Fanatics of Stephen Sondheim don’t need, and anyway wouldn’t listen to, advice about whether they should go see Merrily We Roll Along. Directed by the Brit Maria Friedman, the film captures her revival of the stage musical, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, that sold out its Broadway run starting in 2023.
With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by George Furth, based on a ’30s-era play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the show recounts the long relationship between three dear friends, composer Frank (Groff), lyricist Charlie (Radcliffe) and novelist and critic Mary (Mendez). The gimmick is that it traces the story backwards, starting in the mid-1970s with Frank as a jaded Hollywood bigshot, estranged from Charlie, and working back until we see the trio’s callow, idealistic aspiring days in the late ’50s. Love, unrequited and otherwise, ambition, neglect, compromise, disillusionment, resentment and betrayal are all seen in full bloom before we see their seeds being planted years earlier.
The first Broadway production flopped in 1977. But the show eventually developed a devoted cult following across several successful revivals around the world, before triumphantly returning to Broadway at the Hudson Theatre under Friedman’s direction (and revisions). The version that opens in the multiplexes this weekend consists of footage shot from three performances in front of audiences near the end of the run in June of 2024, with some close-ups shot during the afternoons. As a result, it isn’t just a blunt recording of a performance; Friedman’s agile, on-point direction makes it a cinematic experience.
Characteristically for Sondheim, the songs explore timeless, often painful human situations in bright, frenetic patter-song lyrics. They’re so manically precise that they could seem facile at times, but Sondheim’s direct emotional honesty holds glibness at bay. So, here, do the performers. The supporting cast is full of diligent Broadway workhorses, but Groff, Radcliffe and Mendez are all sublime, with Groff bringing a particular starry-eyed intensity to Frank.
It’s possible that the timing of the shoot also added to the emotional charge of the movie; we’re seeing actors at the end of a run, saying farewell to a smash that’s very likely to be one of the better pieces of material they’re ever going to get to do. The tears we see running down their faces probably aren’t just acting.
