When Will We See a Merrily Broadway Revival?

[Mildred Plotka]

Posted: 8/23/10 at 6:47pm

I have been hugging this score like my only child lately. I know that Lapine has been attached to this, but with Annie and Little Miss Sunshine on his plate, will we see a revival of this in the near future. This score is absolutely gorgeous and deserves a wider audience. It was heavily feature in Sondheim on Sonheim, which worries me that we won't get a revival soon. Thoughts? Will this be the missing musical from ROundabout's current season? I was hoping it would open the Sondheim. That won't happen, obviously. And a commerical run wouldn't really work. I hope we see it on Broadway very soon!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/23/10 at 7:04pm

It will either go off broadway or be done by Roundabout due to their connection to Sondheim. Other than these 2 venues, doubt it will happen.

[binau]

Posted: 8/23/10 at 8:48pm

Transfer of the upcoming Menier production directed by Maria Freidman?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 4:49am

I hope so, but I wish they would restore the full Overture, and the opening and closing graduation scenes with "The Hills of Tomorrow" to bookend the piece. The way the show plays now it just stops with "Our Time" and I feel it needs a coda.

Most of the other changes are all improvements although I'm not quite sure why the authors folded the "Like it Was" scene into the TV studio scene. (In the original production it was a separate scene.)

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:52am

Dear lord I hope soon. My generation has not had the opportunity to see a strong production of this show and I think we are desperate for it. The score is incredible and I think it would be a great piece for Roundabout to do. Perhaps the first actual Sondheim show in the Stephen Sondheim theatre?

[tazber]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:58am

It is an incredible and indispensable score. If we ever do get a revival it won't be soon enough.

Updated On: 8/24/10 at 08:58 AM

[newintown]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:08am

What's your generation, barbie? The Kennedy Center production was very good and it was only 8 years ago. And it gets good regional productions all the time.

I don't think it will ever get a Broadway revival - 1) it's too big a show, and 2) that book just never works quite right - most audience members get really tired of the heavy irony midway through Act II.

It is a terrific score, and some of the moments are truly wonderful to behold. It just, by nature, always grinds to a really sad halt, when you just keep getting told that these three started out with great promise and will end miserably, because of bad choices.

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:17am

newintown...I should have stated that I was referring to a Broadway production specifically. i.e. we've seen recent productions of Into the Woods, Company, and Sweeney Todd, but not Merrily.

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:38am

I don't think it will ever get a Broadway revival - 1) it's too big a show

They were able to do a fabulous production at the 180-seat York Theatre Company, so anything is possible.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 9:52am

I really enjoyed the York production - at the York. It would be far too small on Broadway, even in the Booth. The close intimacy of the Theatre at St. Peter's was a great part of what made that production work.

I'm no fan of Off-Broadway on Broadway - I think a Broadway revival of Merrily should be full-size.

And barbie, I don't understand why every show needs a Broadway revival - why aren't regional productions sufficient? Many times they are as good as, if not better than, Broadway productions.

It's an old song here, but so many people on this board only talk about Broadway revivals that they want to see, as though they have no interest at all in new work (which is what, in my opinion, Broadway is primarily for).

[AC126748]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:07am

I wasn't suggesting bringing something like the scaled-down York production to Broadway. I think that a production of this musical can be tailored to the specificities of a particular theatre.

Not everyone has the means or the ability to travel to Washington or Chicago or Dallas to see a good regional production of a show, which is probably why many people myopically focus on whether or not something will be production on Broadway/in New York.

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:16am

Um...have you seen the quality, or lack thereof, of much of the new work on Broadway recently? Most of it leaves much to be desired which is why I think so many of us prefer revivals that explore new ways of looking at older material.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 10:40am

Well, that's a whole new can of worms.

I blame audiences first, who producers try to please by bringing in second-rate works that they believe will fill the desire audiences seem to have now for the familiar - familiar titles, familiar sounds, familiar faces.

Unfortunately (for producers, investors, and audiences who look for something new), this "formula" rarely works.

But every once in a while, we do get a new show that is good, that has been created with some skill, talent, insight, or wit - to name a few from the past 10 years, Avenue Q, Light in the Piazza, The Drowsy Chaperone, and A Catered Affair.

But the waits for these new works of quality are too long, particularly when you look back at the 50s and 60s and see how many good new works were given to audiences every season. Such as:

1956: Candide, Bells Are Ringing, Most Happy Fella, L'il Abner
1959: Gypsy, Once Upon A Mattress, The Sound of Music, Fiorello
1962: Forum, Oliver, She Loves Me, Little Me
1965: Sweet Charity, Man of La Mancha, Mame, On A Clear Day

I just wonder that if we demanded new works as good as these, rather than musing endlessly on revivals, it might be a step towards encouraging producers to be more Merrick and Prince-like, and focus on bringing in good new work as well as making money, instead of only looking for the bucks.

