’s supposed to be a concert version — though Dan Knechtges’ graceful choreography and Ann Hould-Ward’s period-perfect costumes are Broadway-ready — the singing leaves something to be desired.

The handsome Donnell, fresh off “Anything Goes,” makes a strong-voiced Franklin, but Miranda and Keenan-Bolger struggle vocally, and their performances occasionally border on shrill. Better are Elizabeth Stanley, boisterously funny as the sexy starlet Gussie Carnegie; Betsy Wolfe, endearing as Franklin’s first wife, Beth; and a scene-stealing Adam Grupper, hilarious as Gussie’s husband, the team’s producer.

And then, of course, there is the music. Such haunting numbers as “Old Friends,” “Not a Day Goes By,” “Good Thing Going” and the title song will ensure that this show lives on forever.



Updated On: 2/10/12 at 04:29 AM

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 4:34am

The New York Times

Time Traveling With Old Friends
By BEN BRANTLEY
Like doting godparents to a cherished but difficult child, Stephen Sondheim fans have been waiting 30 years for “Merrily We Roll Along” to grow up. Staged on Broadway in 1981, when it ran for a mere 16 performances, this ambivalent collaboration between Mr. Sondheim and the book writer George Furth seemed, like many a problem child, to possess both glorious potential and a heartbreaking tendency to sabotage itself.

The “Merrily” that opened on Wednesday night — inaugurating the new season of the Encores! series of American musicals in concert at City Center — might be seen as the end product of years of finishing school, of three decades of revamped (and often rewritten) revivals. Ever since its watershed staging of “Chicago” in 1996, Encores! has acquired a reputation for turning former lame ducklings into high-flying swans. And so this latest production has been attended by an especially heady blend of optimism and anxiety.

The cheers began with the first bars of the show’s overture, the most infectious and conventionally stirring that Mr. Sondheim wrote, its shiny, brass-borne melodies gleaming with promises you hope will be fulfilled. Then the musical, a tale of three idealists in Manhattan told in reverse chronology, began its process of traveling backward in more ways than one. And by the end you felt that same old mixture of exhilaration and deflation that “Merrily” — beautiful and damned “Merrily” — always inspires.

This version is directed by James Lapine, a longtime collaborator of Mr. Sondheim (“Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods,” “Passion”) who has wrestled with “Merrily” before, in a popular 1985 production at La Jolla Playhouse in California. (He also oversaw "Sondheim on Sondheim," the 2010 Broadway revue in celebration of its subject’s 80th birthday.) He brings to this production an affectionate insider’s yearning to make an old friend look good (I mean the show, not Mr. Sondheim), using all the latest mod cons of his trade.

Yet for the first time in my long and varied experience of “Merrily,” the show seemed not only a portrait of people trapped in time, but a work trapped in time as well. Though it features several well-drawn and vibrant performances, “Merrily” comes across here as oddly quaint and self-conscious. It has the air of something overexplaining — and apologizing for — its own flaws.

When theater fanatics sit down to dissect the problems of “Merrily,” it’s usually its structure that is blamed first. Based on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1934 play about lost illusions, this musical held onto the central stunt of tracing its characters’ fortunes from their jaded present to their idealistic past. It begins with a view of a 40-ish composer at the summit of his success (in 1976), then follows him and his two closest friends back to their first meeting, two decades earlier, when the world seemed new and unsullied.

In Harold Prince’s original staging the ensemble was notable for its youth and lack of professional experience. Mr. Prince has said he envisioned the show as a sort of “Babes in Arms”-like frolic for fresh-faced performers. But Mr. Sondheim, being Mr. Sondheim, streaked even the show’s sunniest songs with chilling shadows of melancholy.

The general perception in 1981 was that a young cast couldn’t do justice to the score’s emotional complexity. Others — including The New York Times’s Frank Rich, who called the show “a shambles” — felt the problems were more pervasive. “All we get is fatuous attitudinizing about how ambition, success and money always lead to rack and ruin,” Mr. Rich wrote.

That observation, alas, holds true. As the recent revival of "Follies," a far better musical, reminded us, Mr. Sondheim’s book writers have never been able to match the textured subtlety of his music, and the disparity is especially glaring in “Merrily.” A typical line: “Is Frank the only person in the world who doesn’t know you’re in love with him?” And: “Did you want that kind of life so much that you went with her?”

