It’s always been my feeling Merrily We Roll Along gets kind of a bum rap. Having performed in the show at various times in my life (20 years ago, 10 years ago and four years ago) and currently being immersed in the experience of directing it for Actors Co-op, I have heard all kinds of comments around the “troubled book” and the “flawed concept” of the show. These notions have always confused me. The “trouble” with the book and the “flaw” of the show is that, as an audience member, you have to actually pay attention to the show.
Leslie Spencer, Brent Schindele and Matt Bauer in MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Photo by Greg Bell
Merrily requires we sit up in our chairs and listen to what’s going on. If we decide we are going to participate in the experience, the show is immensely satisfying and can have tremendous personal resonance. But you gotta pay attention.
Merrily has a unique and intricate story structure. The show revolves around the disintegration of a friendship over the course of 20 years as the main character, Franklin Shepard, makes small compromises that result in life-altering consequences. In a larger and more universal sense, the show looks at how life simply happens to us and the road we set out on is not necessarily the road we end up on.
The beauty of the structure is that the story is told backwards; it starts in 1976 when Franklin is a successful but spiritually bankrupt film producer, and works back through time to 1957 when he is an aspiring composer ready to change the world. Over the course of 20 years, we watch as Frank’s choices whittle away at the dreams he set out for himself at the beginning of his journey.
Merrily has had a difficult history. It opened on Broadway in 1981 with a fail-safe creative team: music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, directed and produced by Hal Prince. What could go wrong? Well … a lot. To my eye (not having actually seen the show but knowing a fair amount about the short Broadway run), the team placed a high concept on a high concept show, which is never a great idea.
Rather than casting 30 to 40 year old actors who had some mileage on them, the choice was made to cast very young actors at the beginning of their life journey. A 40-year old can convincingly play a 20-year-old — he’s been there before — but unfortunately a 20-year- old trying to put on the mileage of a 40-year old is like a child putting on his father’s suit jacket.
In addition, the scenic and costume concept was to create an abstract scenic tonality, which came off as simply unfinished, and to place the actors in sweatshirts with their character names stenciled across the front. Coupled with the youthfulness of the actors, the whole enterprise ended up at best unsatisfying and at worst, baffling. The show closed after 16 performances.
Sondheim and Furth continued to work on the show in 1984 at the La Jolla Playhouse, which yielded some clearer storytelling and a stronger production concept. The jury is still out on some of the changes that were made but the La Jolla rewrite did help to make the Franklin character more likeable and dimensional.
Unfortunately, audiences still weren’t ready to latch onto the unconventional story structure. The final licensed version is an iteration of the show that was done at the York Theatre in 1995. This current version is a vastly different show than the one that ran 16 performances on Broadway in 1981 — but it has maintained the reverse storytelling construct which is so important to the core of the show.
Much like the central theme of the show the journey of Merrily We Roll Along as a piece of musical theatre has been an unexpected one. Over the last few years, a handful of Los Angeles productions have been far more popular with audiences and critics than its creators would have predicted. West Coast Ensemble produced the show in 2000 and it is, to date, our highest grossing production ever. The Chance Theatre produced the show last year to critical acclaim and healthy box office. It’s strange a show branded as “flawed” and “troubled” should be such a reliable moneymaker, at least in an intimate theatre environment. How did we get here from there?
Richard Israel
Well … I would like to think audiences have become more sophisticated in the last 20 years. Pop culture might have caught up with Broadway with films like Memento and Inception, both of which deal with non-linear time structures. And … I think audiences now put on their “Sondheim ears” when they go to see a Sondheim show. Since Merrily, he has created Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods and Assassins - shows that don’t really spoon-feed us. Now, audiences that have some mileage with Sondheim shows know if they’re going to see a Sondheim musical, they need to participate actively in the experience. And finally … while Merrily can be produced as a big show, it is, at its heart, a small gem of a story. Sondheim writes musicals that resonate with us on a human level — what better way to experience them than on an intimate scale?
It’s funny to me that when my co-artistic director [Les Hanson] and I put together our seasons at West Coast Ensemble, we run down the list of Sondheim musicals first because they are the closest thing we have to a box office “sure thing.” I think if you had told Mr. Sondheim that 30 years ago when his work was being derided as un-hummable and too smart by half, he would have had a pretty good laugh. Merrily is a perfect example of this — a show under-appreciated when it premiered is now a staple of the musical theatre repertory. Go figure.
Merrily We Roll Along is not a perfect musical but to my eye it is perfect storytelling. No, we can’t be passive in our engagement of the show. Yes, we have to meet the show halfway. But if we go on the ride, it is profoundly worth the journey.
Merrily We Roll Along, presented by Actors Co-op, opens Sept. 17; plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 2:30 pm; through Oct. 24. Tickets: $25-$34. Crossley Terrace Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood; 323.462.8460 or actorsco-op.org.
