"Merrily We Roll Along" opens on Broadway ahead of a host of revivals
NEW YORK - "Merrily We Roll Along" had a red carpet opening night celebration Sunday night, even though the official opening is Tuesday.
The cast of the Stephen Sondheim musical is excited. The cast includes Daniel Radcliffe of "Harry Potter" fame
"Merrily We Roll Along" charts a trio's deep, complicated friendship. The characters are played by Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez and Jonathan Groff. It covers 20 years in reverse chronological order as they score successes in the arts, but to different degrees that impact relationships they thought were indestructible and bulletproof.
"It's about time, and time passing," Radcliffe said. "It's about friendship, it's about how hard it is to stay true to the ideals of, like, youthful friendship."
"Merrily" does not describe this musical's problem-plagued beginnings. When it debuted on Broadway in 1981, most critics hated it, and it flopped.
"Knowing that 42 years ago, 'Merrily,' you couldn't give away tickets, and now, we're playing to these houses that are so warm and loving. It's really magical," Jonathan Groff said.
Sondheim and director Hal Prince, with hit after hit together, saw this one close after 16 regular performances. The show, reimagined and successful this time, is a gift to the memory of Sondheim.
Sondheim died in 2021, but knew this revival was in expert hands, with his close friend Maria Friedman directing. Sondheim saw it in London. The show was rewritten a bit, and energized a lot.
"I wish he was here to see it," Friedman said.
"To get to bring this piece that hasn't been seen in 42 years back to Broadway, where it feels like it belongs, and where audiences are just loving it, it's just, it's unreal," Mendez said. "I really feel like we had his blessing over this whole production. So it feels even more special."
"This really feels like one of the most special things I've ever been able to be a part of," Radcliffe said.
"Feels like the gift of a lifetime," Groff said.
"'Merrily' certainly does not look like the 'Merrily' that was on Broadway back in the early 1980s," Stage newspaper theater writer Howard Sherman said. "There is no singular way to do a revival. It can be what we might consider faithful... or it can be totally and completely rethought."
"We do have revivals like 'Cabaret' coming in the spring," Sherman added. "We certainly are expecting 'The Wiz.' There's a lot of hope that we're going to get to see 'Tommy' again."
And another musical gets brought back to Broadway next - a restaging of "Spamalot" - as revivals roll along.