That last question is asked of the rising musical-comedy composer Franklin Shepard (Colin Donnell) by his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Beth (Betsy Wolfe). Frank seems to inspire the kind of dialogue that went out of fashion with the tragedy-of-success movie glamour fests of the 1950s, like "The Bad and the Beautiful."

And though much is said about his wit and charisma, Frank has as much personality as a figure in an Everyman play. (I don’t think it’s the slick, handsome Mr. Donnell’s fault that he never puts a distinctive signature on this blank page.) Fortunately Frank has two somewhat livelier friends, Mary Flynn (Celia Keenan-Bolger), an alcoholic novelist, and Charley Kringas (Lin-Manuel Miranda), a playwright who is Frank’s collaborator and Jiminy Cricket-like conscience.

Mary and Charley are archetypes too, bringing to mind the fast-quipping, showbiz-savvy chums in old MGM musicals played by Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant. But Mr. Sondheim invests them with that layering of anger, wit and wistfulness that makes him such a great portraitist as a songwriter. And Ms. Keenan-Bolger (who also does marvelously by the best lines in the script) and Mr. Miranda (the creator and star of “In the Heights”) bring original verve and credibility to their songs. (The cast also includes the likable Adam Grupper as a Broadway producer and Elizabeth Stanley as his voracious diva of a wife.)

The conceptual design weighs everyone down, though. The show features continuing projections (by a master of the craft, Wendall K. Harrington) of familiar time-capsule images. (The Beatles! Jack and Jackie!) And thanks to Photoshop the characters’ faces have been interpolated, so you now see them with the likes of Dick Cavett, Yoko Ono and Betty Friedan.

The device only underscores the musical’s inherent gimmickry, and it distances characters who are hard to embrace to begin with. Even Dan Knechtges’s choreography is saddled with threadbare quotation marks. (Must we really, in this year of "Smash," have yet another variation on Marilyn Monroe doing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend"?)

There’s probably too much brass in Jonathan Tunick’s retooled orchestrations; flash and stridency often overwhelm the tenderness in the score. (Rob Berman leads the Encores! orchestra.) Yet the charms of the music are still abundantly evident, not just in the ballads of hope and heartbreak (“Our Time,” “Not a Day Goes By”) but also in the sly reworking of frolicsome Comden-and-Green-style odes to companionship, good and bad.

As Mr. Donnell, Ms. Keenan-Bolger and Mr. Miranda perform the seemingly blithe trio "Old Friends," you’re aware of the contradictory feelings of love and irritation and resentment that inform every element of the song. No composer of musicals has ever sustained as many strata of emotions in a single number (or a single phrase) as Mr. Sondheim does.

That’s why we’ll probably keep revisiting “Merrily We Roll Along,” again and again, in the years to come. And why, in the face of disillusion, we continue to hope that through some miracle this show will have grown up, after all, to be a worthy mate for the blessed score at its center.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 4:39am

the New York Daily News:

'Merrily We Roll Along'
by Joe Dziemianowicz

*** (out of five)

It started out like a flop in 1981.
And despite wonderful Stephen Sondheim songs, the middling new production of “Merrily We Roll Along,” at Encores! through Feb. 19, isn’t an ideal showcase. It won’t redeem its reputation as a troubled work.

Since its disastrous 16-performance Broadway run, the musical has been on a perpetual 30-year tryout. Tweaked versions have popped up in La Jolla, Calif., NYC’s York Theatre (which I saw in 1994 and loved), the Kennedy Center and London’s Donmar Warehouse.

Director James Lapine, who’s been noodling with the show since 1985 in California, still hasn’t solved its issues. Among them, until the last 10 minutes there’s no sense of connection between the three main characters. Repeated pinky swears is a particularly irritating way to suggest a bond. His staging isn’t memorably sung either. Ensemble vocals are sometimes shrill.

Based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the musical by Sondheim and book writer George Furth is told in reverse, Benjamin Button-style.

The plot covers about two decades and revolves around Franklin Shepard (Colin Donnell), a composer-turned movie producer whose rise to A-list success strains his relationship with writing partner Charley Kringas (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and pal Mary Flynn (Celia Keenan-Bolger).

