Review - Merrily We Roll Along

I was very fortunate to have tickets for Saturday’s performance of Merrily We Roll Along at Encores, thanks to the generosity of my late friend.  The building renovation is lovely and, as always at an Encores production, there was an excited buzz in the air.  An entire audience who is just as excited for the overture as anything else!  Hooray!  I was also fortunate to have a very handsome date!  I’m a lucky lucky girl… J

I’ve never seen a production of Merrily before, though I certainly know of its history and its structure.  I can see why it’s been a problematic show for audiences – having a show move backwards chronologically makes it hard to build up any momentum dramatically, plus it introduces you in the first scene to characters who are jaded and unpleasant, so you have to work through that to get to the lovely, idealistic people they used to be.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  I just mean these are understandable reasons why the show may find it hard to catch on in production.  I actually like the backwards thing.  It’s poignant to see a scene, and then see the ‘before,’ but actually SEE it ‘after.’  How people got where they are is interesting to me.  And, oh, that score.  That’s where the meat is.  I don’t even know the cast album all that well, but these songs are timeless.  And gorgeous, of course.  Filled with the joy and beauty and sorrow and angst of Sondheim’s most beautiful stuff. 

I definitely enjoyed myself and found the production to be terrifically entertaining, but I don’t think it was the ultimate production of the show.  Perhaps there will be one someday.  The direction us did no favors, for one thing.  There were definite dead spots in the scene work, with strange staging (lots of important verses/lines played too far stage right or left, for one thing).  Too many projections.  I found the projections very distracting and annoying (they distracted me from lyrics and text), but I think a lot of the audience found them charming and helpful.  At least it seemed so by the sounds of chuckling and approval.  So, one’s person’s garbage and all that.  I think there an adaptation of the script, though, as I’ve said, I don’t really know the original.  One thing that bothered me in the staging: having Mary and Charley play their scenes together (when they’re talking about Frank) nearly off-stage wasn’t successful for me.  Of course, Mary and Charley ARE nearly off-stage, in Frank’s world, at the beginning of the show (end of the timeline), but theatrically, I think they each need to take center stage sooner.  I also gather from internet buzz that there were rewrites to the last scene.  Since I’ve never seen the show before, I wasn’t bothered by it.  I found it completely believable that these idealistic people would find each other and make an immediate connection.  In fact, having their immediate connection be so random makes the breakdown of their relationships seem reasonable.  And, hello, "Our Time" is such a moving song, it doesn't matter to me how you get to it, as long as we get to it. 

The actors were all quite good, though maybe not ideal for their roles.  Colin Donnell is very handsome and a very talented singer.  Charisma, not so much.  To be fair, part of the problem is with the script/structure, and part of the problem is with the direction, but some of the problem is the maybe-not-charming-enough actor.  Without a strong center, it’s hard to see why everyone is so in love with, and ultimately so disappointed by, Frank.  Because love and disappointment need to be front and center here.  Lin-Manuel Miranda?  Charisma to spare, though they tried to ‘ugly’ him up with horrible hair and glasses.  His “Franklin Shepherd Inc.” was terrific and got a rousing response from the crowd.  You could really see his pain and self-doubt, and then going backwards to his naiveté was lovely.  Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mary had some grand scene work, but her singing was a tad troublesome.  I think the music sat awkwardly in her range, and she sounded a bit tired or under the weather.  But her acting definitely made up for it.  Elizabeth Stanley as Gussie was a ballbuster, and she had some great moments.  She looked and sounded great.  Betsy Wolfe was terrific as Frank's first wife, and her delivery of "Not a Day Goes By" was wonderful.  It was my first time hearing the song in the actual context of the show, and it was almost unbearably moving.  Plus, since we hear the song again later in the show (but earlier in the timeline), she's actually singing the reprise!  Genius!  I liked Adam Grupper as Joe, Gussie's ex-husband, quite a lot.  Also, I will admit to being distracted by the chorus gal who was wearing my awards night dress.  J

I’m ever so glad I finally got to see this show.  I do think it could be presented even more successfully, though I admit that most reviews I’ve read think it’s just a lost cause.  Too flawed to ever work.  I’m not so sure.  I don’t like to think of anything being a lost cause.  Well, except maybe for Frank Wildhorn shows.  But a Sondheim show?  There's too much genius there to just let it lie...