Merrily We Roll Along does, in fact, roll backwards. But that is the mighty genius of the show, which is currently at the Harold Pinter Theatre and tells the story of Franklin Shepard – a big-shot film producer when we meet him in 1976, flanked by sycophants and groupies – and his bumpy journey to the top. Friendships, marriages, children, not to mention his artistic integrity, all fall prey to both his ambition and simple human weakness, but the cocky celebrity that we are introduced to is gradually unraveled, taking us back to the hesitant but hopeful composer of his youth in 1957.
Actress-turned-director Maria Friedman has taken this production through a run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where it won the 2012 Critics’ Circle award for Best Musical before transferring to the West End. It is sharp, witty, polished and has its audiences laughing and crying in equal measure. It’s rather hard to find a bad word to say about it. And that’s a far cry from the show’s opening in 1981 – perhaps the biggest flop of Stephen Sondheim’s career – which closed after only 16 performances on Broadway, savaged by the critics. Several rethinks later and we have what you see today, still based on the Kaufman/Hart play but with Sondheim’s musical numbers and George Furth’s narrative shrewdly refined.
What could be a baffling concept is clarified by the calling out of years as they roll back so that the chronology is never in question, and this sequencing gives the actors a chance to have some fun reverting to the bouncier, more naïve versions of their characters over time. Holding the fort is Mark Umbers, a charismatic and intense Frank whose flaws seem all the more forgivable as time goes by. Or, at least, understandable; rather than a ruthless go-getter, you get the feeling that he is just a poor decision maker, perhaps too easily led, who ended up on a runaway train. Umbers is bold and heartfelt, and exactly the sort of heart-melter required.
Frank’s two oldest friends, Mary and Charley, bare the brunt of his transformation and these performances by Jenna Russell and Damian Humbley are both hilarious and agonizing (often within the same breath). Mary has soured over the years as her unvoiced, unreciprocated feelings for Frank have tortured her, and Russell’s sardonic presence slices through the stage. Now a resolved drinker, one mindless reveler asks her “No, what do you really do?” “I really drink,” is her answer. Humbley’s Charley is geeky and adorable, with flashes of virtuosity and the most accomplished, zingy number of the entire show called ‘Franklin Shepherd, Inc’, a wordy marathon interjected with sound effects, laughs and brilliance. This main trio has an endearing chemistry, which is all the more touching given how fraught its composite relationships have become by the end (i.e. the beginning – as we first see them). Rather than acting as a spoiler, this knowledge makes the ensuing pathos all the greater.
The casting overall is phenomenal with the ensemble players every bit as strong as the leads, and this explains the crisp result. Truly remarkable performances come from Josefina Gabrielle as the manipulative, bitchy diva, Gussy, and Amy Ellen Richardson’s ‘grin-and-bear-it’ television interviewer, false smile and clenched teeth painstakingly perfected. The chorus often takes on the roll of ‘The Blob’ – not so much the trend-setters as trend-judgers, the fickle followers of fashion who might love you one minute and ditch you the next. This harsh observation of human nature (especially within the art and media worlds) is played on mercilessly, to hilarious effect. Friedman puts a wonderfully British sheen on this American work by making it dry – very dry – and therefore delicious. The inevitable flip side comes when Mary’s venomous attack on these superficial “movers and shapers” in the seventies is echoed in her early excitement with Frank and Charley, when the term was an aspirational one applied to their own dreams.
Merrily We Roll Along is clever, thoughtful and exceptionally funny. Sondheim’s darling, Friedman had the composer on speed dial so that he could veto any outrageous ideas but I doubt there were many; she has done a lively job on this show and it looks like the sparkle isn’t about to fade any time soon.
Merrily We Roll Along shows at the Harold Pinter Theatre until 27th July 2013. For more information and tickets, visit the website.
1 Comment
It was a great show and you make excellent observations :)However, I think that you mean that Damian Humbley’s tour de force number is Franklin Shepherd Inc, rather than Now You Know, which is a company number, although the torrent of lyrics in that, is on a par!