The Merrily We Roll Along movie, premiered at Cineworld, Haymarket, London on 21 October.
How does a show that was a total catastrophe when it opened on Broadway in 1981 – and closed after 16 performances – turn into a work of genius?
Just watch the Merrily We Roll Along movie, a faithful record of the show which played at the Menier Chocolate Factory and the Harold Pinter Theatre to great acclaim – allegedly no other West End musical has garnered so many five-star reviews – and you’ll find out.
If you loved the show, the odds are you will get even more out of the film. And if you are new to Sondheim, this is the ideal way to get an introduction to his work.
A better-than-front-row seat at the cinema for less than the cost of the worst one in the house at the theatre, no straining to hear the words or see the facial expressions. It’s all there on a giant screen in front of you and no 6ft 9in person in the row in front to obstruct the view.
What’s not to like? The exceptional performances of the three leads Jenna Russell, Mark Umbers and Damian Humbley and the rest of this immaculate cast reach new heights of clarity.
Nine cameras were used to film three stage performances with the best bits from each edited to create the 160-minute movie which hits the USA tomorrow (Wednesday) and 330 cinemas throughout the UK on Thursday (24 October). For those who can’t make Thursday, there will be many repeat showings on 3 November and later.
If Maria Friedman’s intepretation of the show in which she played Mary Flynn at the Leicester Haymarket 21 years ago is a work of art, then so is the seamless editing and camerawork so lovingly achieved by Digital Theatre’s director Robert Delamere and producer Tom Shaw.
Friedman was with Sondheim for the New York launch last week and it will be fascinating to hear America’s reaction to the movie. Not many there will have had the chance to see the stage show, and those of a certain age will only remember the almighty flop of the original version. This was before Sondheim and George Furth, who wrote the book, gave it some savage tweaks and saved face with subsequent versions which, while more acceptable, never made Merrily a major hit… until Friedman got a hold of it.
Until her revival at the Menier 11 months ago, Merrily We Roll Along was very much minor Sondheim, not mentioned in the same breath as Follies, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Into the Woods or Company. Now all that has changed and thanks to the miracle of modern technology the whole country can see what many believe is a masterpiece.
A musical that goes backwards from 1976 to 1957 was always going to be a curiosity but, my, how it works. The story of the erosion of the great friendship between composer Franklin Shepard, lyricist Charley Kringas and their greatest supporter Mary Flynn is the nub of the plot. Only Charley stays true to himself from finish to start, aghast at watching Frank drop him to become a mercenary love-rat intent on Hollywood riches at any cost, while Mary”s unrequited love for Frank and failure as a writer turns her into a bitter lush who hates all the people in Shepard’s new life.
Some of Sondheim’s greatest songs are here – the haunting ‘Not a Day Goes By’, the hilarious ‘Franklin Shepard Inc.’, brilliantly performed by Humbley, the sadly reflective ‘Like It Was’ and the oft-repeated ‘Old Friends’, perhaps the best-known song in the show, standing out.
In the next few months, and subtitled in six languages, this first production in Digital Theatre’s West End Theatre Series with distribution by CinemaLive will be seen in more than 1,000 cinemas in 22 countries.
Of course, there will theatre snobs who say you lose a lot by taking a stage show out of its natural environment, but if it means people in Barnsley, Blackpool, Bedford and Bangor getting to see something as thought-provoking and beautiful as the Merrily We Roll Along movie, the pluses outweigh any minuses by a country mile. Call it progress.
Jeremy Chapman
http://www.cineworld.co.uk/whatson/6687?cinema=all
Damian Humbley sings ‘Franklin Shepard Inc.’ in the movie of Merrily We Roll Along – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqqaYPzFe2Y
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