[twinbelters]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 6:53pm

Blame the children growing up in the 1960s. And television. Oh, and the internet.

[Frank thebellhop]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 8:53pm

I hope that the next 10 to 15 years is an exciting time of growth for broadway. I think the 1 thing that ppl seem to blame the decline of intrest or relevence in theatre on is television and the internet. I think these growing mediums are the way Broadway can truly capture a new generation. The recordings of shows like Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, even the subpar Company revival are what made me fall in love with musical theatre at 17 in a podunk midwest town. Since then I've bought tons of cast albums online (I'd have to drive 1hr and a half to find a store that carried them). I've scowered message boards to find any secondhand information i can find about classic shows I never got the chance to expirence. Most importantly I've used the internet to guide me to some really great regional performances. IMO the best thing Broadway can do is reach out through the internet and television to people who live outside the grasp of theatre. If Glee and High School Musical prove anything it's that there is obviously a younger audience who is hungry for musical theatre experiences no matter how marginal the quality. I hope this upcoming generation develops a true passion and appreciation for theatre and are inspired to study the arts so that someday we have minds as sharp and stunningly creative as Sondheim, Albe, Fosse or Redgrave.

It's great to see sites like this where theatre lovers can congregate to voice their oppinions but I think some visonary someday out there is going to crack the way to utilize the internet to really incite a new kind of audience to get there asses into a theatre and THINK.

[sondheimfan2]

Posted: 8/24/10 at 11:31pm

Not soon enough for me! Love this show. I have seen a few crappy community theater productions, but love the OBC. I was in high school when the Broadway show opened. I was playing Curly in my school's production of OKLAHOMA, and I was intently following news of the show in The Times. I remember reading articles on the show during rehearsals. I especially recall the actor playing Frank being replaced not too long before opening by Jim Walton.

MERRILY has a special place in my heart. I had tickets for the York production but missed it due to a family emergency. Someday I hope to a see a full revival mounted on Broadway.

[NYCJUDE2]

Posted: 8/25/10 at 2:28am

As one of the 17 or so people who saw the original Bway production, I too yearn for a revival. I never understood the slamming it took from the critics....my husband and I loved it.

We saw Jim Walton in it, along with Jason Alexander, Lonny Price, a then unknown Tonya Pinkins, and a wonderful performer whose career never seemed to really take off...Ann Morrison.

One a side note, The Waltons wound up as parents at my kids' elementary school...Laurie Walton (Bob's wife) has been directing the local community theater's teen productions for several years. And their talented teens are also in the business.

Lastly, the venue I've always thought of for the revival is City Center's Encores!

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/25/10 at 2:53am

Ann Morrison left New York for a really long time to focus on raising her son. She did still do some theatre, but it wasn't in New York and it was for limited periods. She did a number of leading roles at the Music Theatre of Wichita. If she'd stayed in New York and pursued her career aggressively, she very likely would have had a much bigger career.

I love this show but only in the original version. Except for the addition of "Growing Up," I think the revision is a very decided weakening. There are some conceptual problems in the original version that do get fixed in the revision, but at the expense of so much that is superior about the original. I like the dialogue better in the original, the frame, the first (very different) Gussie, just about everything.

In the original production, they never solved the big problem of who Frank should be in the first scene so they later tried to solve that problem by cutting the scene (and for other reasons, too), but it was a mistake. I still think the best version of Frank in that scene was the version when they started previews, but in trying to fix the show, they threw out the baby with the bathwater.

The Roundabout was just about ready to schedule a revival about five years ago or so, but then Sweeney happened.
Updated On: 8/25/10 at 02:53 AM

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/25/10 at 3:44am

I feel that if it is too big for Broadway but worked well in an intimate setting, I would think a revival could fall somewhere in between.

For me, a regional production would be fine but I too would love a Broadway revival. For those of us who have never seen a production (I have lived in Denver for 19 years and it hasn't been done here to my knowledge) a Broadway revival would be great. It's not like it ran for years on Broadway. It had a very short run. I think for a lot of people who love the score and listen to it A LOT, as I do, a Broadway revival just seems like it needs to happen. newintown, I am taking it that you have seen the original production. Was it bigger than say, Into the Woods or Sweeney? If not, I don't see why it would be too big for Broadway. And yes, we need new shows, and I will throw in "Caroline or Change" with your list, but revivals aren't going away and for me and others, this is one we want to see On Broadway, not regionally. For lack of a better term it just seems that it will bring the show "full circle". Just my random thoughts.

[newintown]

Posted: 8/25/10 at 9:52am

Was the original bigger than Into the Woods or Sweeney Todd? Hmm. Not bigger than Sweeney, definitely. A bigger orchestra than Woods, I think. But Sweeney hasn't had a full Broadway production yet, just two vastly scaled down versions that did not received universal praise. (I liked both for what they were, but neither matched the original for sheer enormous passion, theatricality, and power).

