Merrily We Roll Along is life in its purest form. It’s beautiful, it’s devastating, it’s complicated. It’s everything. And now it’s getting a second chance, or rather, a new life on Broadway.
The musical follows the character Franklin Shepard, a musical theatre composer. Although the main character is intended to be Franklin, the story isn’t only about his life. It’s also about the lives of the people around him. Instead of moving chronologically, the story is told backwards. The audience only sees key moments in Frank’s life so far.
As most Sondheim musicals you have to wait until the end (or maybe the beginning in this case) to really take everything in and appreciate the meaning of the show.
Also as most Sondheim musicals, the score will never cease to amaze me. The orchestrations of this show are incredibly complex, so it makes sense why the original arrangements were untouched in the revival. It’s difficult to change a Sondheim score and it’d be a waste of time since every single one of his scores are already perfect.
Going into this show I thought a lot about Jonathan Larson. This show was one of his favorites and Sondheim was one of his mentors. Now I can see where the inspiration for Tick, Tick… Boom! was drawn from.
The relationship between Frank, Charley, and Mary is energetic, loving, and nuanced. They very much reminded me of the trio from Tick, Tick…Boom!
Interestingly, in Merrily We Roll Along, Sondheim is exploring himself through his characters. Frank and Charley are the two sides to him. A part of him wants his work to be seen and he will do anything to get there. The other part of him knows he shouldn’t compromise his values just for money. Frank is fighting commercialism and the option to
“sell out”.
Similarly, Jonathan Larson has clearly based the character Jon off of himself in Tick, Tick… Boom! In Tick, Tick…. Boom, Jon mentions his love-hate relationship with Broadway: “Is it too good for Broadway, that shameless commercial whore? It's that raging mix of envy and contempt that's so . . . healthy.”
Despite the fact that the characters in these shows are framed off of their writers, the characters in both shows can really be anybody. Anybody can relate to them. I saw quite a bit of myself in Frank and Charley and Mary, just like I do in Jon.
In the original Broadway cast, all of the principal characters were played by actors in their 20s. This is something the critics had a hard time dealing with. While in the revival, the main characters are casted a bit older, all being over 30. Since the characters age backwards, the show is easier to digest when middle-aged people portray them.
It doesn’t really make much sense, though it’s sort of like Tick, Tick…Boom! If you have actors who look younger than 30 years old play the characters, it just doesn’t hit home. 30 is a big milestone in life. 30 is Jon’s turning point, when he has to decide whether he wants to continue pursuing his dreams or grow up and get a reliable job, like his friends. The message is diminished when actors in their 20s are portraying the older characters in Merrily We Roll Along because they haven’t even experienced as much life as the people they are portraying, making the show less realistic.
The casting was not the only thing that bothered critics, they seemed to dislike the set too. One journalist, Frank Rich called it, “a decimated version of the set from Company”.
I can’t say I got a chance to see the original production, however I thought the revival’s set was great. It wasn’t too minimalist and it wasn’t too maximalist. The set was reminiscent of the 1960s and 70s and I liked how the set coordinated with the colors of the ensemble's costumes as well.
I think the critics were wrong about this show. I struggle to understand why people disliked this show originally, especially considering it’s wholeheartedly Sondheim. Like Company, it discusses the challenges of growing up. Like Sweeney Todd, an ensemble continuously reprises the same lyrics, while adding to them in order to move the story (for lack of better words) along. And when I think of Sondheim this is the music I hear in my head. It’s not like the show's music completely strayed away from what he’s done before.
One of my favorite details about the show is the fact that Frank and Charley's first Broadway musical is called "Musical Husbands" merely because the term is a representation of the two as a writing team. On top of that, I love the show that the pair begin to workshop about the Kennedy's. It's ironic because Sondheim will go on to write Assassins many years later. It's nice to see how he's always had a love for history. I'm curious to know if Larson ever saw Assassins as it's probably my favorite Sondheim show.
As I approached the end of the show and the beginning of the story, I was met with a sort of nostalgic and heartwarming feeling. As an audience, we get to watch a lot of memories, both the good and the bad, so finally seeing how the trio meets is touching. At the same time it’s heart wrenching because we know what is in store for them.
But because the story doesn’t begin at the very end of Frank’s life, I’m left wondering. What happens to you, Frank? Do things get better? Or am I just overly optimistic? I’d like to believe Frank finds himself again. I hope his true ending is reuniting with Charley and Mary and they live out the rest of their lives together. However, there’s something beautiful about the fact that everyone gets to create their own ending for Frank.
Starting from the beginning of the story to conclude the show leaves the audience hopeful. Comparably in Tick, Tick…Boom the audience watches Jon’s hardships. Yet, Jon’s story ends in hope and the story you see on stage is only his beginning. In both of these musicals, as an audience member, you get to decide what happens next.
I loved Merrily We Roll Along and I love that it was inspirational enough for Jonathan Larson to create something of his own; a musical that has gone on to inspire others too. I’m glad Merrily We Roll Along is getting its deserved second chance on Broadway. Maybe Frank gets a second chance too. Perhaps Frank and Jon would be good friends.
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