The show boasts some of Sondheim’s best showtunes — “Old Friends,” which speaks for itself, the yearning “Not a Day Goes By,” sung by Frank’s soon-to-be ex-wife Beth (Betsy Wolfe) and the regretful “Good Thing Going.”

The run-of-the-mill story hangs on the ABCs of showbiz clichés — Ambition, Betrayal, Cheating. For a show that focuses on infidelity, this revival is totally sexless in spite of Elizabeth Stanley’s va-va-va-Gussie, who goes from Frank’s leading lady to mistress to wife to cast-off.

Because the book is thin, the songs and principals must work overtime to put flesh on the skeletal story. Donnell (Billy Crocker in “Anything Goes”) has a nice voice but comes off bland. Miranda (writer and star of “In the Heights’) isn’t a strong singer but adds scruffy charm as a needy nebbish. Keenan-Bolger (a Tony nominee for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) lands her barbed zingers but her singing is strained.

The production makes smart use of stills and clips that Forrest Gump characters into era-defining scenes on an LED billboard. Musicians sit above the giant screen.

Except for a bit of sour brass in the overture, the big Encores! orchestra sounded great.

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Newsday:

Sondheim Encore: "Merrily We Roll Along"
by Linda Winer

Is there a more beloved, ravishingly musical problem-child than Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along"? A near-mythic failure that closed in 1981 after 16 performances, this idealistic flop about disillusioning success has been reworked in so many ways for so many different productions that its back-story feels as wistful as its show-business plot.

And so it goes, alas, for the incarnation at City Center's Encores!, a version with so much promise that the series extended its usual short week to 15 performances. Director James Lapine, Sondheim's collaborator for such masterworks as "Sunday in the Park With George" and "Into the Woods," would seem to have arrived ready-made with solutions from his well-received 1985 revival at the LaJolla Playhouse.

But the main casting, an exciting prospect on paper, lacks the chemistry to spark George Furth's awkward cautionary tale about the devolution of three talented kids -- told backward from Bel Air swank in 1980 to a dreamy-scruffy Manhattan rooftop in 1955. Lapine's direction is surprisingly sluggish. The useful and good-looking visuals belabor the familiar cultural timeline.

Buoying things up, as always, are Sondheim's excruciatingly beautiful songs about hopeful, smart young people who dare to sing about the joys of "Opening Doors" and swearing, "We are the movers/we are the shakers/we are the names in tomorrow's papers."

But, too often, these actors lack the necessary vocal heft. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the exuberantly talented fast-rapping star and Tony-winning creator of "In the Heights," is oddly subdued and cautious as Charley, the serious lyricist. Colin Donnell has the voice but not much pizazz as the composer who loses his way in Hollywood glitz and greed. Celia Keenan-Bolger has an endearing edge as the one-hit, sloppy-drunk novelist who pines for the oblivious composer.

For the record, this "Merrily" omits the graduation scenes and the songs "The Hills of Tomorrow" and "Rich and Happy." The onstage orchestra, enlarged from the original, sounds glorious. But of all the revisions and rearrangements I've seen, only the 2002 version at the Kennedy Center had a stage life to match the wonders of the music. On the bright side, though the characters wish they'd "kept growing instead of getting old," this show remains forever-young enough to keep trying.

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Entertainment Weekly:

"Merrily We Roll Along"

by Melissa Rose Bernardo

Grade: B

It appears to be the season for resurrecting troubled Stephen Sondheim musicals (see: the sensational Broadway revival of Follies, which ended its limited run last month and moves in May to L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre). So there couldn't be a better time for City Center's Encores! — the high-profile, elaborately staged concert series that launched the still-running Chicago and the Patti LuPone Gypsy revival — to bring back the rarely produced Merrily We Roll Along. Even if it's only through Feb. 19, for 15 shows — heck, that's almost as many as the original 1981 Broadway production. (For the record, the show's first run played a colossally disappointing 16 performances, excluding previews.)

