Jonathan Groff in a throuple? Two Broadway stans debate Sondheim’s biggest flop-turned-hit
Merrily We Roll Along was dubbed “a shambles” by then chief theater critic of the New York Times, Frank Rich. Returning to Broadway for the first time with a trifecta of stage and screen stars, including Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez, that same news outlet dubbed the show a “palpable hit.” Somewhere in musical theater heaven, Sondheim, with that sly grin and squinty eye, is likely muttering, “I told you so.”Director Maria Friedman and choreographer Tim Jackson first staged this version (there have been many) in London in 2012, which then transferred to the West End.
In 2017, the production jumped the pond for a regional run at Boston’s Huntington Theater and reappeared again in 2022 at Off-Broadway’s New York Theater Workshop with its current lead actors.Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez co-star in a revival of Sondheim’s musical about failed friendships.
Fans have long obsessed over the musical, which features a book by George Furth and is based on a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart about three friends whose lives implode.
The reverse chronological storytelling convention proved a perilous stumbling block for original director Harold Prince and the cast, mainly comprised of actors in their teens and early 20s — so much so that it became the subject of a documentary film, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, directed by one of the musical’s original stars, Lonny Price.Merrily We Roll Along charts the friendships of Frank (Groff), a career-climbing composer-turned-filmmaker with a penchant for cheating and money; Charley (Radcliffe), who romanticizes the starving artist cliche despite penning a hit play; and Mary (Mendez), the perennial BFF with unresolved romantic feelings for Frank and a drinking problem that threatens to derail her career as a modestly successful writer.The musical begins in 1976 at Frank’s Bel Air home amid a pretentious celebration of his latest film.
