By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG"--AMBITIOUS, BUT NOT ALWAYS IN HARMONY
The filmed version of
"Merrily We Roll Along" arrives with years of baggage, some historical, some emotional, and some stitched straight into the seams of
Stephen Sondheim lore.
Long infamous as the legendary 1981 Broadway catastrophe that limped offstage after 16 performances, the musical has spent forty years clawing its way back into respectability.
Maria Friedman's 2012 revival was the first ray of hope, and her acclaimed 2023 Broadway production finally turned the tide, earning Tonys and transforming a disaster into a redemption narrative for the ages.
With all that drama behind the drama, it's no surprise that many believed the show deserved a cinematic preservation. This filmed version, shot at the Hudson Theater in June 2024, fulfills that mission, but not always the emotional potential that the material promises.
Friedman directs the film with clear affection, using cutaways and clean close-ups to soften the seams of a stage-to-screen adaptation. Jonathan Groff ("Hamilton" and "Frozen III") stars as Franklin Shepard, a charming, but morally compromised Hollywood producer in the late 1970s, certainly has presence. His friend Charley Daniel Radcliffe (TV's "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins”) radiates a wiry emotional intensity who is pushed aside as Frank climbs to the top.
Lindsay Mendez (TV's "American Sports Story") brings a bruised vulnerability to Mary, whose bitterness hides the remnants of a once-vibrant heart. And yet, despite the talent and the polish, something was missing for me.
The reverse-chronology structure—innovative but fussy—keeps pulling emotional threads backward just as they begin to land. Instead of deepening the heartbreak, I felt strangely detached from characters I wanted to care more about.
Perhaps it's the nature of a filmed stage production: the performances are big, the emotions are broad, and the camera sometimes feels like an afterthought rather than an accomplice. The show's themes, friendship's slow erosion, ambition's corrosive shine are rich and worthy, but the film often feels like it's dutifully documenting rather than dynamically reimagining them.
Even the whimsy of Sondheim's score, with its buoyant rhythms and bittersweet bite, doesn't always reach the cinematic sweep for which it is reaching. You can almost sense the production straining to prove its legacy-resurrecting importance, and that effort occasionally weighs down what should feel fluid and spontaneous.
Although "Merrily We Roll Along" works better as an archival milestone than an emotional triumph, admirers of the Broadway revival will still find much to appreciate. As a standalone cinematic experience, it just left me wanting more.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Go Ahead And Watch This Trailer For
"MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