Plot-wise, Merrily is perhaps Sondheim's simplest show. Playwright Charley Kringas (Lin-Manuel Miranda), composer Franklin Shepard (Colin Donnell), and writer Mary Flynn (Celia Keenan-Bolger) look back on their friendship. But there's a twist. The show moves backward: not in flashbacks, but entirely in reverse. The first scene is set in 1976, when the three are estranged, bitter, barely speaking, and successful — and then drifts back to 1957, when they're idealistic, broke, full-of-life starving artists. (Yes, Merrily fans: This production starts in 1976 since it uses a revised script that ditches the graduation-scene beginning, set in 1981.)

Director and frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park With George) smartly resurrects a concept he employed in the 1985 La Jolla Playhouse revival: flipping through a visual scrapbook — photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers — from beginning to end during the opening number. (The clever projections are by Wendall K. Harrington; my personal favorite may be the wacky Life magazine cover asking: 'Are Kringas & Flynn the next Rodgers & Hammerstein?') Lapine also uses the projections to transition between scenes; as the years scroll backward to the title tune — 'Yesterday is done, see the pretty countryside, merrily we roll along, roll along...' — so do the pages. (The fake snapshots can, occasionally, be a bit jarring. Franklin with Yoko Ono?!?)

Despite this pictorial CliffsNotes of the characters' history, it takes too long, scene- and song-wise, to get to identify with the principals. Within the first 20 minutes or so, we learn Franklin is a serial adulterer who's sold out to Hollywood and jilted his best friend and collaborator — he's not the most sympathetic leading man. Similarly, it's tough to sit through six verses of Mary wondering 'Why can't it be like it was?' when we have no idea what 'like it was' was.

But in act two, when the dots are connected, the payoff is oh-so-sweet! (Warning: There are at least three genuine lump-in-the-throat if not complete tear-jerking numbers.) And as the characters become more fully drawn, the actors' performances deepen. Keenan-Bolger plays very much against type as the boisterous drunk Mary in the first scene — and her pyramid-perm wig does her no favors — but she's far more endearing, and convincing, as a struggling novelist hopelessly (and wordlessly) in love with Franklin. Similarly, Miranda, the Tony-winning writer-creator and star of In the Heights, is a little awkward in his '70s 'do and leisure suit; not surprisingly, the role of a struggling songwriter fits him far better. And Donnell (a.k.a. Anything Goes' resident dreamboat) manages to find a very appealing naivete in the young Franklin — particularly opposite the lovely Betsy Wolfe, as his fellow revue performer turned first wife, Beth.

New York City hasn't seen Merrily since 1994, and for musical-theater (and Sondheim) aficionados, this is a don't-miss: Who knows when you'll have another chance to hear this score, with Jonathan Tunick's beautifully brassy orchestrations, played by 23 musicians? Seriously: 23 musicians! Gods of the theater, smile on us and bless us with a cast recording. And, perhaps, another Lapine production: As he says in his bio, 'Yesterday is apparently not done.'

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 4:43am

Bloomberg News:

Lin-Manuel Miranda ‘Merrily’ Rolls
by Jeremy Gerard

** 1/2

Ever since it closed after 16 performances in 1981, this Stephen Sondheim musical has been revived, revised, rearranged and reconsidered by some of the best talents in the business. The latest attempt to make an honest show of it is the concert version opening the season at New York City Center’s invaluable “Encores!” series of semi-staged concerts.

“Merrily” tells the story of three friends who meet in 1957 as New York City college students: Mary, a budding writer who carries a torch for Franklin, a composer; and Charley, a would-be playwright. During the next two decades, Mary writes a best-selling novel before dissolving into alcoholism. Charley writes earnest plays that win prizes but not dollars and Franklin sells out to Hollywood, becoming a high-living producer of schlock.

The gimmick is that the story is told backwards, just as it was in the 1934 play by Kaufman and Hart. Franklin (Colin Donnell), Mary (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Charley (Lin-Manuel Miranda) are first seen when their friendship is ruins.

We travel back in time to the finale, their chance meeting on the roof of an apartment building. They’ve come to watch Sputnik stream across the night sky and, hitting it off, they sing that “something is stirring, shifting ground ... and yesterday is done.”

This is a bad idea. Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” succeeded in telling its tale in reverse chronology. A musical builds emotionally in a different way. The first time we meet them, Franklin is a philandering egomaniac, Mary an acid-tongued drunk and Charley an embittered scourge. They’re unlikable and, worse, boring.

