Merrily We Roll Along (musical)
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| Merrily We Roll Along | |
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| Original Broadway poster for Sondheim-Furth musical | |
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| Music | Stephen Sondheim |
| Lyrics | Stephen Sondheim |
| Book | George Furth |
| Based upon | Play Merrily We Roll Along by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart |
| Productions | 1981 Broadway 2000 West End |
| Awards | Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lyrics |
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Furth and Sondheim retained the basic structure and overall theme of the play but updated it to encompass the period from 1955 to 1976. Its main protagonist is Franklin Shepard who, in 1976, is a one-time composer of Broadway musicals who has become a highly successful but cynical and jaded film producer who has lost his friends, including longtime collaborator Charley Kringas. Like the play, the musical moves backwards in time showing how Frank has become the man he is today.
The musical closed on Broadway after only 16 performances in 1981 and marked the end of the Harold Prince-Sondheim collaborations until Bounce in 2003.
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[edit] Background and original production
Prince's wife, Judy, had been "nagging" him to do a musical about teenagers, when he recalled the play Merrily We Roll Along. Sondheim said that since the play was about friendships, he wrote the songs to be interconnected. The original choreographer, Ron Field, wanted to work with Prince. The decision was made to cast teenagers, and to have tryouts in New York rather than out-of-town. The tryouts, beginning on October 8, 1981, had a poor reception, with audiences walking out. On October 21, the New York Times reported that the leading man had been replaced by Jim Walton and the Broadway opening had been postponed. Field was replaced with choreographer Larry Fuller.[1]
After an unusual 52 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Prince and choreographed by Fuller, opened on November 16, 1981 at the Alvin Theatre. Hampered by several critical reviews published prior to its official opening, as well as more negative ones published afterwards, it ran for only 16 performances. In his New York Times review on November 17, 1981, Frank Rich said of the production, "As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals."[2] Clive Barnes wrote, "Whatever you may have heard about it – go and see it for yourselves. It is far too good a musical to be judged by those twin kangaroo courts of word of mouth and critical consensus."[3]
The cast included Walton as Franklin Shepard, Lonny Price as Charley, Ann Morrison as Mary, Terry Finn as Gussie, Jason Alexander as Joe, Sally Klein as Beth and Liz Callaway, Tonya Pinkens and Giancarlo Esposito in supporting roles. Rosie O'Donnell auditioned; she was 18 years old.
[edit] Subsequent production history
Throughout the years, with Furth and Sondheim's blessing, the musical has been staged with numerous changes, most notable of which is presenting its scenes in chronological order rather than in reverse. Sondheim has contributed new songs to several of the show's incarnations.
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, Chip Zien, and Marin Mazzie. An Arena Stage production, directed by Douglas C. Wager, opened on January 30, 1990 at Washington, D.C.'s Kreeger Theater, where it ran slightly more than two months. The cast included Victor Garber and David Garrison. In his review of the Arena Stage production, Rich noted that "Many of the major flaws of the 1981 Merrily, starting with its notorious gymnasium setting, have long since been jettisoned or rectified in intervening versions produced in La Jolla, Calif., and in Seattle." He called the score "exceptional."[4]
A revised British production, directed by Paul Kerryson, opened on April 14, 1992 at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester, where it ran for three weeks. The cast included Michael Cantwell, Maria Friedman, and Evan Pappas, along with Jacqueline Dankworth, Louise Gold, and, Gareth Snook. A cast recording was released on a single CD in the UK in 1994 and, with extended cuts and dialogue, as a double-CD set in the US in 1997.
An off-Broadway revival, directed by Susan H. Schulman, opened on May 26, 1994 at the York Theatre in St. Peter's Church, where it ran for 54 performances. The cast included Malcolm Gets and Michele Pawk. A cast recording was released by Varèse Sarabande.
After eight previews, the West End premiere, directed by Michael Grandage, opened on December 11, 2000 at the Donmar Warehouse, where it ran for 71 performances. The cast included Mary Stockley. The production won Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Musical, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
In 2002, a reunion concert was staged at the Laguardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center as a benefit for Musical Theatre Works, of which Lonny Price was Artistic Director. All but two of the original cast members recreated their roles, with Jason Alexander acting additionally as Master of Ceremonies. Tony-winning choreographer Kathleen Marshall directed. George Furth was not in attendance (and did not allow any of his dialogue to be spoken), but Prince and Sondheim were on hand. Shortly after, they began work together on Bounce, their first collaboration since Merrily. A limited engagement of fourteen performances opened on July 12, 2002 at the Eisenhower Theater in the Kennedy Center. The cast included Miriam Shor, Raúl Esparza, and Emily Skinner. Theatre Works [1] opened a production of the musical in Mountain View, California on April 4, 2007.
The Derby Playhouse production ran from 19th April to 19th May 2007, starring Glyn Kerslake, Glenn Carter and Eliza Lumley in the lead roles.
The Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) production, directed by Eric Schaeffer, opened on September 4, 2007 and ran through October 14, 2007.
John Doyle has directed a production running at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, from January 16, 2008 through March 8, 2008. It features Sam Kenyon (Franklin), Rebecca Jackson (Gussie), Elizabeth Marsh (Mary) and Thomas Padden (Charlie). (This is Doyle's last production for the theatre.) [5] [6]
A concert production of the show was held in Southampton New York in March 2008 directed by Michael Disher.
Plans for a revival, put on by the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York, was announced in May 2008. The revival aims for Broadway in 2009/10. [7]
[edit] Original song list
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[edit] Recordings
"Not a Day Goes By," "Good Thing Going," "Old Friends," and "Our Time" have been recorded by various artists, including Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, Cleo Laine, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, Patti LuPone, Barry Manilow, and Lena Horne, and are popular especially with singers who perform on the cabaret circuit.
The original Broadway cast recording of this production was released by RCA as an LP album in April 1982, and on compact disc in 1986. A digitally remastered CD was released by Sony/BMG Broadway Masterworks in 2007 with bonus tracks including "It's A hit" (performed by Stephen Sondheim) and "Not A Day Goes By" (sung by Bernadette Peters).
[edit] Awards and nominations
Sondheim was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music, and won the Drama Desk prize for his lyrics. Morrison won the 1982 Theatre World Award for her performance.
[edit] References
- ^ Zadan, Craig. Sondheim & Co. 1986 (Second Edition), pp. 269-79, Harper & Row, ISBN 006015649-X
- ^ http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9805E6D91F39F934A25752C1A967948260
- ^ Zadan, p. 279
- ^ "New York Times", Frank Rich, February 27, 1990
- ^ The Oxford Times, Jan. 24, 2008
- ^ london.broadway.com article, Feb. 4, 2008, "John Doyle Continues to Roll Along with Sondheim"
- ^ article, May 6, 2008, "Sondheim's Merrily aims for Broadway in 2009/10"
[edit] External links
- Merrily We Roll Along at the Internet Broadway Database
- Merrily We Roll Along at Sondheim.com
- Frank Rich review of the 1981 Broadway production
- Background information from the Kennedy Center website
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