Profile for Musicals Fan

Your  post made me feel very fortunate. I've seen the original Broadway production of every Sondheim show beginning with Company.  They are all still a source of great joy. I saw the original Merrily a second time in previews because I thought it would be tough to get a ticket after it became a big hit. Most of the shows I've seen several times in different productions. Though Sweeney is the most interesting musically, Merrily seemed so poignant when I saw it origi

One of the ironies of the show is that the Marilyn musical’s fate is in the hands of Internet influencers on social media.

So let me spitball with my two cents. I couldn’t believe that the veteran Broadway star would suddenly become such a deluded diva. So maybe make her a movie star, a former Broadway actress whose last movie flopped, so she’s anxious and nervous about how she’ll do in her comeback, so she has more of a pretext to imagine she is like Marily

The show reminded me of Curtains, from years ago, about a motley crew struggling to save a Broadway musical in trouble, and the songs are mostly pastiche numbers. But the writers need to rethink the entire conceit of the plot, which is that the star suddenly becomes difficult and takes over the show like she's Blake Lively because of some method acting Svengali. 

It's very hard to write a backstage farce, so they face daunting challenges. But the Smash-