Why all this effort for what remains a fatally flawed work? The reason is simple: “Merrily” has an ingratiatingly entertaining score. The half-dozen songs that unfold in its last half-hour are as moving an account of the way time warps youthful dreams as you’re ever likely to hear.

They’re also the point at which James Lapine’s production finally takes off. Until then, Keenan-Bolger and Miranda both sang somewhat shakily, which I will blame on opening night nerves; only Donnell seemed comfortably assured.

This allowed others to shine, particularly Adam Grupper as a middlebrow lawyer/producer; Elizabeth Stanley as the knockout wife who leaves him for Franklin; and Betsy Wolfe as the long- suffering spouse Franklin dumps for Stanley. A reprise of the torchy ballad “Not a Day Goes By,” sung by Keenan-Bolger and Wolfe, is a killer.

Lapine and video wizard Wendall K. Harrington provide era- defining images (in which the three leads appear, Zelig-like, with Kennedys and others). Ann Hould-Ward’s costumes also place us securely in each period. But even the reliable Encores! Orchestra, conducted by Rob Berman, seemed shaky on opening night.

For all these reasons, I plan to revisit “Merrily” a bit later in the run, when I’m pretty certain all the elements will have fallen securely into place. And maybe next time, some enterprising director will stage “Merrily” backwards. The way it ought to be done.

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amnewyork.com:

"Merrily We Roll Along"
by Matt Windman

****

Thirty years ago, "Merrily We Roll Along," Stephen Sondheim's musical that moves backward in time from 1976 to 1957 and observes how a strong three-way friendship falls apart, crashed and burned in its Broadway debut.

But even if the original production was problematic and the show's plot is unusual and often sad, the show contains many of Sondheim's most heartfelt and exquisitely crafted songs.

James Lapine, who became Sondheim's new collaborator after the "Merrily" debacle, directed a revised version of the musical in 1985 that has since been done at countless regional theaters. This version, again directed by Lapine, is now receiving a triumphant, absolutely exhilarating revival as part of City Center's Encores! series.

As the show begins, Franklin Shepard (Colin O'Donnell) is a former composer turned film producer and his longtime pal Mary Flynn (Celia Keenan-Bolger) is a best-selling author turned sarcastic alcoholic. Frank is no longer on speaking terms with his former songwriting partner Charley Kringas (Lin-Manuel Miranda), who refused to condone Frank's relentless pursuit of financial success.

Scene by scene, we travel chronologically backward and watch what led to the dissolution of Frank's marriage and friendship with Charles. Eventually, Frank evolves back into an innocent, idealistic youth who believes that his songs can change the world. "Our Time," the show's anthem of hope at the end of Act 2, is ironically devastating given our knowledge of what lies ahead in Frank's future.

O'Donnell, who recently starred as Billy in "Anything Goes," makes a credible transition from hollow Hollywood hack to starry-eyed dreamer.

Miranda, best known as the creator of the musical "In the Heights," is still adjusting to the difficult score, but manages to pull through.

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The Huffington Post:

"Merrily We Roll Along"
by Howard Kissel

In the nearly four decades I have been reviewing theater I have seen shows revived, altered, sometimes but seldom improved. But never --- until last night -- have I seen one totally, gloriously reborn.

That show is Stephen Sondheim's longtime problem child "Merrily We Roll Along," which initially had a book by George Furth. The version unveiled Wednesday night at City Center Encores! has a book rewritten by Furth for a 1993 British production, then further revised by James Lapine, who also directed it.

Over the years I have disparaged Lapine's direction but his witty, dextrous use of projections and his understanding of its difficult subject made the 2010 "Sondheim on Sondheim" an unexpectedly moving revue. In "Merrily, his theatrical prowess has made what initially seemed a chilly experiment in telling a story backwards into a profoundly emotional experience.

I have always remembered the original opening night, back in November of 1981 as one of the most cheerless evenings I have ever spent in the theater.

In those days the critics rarely attended the opening. Daily newspapers no longer considered a Broadway opening a valid reason for holding the presses. Since 1979, when Walter Kerr resumed daily reviewing at the Times on the condition he could attend one of the final previews, the other critics followed suit. Kerr no longer wanted the pressure of dashing back to the office and filing a revue on a tight deadline (though it is extraordinary to see how fine the writing was back in the days when he did.)

