"I think MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, while an inherently flawed musical somewhere in it's construction, has a juxtaposition of emotions I've never found in another show that's solely due to it's unusual structure. Having the jaded cynics age backwards into hopeful young dreamers is frisson enough, but specifically the "Not a Day Goes By (Reprise)" which manages to feature not just the repurposing of a couple's bitter demise into the (soon-to-be-thwarted) promise of a life of love but also reveals the heretofore unheard, unrequited love of another in the very same moment. I can't think of another moment in any show that has so many conflicting and still equally overwhelming emotions simultaneously."
YES! And practically every other song in the show, come to think of it. . . .
This also reminds me of "Goodbye Until Tomorrow" from JRB's The Last Five Years: it's so joyful and uplifting as a standalone song, but in the context of the show, it's heartbreaking.
Other songs springing to my mind that masterfully "sound" happy but are "really" sad within the show's context include "One Plus One Equals Three" from Side Show, "Bye, Bye, Life" from the film All That Jazz (if you ignore the lyrics!), "Happy Talk" from South Pacific (at least, as performed in the most recent production with Kelli O'Hara), half the score of Cabaret (as mentioned by another poster), "Santa Evita" from Evita (from the most recent revival imho: when that little girl sang Eva's praises as if she were a deity while her parents gazed so proudly upon her, I lost my breath.), "What a Game" from Ragtime, and . . . countless others, but I"ll stop there.
