How a gay, musical genius created one of Broadway’s biggest bombs
Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.The world continues to mourn the loss of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim last month, a man who changed the face of musical theatre several times over.
Yet one of Sondheim’s most interesting projects proved a bit less than successful. In fact, its original Broadway staging was a downright disaster.Merrily We Roll Along debuted in 1981 and ran for an anemic 16 performances.
The show’s concept involved telling a story backward: the characters introduced as middle-aged at the beginning of the show would become teenagers by the end.
In a twist, Sondheim and director Harold Prince also decided to cast youthful, inexperienced actors to underline the burgeoning, youthful spirit of the characters.