Another thing to consider is that is isn't common for producers to mount a Broadway revival of a show that flopped as big as Merrily did. And, to the larger public, it remains an off-putting show. The tourists (who make a show recoup) don't care for irony and cynicism.

I imagine that the Roundabout could do an on-the-cheap revival that satisfies very few of the shows fans (like a lot of their revivals), but chances are best that we will only see this one in regional and perhaps Off-Broadway revivals (which, for my money, would be of better quality than the Roundabout's mostly amateur ventures).

[byebyebaby12]

Posted: 8/26/10 at 2:01am

I really don't think reviving shows that did not do well financially the first time around is a good idea. I said the same thing about Finian's Rainbow and Ragtime.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/26/10 at 4:19am

"I really don't think reviving shows that did not do well financially the first time around is a good idea. I said the same thing about Finian's Rainbow and Ragtime."

I'm sure you're not suggesting that Finian's Rainbow didn't do well financially the first time around.

It would probably the Roundabout that would revive Merrily, and they wouldn't necessarily be looking for a long-running smash (though I'm sure they'd like one).

[newintown]

Posted: 8/26/10 at 9:52am

Well, again, it's not entirely impossible. But if you look at the Broadway (including Roundabout) musical revivals of the last 25 years, the only big flops revived (that means a show that not only originally lost money, but closed ridiculously quickly, within a month of opening) were:

Threepenny Opera (which was a historical international hit elsewhere, as well as Off Broadway. The very first Broadway production flopped, but it doesn't really count)

The Rocky Horror Show (which was a huge hit originally in the UK, and of course a huge movie)

It just seems unlikely that anyone on Broadway (even the Roundabout) would revive a failure that extreme as Merrily. (Thoughts were the same about that ridiculous proposal of a Carrie revival months ago.) You would need to expect to throw away either your money or that of your investors.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 8/26/10 at 10:51am

"It just seems unlikely that anyone on Broadway (even the Roundabout) would revive a failure that extreme as Merrily."

As I'm sure you know, unlike most 16-performance Broadway flops, Merrily has been produced many times since the original production closed. The Donmar Warehouse production in 2000 (which went partly back to the original script) won the Olivier Award for Best Musical.

Unless I'm forgetting something, no other musical with an original production that ran two weeks can boast three recordings. And I think that the OBCR has probably sold more copies than many cast recordings of shows that ran far longer.

So, yes, I think a company like the Roundabout might well revive Merrily. It's certainly been on their minds several times, even being announced as likely a couple of years ago.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/115221-Hey-Old-Friend-Will-Roundabout-Bring-Merrily-Back-to-Broadway

Sadly, they will almost surely do the revised version if and when they do it. I think it's not a coincidence that the most critically acclaimed major production of the show reverted largely to the original version (and Sondheim and Furth said that they'd never allow that to happen again). Lapine helped create the first of the revisions so he believes in that version.

Personally, I think it's a mistake to revive that version. But I do think there's a good chance we'll get a revival of it from the Roundabout.

Posted: 9/6/10 at 5:28pm

My daughter and I took the ferry over to Fire Island on Friday night after Earl turned out to sea. "Merrily We Roll Along" was playing at the Brandon Fradd Theatre, and we weren't gonna miss one of its rare New York appearances over some allegedly bad weather.

These 5 Fire Island Pines Art Project shows plus productions in Kansas City, Hollywood and Lynchburg College are the only times that MTI has licensed Merrily for the foreseeable future -- across the whole continent! And Roundabout ain't on that list.

But believe it or not, this New York City boy has never been east of the lighthouse before, and never by boat. So it was a bit of an adventure just getting there. And once we got to the other side, they told us we were Earled: the last two boats back to Sayville were canceled, so either we had to stay at the Hotel Ciel or miss Act Two.

We Cieled. It was worth it. Shout outs to the FIPAP staff and the merchants in the harbor for making us feel so much at home so far from home. We saw five of these songs in Sondheim on Sondheim, but it was so refreshing to see them in the context of the script, from the front row with a low stage.

The set was little more than a piano, a few doors, a staircase and some furniture. A 9-piece orchestra sat behind a screen on a second floor which also served as a balcony for some of the scenes. Projections helped set the mood and keep time, and came in very handy for the NBC studio scene, for instance. Charley was good in "Franklin Shepard Inc." but was even better in "Good Thing Going." Gussie was beautiful and despicable at the same time.

First new thing we saw: a pianist came onstage to play the prop piano for "Bobby, Jackie & Jack," but Franklin played it the rest of the night (tinkling a few familiar chords here and there but miming it when the orchestra was playing).

Second new thing: Beth and Mary sang the second act "Not a Day Goes By" together, and then Frank joined in -- is that threesome typical? It's been five years since Merrily last played in the city. NYU did it at the 45th St. Theater in 2005. And memory fails me.

Merrily We Roll Along on Fire Island