It’s a hit! What Merrily We Roll Along’s four Tony wins mean for Sondheim’s famous flop

Opening in November 1981 at Broadway’s Alvin Theatre, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical Merrily We Roll Along closed after just 16 performances. Perhaps, at the point of the show’s closure, this outcome was not completely unexpected. Its stretch of 44 previews had resulted in the scrapping and editing of multiple songs, including ‘Darling!’, and the firing and subsequent replacement of James Weissenbach for Jim Walton in playing the show’s star, Franklin Shepard. In the end, the production’s cast, including Lonny Price as Charley Kringas and Ann Morrison as Mary Flynn, would be forced to watch audiences pouring out of the theatre doors, and would see Sondheim’s ongoing collaboration with Hal Prince come to an end after the success of multiple musicals in the past (including Company, Sweeney Todd, and Follies). Merrily We Roll Along was, unmistakably, a flop.

Friedman’s Merrily, having gained seven nominations and four wins at the 2024 Tony Awards, has been widely regarded as the defining version of the musical

The show’s original closure led to many attempts, and failures, to put on a successful production both in the USA and the UK. Adapted from a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, Sondheim’s musical follows three old friends, Frank, Charley, and Mary, from their university years to their forties, when Frank has alienated himself from Charley and Mary amid great film success. What, then, makes this so difficult to adapt?

To begin with, the narrative is told backwards. The audience first meet the characters in their forties, going back in time until they first meet each other at the end of the play. In a successful production, the backwards storytelling is a stroke of genius, rather than an aspect to leave a bitter taste in the mouth. As Frank waves his riches in his friends’ faces, they are left looking at the group full of hope for the future, having to reflect on developments they know the characters will undergo as they slowly grow apart. It shows the importance of friendship, as well as the acceptance and acknowledgement that as time progresses, people change, and dreams along with them. The new production, directed by Maria Friedman, expertly presents this. She has collectivised and fixed numerous narrative and character issues which plagued the original. In its prior state, the musical was destined for immediate closure with its nonsensical storytelling.

Sondheim’s lyrical changes, paired with Friedman’s direction, allow for wider audience sympathy and, therefore, a more successful musical

Friedman’s Merrily, having gained seven nominations and four wins at the 2024 Tony Awards, has been widely regarded as the defining version of the musical, being described as the “first convincing revival” in The New York Times. Originally shown in London’s West End in 2012, and transferring to off-Broadway in 2022 and Broadway’s Hudson Theatre in Autumn 2023,  the production casts Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, Hamilton) as Frank, Lindsay Mendez (Wicked, Carousel) as Mary, and Daniel Radcliffe (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Cripple of Inishmaan) as Charley. Friedman’s casting of three middle-aged actors as opposed to teenagers (as in the original casting) allows the characters to be played to perfection, such as Groff’s more sympathetic depiction of Frank. This character, if interpreted incorrectly, risks seeming nothing more than an unlikeable, narcissistic millionaire corrupted by the filmmaking business. The rewritings and addition of multiple songs, and the manner in which they are performed, contribute to Friedman’s success. Songs like ‘Growing Up’ and ‘That Frank’ (replacing ‘Rich and Happy’) help to humanise Frank outside of his music and filmmaking ambitions, making the musical more so about the importance of human relationships, than the reshaping of dreams. Edited lyrics downplay suggestions that Frank’s priorities lie solely in money-making: he no longer refers to himself as “rich / And famous / And therefore / Happy too!”, but rather reflects on how he’s “Working hard / Getting rich / [and] Being happy”. The new Frank is presented as hard-working and genuine, as opposed to the previous iteration, who attaches happiness to the accumulation of wealth. Sondheim’s lyrical changes, paired with Friedman’s direction, allow for wider audience sympathy and, therefore, a more successful musical.

We can hope that Merrily’s vast success will prompt a transfer to the West End in the future

What does this mean for the future? Merrily We Roll Along’s recent successes on Broadway have drawn the attention of critics and audiences alike, after years of it being discarded as Sondheim’s ‘famous flop’, a reputation which even earned itself a 2016 documentary, titled The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (directed by the original Charley, Lonny Price). A new Broadway cast album was released in January, followed by an announcement in June that the production would be professionally filmed by the same company that brought Hamilton to home screens, as well as the re-release of the book by George Furth this coming October.

We can hope that Merrily’s vast success will prompt a transfer to the West End in the future, giving this heartfelt and complex musical the celebration it has always deserved, and an opportunity to reach wider audiences in the UK.