When the Delray Beach Playhouse, tucked away on Lake Ida, announced it was producing Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along we were somewhat shocked that they could secure the rights. After all, a new version starring Daniel Radcliffe, among other luminaries was opening on Broadway. This is a Sondheim play we had never seen, and as it was impractical getting to New York, we immediately booked our front row seats. The Broadway show which received rave reviews was extended, and consequently the Delray rights were shortened to only 12 performances. Luckily, yesterday we saw their production.
It is truly remarkable that this complicated musical could be so skillfully handled at the community theater level, but Delray Beach Playhouse is entering its 77th year and there is a reason for that as this production clearly showed.
The leads, Bob Ruggles as Frank Shepard (the composer), Chris Ombres as Charley Kingras (the lyricist) and Devra Seidel (as Mary Flynn, the writer – a character Sondheim modeled after his lifelong friend and love, Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Richard Rodgers), rose to the occasion, professional in every way. (Ms. Seidel unfortunately did have a mishap falling down a few steps in a very restricted ball gown, but bounded up at once and though we were convinced she was injured, bravely carried on in the “show must go on” style.) There were also a few players in the ensemble cast who helped to carry the show, with the remaining more inexperienced performers showing their amateur status but overall the production, under the direction of Andre Lancaster was, for us, a hit in every way, perfectly filling out our Sondheim lacuna.
The show was based on Kaufman and Hart's 1934 Broadway play of the same title and this is where the complexity begins, as that play travels backwards in time. Sondheim was a well known constructor of puzzles and mysteries for his friends. He was approaching his peak artistic years when he wrote Merrily. It must have been an incredible rush for him to look at his career then, and to give us clues from his own personal journey from a wide eyed young composer / lyricist of his first show, Saturday Night (rarely performed unfortunately, and not even opening in the 1950s when its producer died) to the point of becoming one of Broadway’s most acknowledged and brilliant composer/lyricists (and on his way to even greater fame after this midpoint show was initially a flop).
I thought it interesting that Sondheim dealt with his two incredible gifts as a composer and lyricist in two different characters, Frank and Charley, the former being urged to fame and the latter dedicated to his art. It is the same conflict that confronted Sondheim, under constant criticism for not writing “memorable” songs (although I defy many to write these three that I love in this show, “Not a Day Goes By,” “Old Friends” and “Good Thing Going”) - and heck, I could add the bittersweet songs "Opening Doors” and "Our Time" which conclude the show. Amusingly he deals with that very issue in Merrily. It is a soul satisfying show, sad in many ways though -- as when it comes down to it, life is a game of Pick-Up-Sticks, the accident of where you are born, when, and to whom, and what you do with the talent and opportunities you have. Sondheim of course was a genius, and he used his gifts so well.
It had a very brief run in its original production on Broadway in the early 1980’s. Sondheim explains its initial commercial failure best in his Finishing the Hat: What we [Hal Prince and he] envisioned was a cautionary tale in which actors in their late teens and early 20s would begin disguised as middle-aged sophisticates, and gradually become their innocent young souls as the evening progressed. Unfortunately, we got caught in a paradox we should have foreseen: actors that young, no matter how talented rarely have the experience or skills to play anything but themselves, and in this case, even that caused them difficulties….The last twenty minutes of the show when the cast reverted to their true ages was undeniably touching, but the rest of the evening had an amateur feeling – which, ironically, had been what we wanted. If the show had played in an off-Broadway house at off-Broadway prices, it would have stood a better chance of fulfilling our intent; as it was, at Broadway’s Alvin theater, and at Broadway prices, it turned the audiences off.”
So it was with some irony that we saw a version which might have satisfied the great master in many ways, an amateurish feeling, off-off-off Broadway production. But all the elements of a deeply satisfying theater experience were there for us, more so than so many of the “professional” musical revivals Florida theaters are famous for; it’s a Sondheim piece, rarely performed, by a dedicated theater group, and even with a multi-piece live orchestra under the direction of Aidan Quintana, that sounded like a full Broadway orchestra (too little attribution was given to the musicians in the program and even after the show, although Ann saw one exiting as we drove out and rolled down the window to thank him and his group). The scenic design, costumes, and the staging were professional as well.
Bravura to all the performers, and to the Delray Beach Playhouse.
For Sondheim core devotees, such as us, the Director Richard Linklater is shooting a very ambitious film version of Merrily We Roll Along. It stars Paul Mescal (as Frank), Beanie Feldstein (as Mary) and Ben Platt (as Charley). It’s ambitious as it’s being filmed over a twenty year period so the actors can naturally age, and through the magic of movie cutting, we will have one for the screen in the early 2040s as Ann and I approach 100. We can’t wait although by then we might be on one of the early flights to Mars.
