MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by George Furth. Presented by Little Triangle at the The Depot Theatre, 9th March 2018.
In 1981 Stephen Sondheim’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG was not the Broadway success hoped for and closed after many previews but only 16 performances. This created a midpoint hiatus in Sondheim’s career between his works in the 1970s – Company, A Little Night Music, Follies and Sweeney Todd and those smash hits of the mid 1980s Sunday in the Park with George and Into The Woods. This may well be explained by the fact that I find that there is a little too much repetition of certain tunes in this score and that the reverse story does mean a lot of the drama lies only in the first act.
Based on a 1930s play the musical version of Merrily We Roll Along occurs over a 20 year period (mid 50s to mid 70s) though told backwards in its timeline. It tells the tale of three young burgeoning artists – songwriters Franklin Shepard (Patrick Howard) and Charley Kringas (Zach Selmes) along with their writer friend Mary Flynn (Victoria Zerest), who harbours a secret love for Shepard, We also meet many of the other women and men in Shepard’s life: agents, producers, chorus girls, theatre-groupies etc, but especially Gussie (Matilda Moran) and Beth (Shannen Sarstedt) the love interests in the story. These five actor play their roles with great skill and sing with gusto. Howard has the bigger role and delivers in every way enabling us to feel for him during his dilemmas. Selmes and Zerest are both comic and touching in their portrayals.
Most appealing in this production is the creative simplicity in the direction, design and music direction – all by Alexander Andrews. These elements have been stripped down to the bare essentials without lost meaning. A black box set with suspended white doors, echoing one of the many songs (Opening Doors), with the significant dates in the story written on them. The musical accompaniment by only two musicians with a double bass, a cello and two keyboards. Added to this is streamlined costuming (Mitchell Wassink) not troubled with changes during the elapses in time.
The 17 strong cast sing, dance and tell the story with utter clarity. I have seen this show on a bigger stage and with a greater budget however, like their production of Sunday in the Park with George in 2017, Little Triangle have “pulled it off” again capturing the essence of these shows and presenting them as chamber pieces.
This is indeed a great opportunity to be introduced to the works of this master of the late 20th century American musical and for Sondheim-tragics to revisit this often overlooked piece.
Highly recommended
Mark Nagle – Theatre Now & On The Town
Merrily We Roll Along
Stephen Sondheim & George Furth
7th-24th Mar
Wed – Sat 8pm
Sat Mtinee 2pm
Venue: Depot Theatre
Theatre Company: Little Triangle
Duration: 150 minutes including interval
