Associated Studios – Merrily We Roll Along

Picture: Danny Fitzpatrick

Merrily We Roll Along was performed by Associated Studios students at the Playground Theatre, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There’s something particularly moving about watching Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s back-to-front musical played by young people – a fact driven home with quite some intensity in the student production staged by the West London-based Associated Studios.

The closing moments of the show – when the audience sees all the starry-eyed potential of a trio of newly made friends – were particularly devastating in the hands of director Alex Sutton and his threesome of Calum McElroy (Frank), Ilya Akinfiev (Charley) and Clodagh Harrington (Mary). I must admit to having been an emotional wreck by the end (or start) of proceedings, having just watched 90 minutes of these bright young things make a total hash of their lives and friendships. And I wasn’t alone – there wasn’t a dry eye at the Playground Theatre.

This lovely little black-box theatre in West London was transformed into a glittering microcosm of Trump Towers – or was it Herod’s Palace? – where wealth and success literally showers down over Franklin Shepard and his obsequious entourage. Frank is enjoying his success as a first-time movie producer and, on the surface, at least, all is champagne and cocaine.

But all is not well in Shepard’s unsteady Shangri-La, as friend Mary Flynn is keen to point out. We learn that Frank is a one-time, big-time musical theatre composer whose collaborator, Charley Kringas, is now persona non grata, and a frustrated Mary brings what is left of their old friendship crashing to the ground.

This Sondheim favourite – and famous flop on its debut in 1981 – hit the heights recently thanks to Maria Friedman’s regenerative production transferring from London to Broadway. And if you’re a teacher of musical theatre looking to delve deep into what makes a Sondheim show special, there is no better choice than Merrily We Roll Along – a fact clearly understood by Associated Studios’ founder and artistic director Leontine Hass.

And what a cast! In that leading trio, director Sutton has been working with three young performers rivalling anything you’d see on the West End. I was genuinely surprised and impressed with the calibre of this student cohort, and I’ve seen a lot of Merrily in my capacity as chair of the Stephen Sondheim Society.

McElroy’s over-the-top cockiness and arrogance as the older Frank contrasted starkly with his younger graduate self, making the decline and fall of this tortured and misguided soul all the more heartbreaking. There was intelligence behind every quantum shift in his personality as McElroy ‘youthed’ into a better version of himself.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Akinfiev as Charley – vocally assured and powerful (he more than passed the ‘Franklin Shepard, Inc.’ test!) – his ability to convey emotion through expression was second to none, helped by the most remarkable pair of eyebrows. If there is any justice in this world, he is going to have a solid career in this business.

Most captivating of all was Clodagh Harrington as the lovesick Mary – the woman who spends her entire life loving the wrong man. One of the strongest Mary Flynn’s I’ve had the pleasure of watching, Harrington mined this fantastically written character – one of Sondheim’s biggest triumphs – for every laugh and every lament. Her contribution to the reprise of ‘Not a Day Goes By’ was gutwrenching, and when Frank admits as a young man that Mary’s the woman he ought to marry, I lost it. I’ve never rooted for a Mary as passionately as I did with Harrington’s creation, willing her – willing them all – to make the right choice in life. Ah, the benefit of 20-20 hindsight…

Packed in around this talented trio was an impressive cast of supporting roles, most notably the sonorous Scarlett Cole as Beth (what a voice!) and the radiant Anneketrien as Gussie, the catalyst for most of the misery caused to others. Joe Sheridan nicely rounded off what could be considered the show’s leading sextet in his role of producer Joe Josephson – a character who, for the first time ever, I felt sorry for.

The remainder of the 12-strong cast filled in multiple roles and Blobs: Jemma Loader (Mrs Spencer/Ru), Jemma Walton (Judge/Dory/Photographer/Evelyn), Beth King (Tyler), Emma Montgomery (K.T.), Jasmine Morris (Meg Kincaid and Dance Captain) and Marvyn Powis-Smith (Jerome/Minister/Pianist).

Sutton – director, and set and costume designer – presented an intimate and highly stylised Merrilythat suited the constraints of the space. What little budget there was seems to have been well spent on gold and silver costumes, and buckets – and I mean buckets and buckets! – of gold-foil confetti, which poured forth with gay abandon from a drop box in a glorious visual metaphor for success and excess… the metaphor extended when the gilded mess was swept up by some poor flunkies in the interval.

The modest band of two keys, bass and drums was driven on by MD Dean Austin – but where was that lovely overture?! No matter, it all sounded great. Tyler Forward did a notably good job of the lighting design, and every syllable shimmered with absolute clarity thanks to Findlay Claydon’s sound design.

Choreographer Aimee Leigh worked wonders in the tight space, indulging in plenty of chairography to keep the company moving. We didn’t get the extended ‘He’s Only a Boy’ sequence at the top of Act II, but what we did see the cleverly positioned Joe and Frank as the focal points of Gussie’s indecision – a smart bit of staging I don’t recall encountering before.

So, shame on me for letting Associated Studios slip off my radar. If their Merrilyis a sign of the calibre of all their end of year shows, I must make more of an effort to swing by. Having just produced the latest Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year competition, I was surprised to find not a single entry from this school in the applications list. I hope it was because of a conflict of schedules, because with Sondheim of this calibre, there’s no reason not to see these young artists compete against the best the country has to offer.

Craig Glenday