In the case of the Prince-Sondheim shows, at least as far back as "Pacific Overtures," critics were invited to attend not one but two previews in order to clarify their thoughts about complicated works. But in the case of "Merrily," which did not have an out-of-town tryout, critics could only attend opening night. "Merrily" had been in previews for six weeks, word of mouth had been extremely negative and the opening night audience could not in conscience pretend that this would be a festive occasion.

Those of us in the press had to scurry up the aisle trying to avoid the painful gazes of those trying to predict what the notices would be.

A year before "Merrily" opened I had interviewed Harold Prince, its director, who explained its concept to me. The cast would consist of very young, unknown performers. That way the audience could see the unhappy things that were happening to the characters but subconsciously could see that young people might make other, happier choices. (Years later I mentioned this to Michael Bennett, who choreographed several of their early shows. "Yes," he said, "Hal and Steve sit around talking about the text and the subtext and my poor mother comes and doesn't know what the f--k is going on.")

Someone who worked on the original production once told me that in its early stages, despite its bleak plot, "Merrily" was discussed as a "Mickey and Judy" show. All these promising images of what the show would be never jelled.

You knew the evening would be problematic as soon as the curtain rose on a set that consisted essentially of black bleachers. The cast wore black pants and black T-shirts with white lettering that explained who they were -- Dancer, Photographer, Waiter. The T-shirts, intended to clarify the characters, instead made them abstractions.

What Lapine has done is to give the evening an emotional weight that, given the brittleness of the original production, seems almost inconceivable.

Like the original set, the current one, by John Lee Beatty, is quite simple -- a huge rectangular black box on top of which sits the orchestra. Even in the original production Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations contributed luster to an otherwise lackluster evening. He has totally redone the orchestrations for a smaller but equally dazzling band led by Rob Berman.

Against the black base underneath the orchestra Lapine begins the show by projecting a splendid montage of images of the period covered-- the late '50s up until 1981. We see the couple that symbolized the feeling of hope that filled America at the beginning of the fateful '60s, Jack and Jackie -- significantly, on the day those hopes were dashed. We see a group of '70s feminists hailing Roe v. Wade. We see images of man in space. We see the Beatles.

Into this time frame Lapine wittily inserts a parody of Arnold Newman's iconic photographic of Stravinsky framed by the lid of a grand piano. Here the composer is the show's central character, composer Franklin Shepard.

The plot follows Shepard and his two closest friends, Mary, a novelist, and Charlie, a playwright who writes lyrics for Shepard in their early years. When we begin, in 1981, Shepard has traded his success as a writer for greater financial rewards as a Hollywood producer. Mary, after a literary triumph with one book, has become a hopeless alcoholic. Only Charlie maintains his youthful idealism, though his anger at his former partner has severed their once close friendship.

We trace this trio back to the night they met in November of 1957, all young, quasi-starving artists on the roof of a Morningside Heights brownstone waiting to see the flickering light of Sputnik as it passes overhead. This hope-filled beginning gives the often savagely witty, dark show an unexpectedly warm and happy ending.

Moving backwards, scenes of disillusionment and reprisal are followed by scenes of early love and success. We watch a succession of Shepard's failed relationships with women. His strongest love is Beth, whom he marries when they're both young and uncomplicated.

At the end of the first act, when they are about to divorce, he asks if she still loves him. She sings one of Sondheim's simplest, most powerful songs, "Not a Day Goes By." But the beauty of the melody is weighed down by her bitterness at how he has treated her. Close to the end of the show we jump back to their wedding, when she sings the song with a sense of joy and wonderment.

Although the tone of "Merrily We Rolll Along" (based on a Kaufman and Hart play that flopped in the '30s) is often acid and satiric, this new version brims with a poignancy and humanity. Where the original had an off-putting iciness, this version envelops you emotionally.

The cast is unusually strong. As Shepard, Colin Donnell never minimizes what is a very calculating, callous character but, perhaps because of a strong early scene with his eight-year-old son (beautifully played by Zachary Unger) and perhaps because he is such an appealing actor, we never cease to care about him.

Lin-Manuel Miranda (the composer of "In the Heights") is sensational as his constantly disappointed friend Charlie. He sings the caustic "Franklin Shepard, Inc." with an infectious enthusiasm that moderates its anger. His touching duet, "Good Thing Going," with Donnell, has heartbreaking poignance.

Celia Keenan-Borger never overdoes the drunken, painfully truthful Mary. And she too sings beguilingly in "Old Friends." Betsy Wolfe sings both versions of "Not a Day Goes By" consummately. Elizabeth Stanley shows us a show biz gold-digger with bravura but she also performs the sad "Growing Up" with considerable depth. Adam Grupper is marvelous as the wealthy philistine who helps Shepard's career.

Carefully chosen projections amplify the emotions throughout the evening, often by awaking historical moments with great resonance. Ann Hould-Ward's costumes wittily capture the changing moods of the times. Ken Billington's lighting amplifies the emotional textures of the scenes beautifully.

"Merrily We Roll Along" has been undergoing revisions ever since the original production closed after a brief two-week run. This production seems the fulfillment of the promise that was always in the score. It is a powerful reminder of what our musical theater can be at its best.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 5:00pm

I highly doubt that this show will go to Broadway. From a commercial standpoint, this is a show that has never done well. Why would they take yet another risk?

[Mark_E]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 6:16pm

The Menier will be putting it on this year :)

[72arodney]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 7:11pm

Great score. My favourite Sondheim.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 8:42pm

Me too 72.
They took a risk with 'Follies' Winston, what you talking about?

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 9:23pm

I agree that they took a risk with Follies so could do the same with this, a limited season would be great. I adore this show.

[Owen22]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 9:50pm

John Doyle also has a major production (presumably actors-with-instruments) that has Broadway seed money opening at Cincinnat Playhouse in the Park, where his "Company" started.

[binau]

Posted: 2/10/12 at 10:47pm

FOLLIES had a genuine Broadway star (Bernadette Peters), and a sold-out 6 week run at the Kennedy Center before it moved to Broadway. I think a MERRILY transfer seems much more risky. It could work if the Roundabout mounted it (as they were apparently previously planning to do with Lapine) in a limited run..

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/11/12 at 3:04am

I still miss 'The Hills of Tomorrow'. For me, that was the most poignant framing device.

[winston89]

Posted: 2/11/12 at 12:12pm

qolbinau is right. Follies did have the insurance of a sold out run at The Kennedy Center prior to Broadway as well as Peters being in the cast. Hell, I feel that even if they didn't have do their run at The Kennedy Center and just went to Broadway with the cast that they had that they would have done okay.

But, keep in mind one thing, Follies is a risky show to produce due it not always being a successful one. With that in mind, understand that the recent revival of Follies, although great, was limping it's way to the end of its limited run. Those who had any interest in seeing it did so at the beginning of its run and then it quickly went downhill from there. The recent revival of Follies was far from a success financially. The same would be true for Merrily.

Both shows have a niche audience, and what is great about the production of Merrily at City Center, is that the fans of the show can enjoy it without producers having to worry about loosing money on this show on Broadway.

[72arodney]

Posted: 2/11/12 at 8:14pm

Just listening to the OBC recording again... Just fabulous. If it really does come to the Menier, I'll have to try and get some dep work on it!

[Play Esq.]

Posted: 2/11/12 at 8:37pm

If so, it won't b the Encores! Production. Very ho hum.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 9:16am

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 1:12pm

lovely photos

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/13/12 at 1:36pm

I have a 3ft by 5ft of the poster in my hallway. Its the only theatrical item on display in the building.
Cost me nearly $100 about 10 years ago in NY.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 2/15/12 at 9:49am

Excellent taste!

Those new photos of the cast reunion- it's a bit like Merrily meets Follies with 2 generations meeting. Eerie but lovely too.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Posted: 2/17/12 at 4:25pm

Result!
Just got my self row D Mezz seat for this Sundays performance!

[AnythingGoes2]

Posted: 2/17/12 at 5:15pm

Enjoy, looks fab. I hope for a transfer or my Spring visit.

[theatrepaul]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 9:58am

Mark_E when exactly is the Menier's production of Merrily due to be staged, do you know?

[AddisonMizner]

Posted: 2/18/12 at 10:05am

I think that the Menier are aiming to do "Merrily" for their Christmas musical this year. It is thought Maria Friedman will direct.