Merrily We Roll Along

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 2:50pm

Can people please let me know about thi show and the characters? It's my school musical and auditions are December 1st. I don't want to go in knowing nothing about the show because I feel like it would really help me out. Thanks very much to anyone who can help me out!

[Broadway_Bound_Star]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 2:52pm

Sorry I don't know anything about it

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 2:59pm

It tells the story of three people (Franklin, Charley, and Mary) who were friends in high school. It tells what their lives were like after, how their friendship changed, how they drifted apart, etc. It is told backwards, starting with the characters at middle age and going backwards until they are back in high school. The score is great (Sondheim, of course). "Our Time" is such a touching song. Updated On: 11/20/04 at 02:59 PM

[pab]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 3:05pm

These links might help:

http://www.mtishows.com/show_plot.asp?ID=000051

http://www.stageagent.com/cb/info.pl/ti/merrily_we_roll_along

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 3:52pm

Thanks for the links Pab and for the info GovernorSlaton. I'm thinking I like Beth the best. Can you tell me more about her?

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 11/20/04 at 3:55pm

Beth is Frank's (first) wife. She pops in about end of Act 1, telling Frank that she wants a divorce because she found out that Frank has been cheating on her. She's in a much bigger part of Act 2, singing "Bobby and Jackie and Jack" (and gets the best lines of the song), "Not a Day Goes By-Part 2" and has a nice part of "Opening Doors". I've always liked Beth, on both recordings. It's a very good part.

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 9:30am

How vocally challenging is the role?

[Benzy92]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 10:09am

its an amazing show. i would die just to be in the chorus!

Beth is a supporting role and not TOO vocally challenged, but you def. need to have a nice, pleasant voice.

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 12:47pm

God I love this show. We were supposed to sing "Our Time" in my workshop class but other stupid people in the class thought it was boring and not that great. Imagine having to stand in one place and sing and song and put emotion into it? God what were thinking? (insert sarcasm here.) People blow my mind somtimes.

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 1:08pm

Benzy92, I'm excited about auditioning. It's my first time auditioning for a high school musical!
Good to know that it would be great just to be in the chorus of this show. I'm working on my singing so I don't have my hopes up. I just have to go in and try my very best and hope for the best. Beth is my favorite from the summary pab gave me a link to so it would be fantasic to play her.

marincrazy11, sorry to hear that. There will always be somebody to ruin/try to ruin something out there. I hope you get to do "Our Time" at some point!

Updated On: 11/21/04 at 01:08 PM

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 1:24pm

Thanks! I'm gonna campiagn for it for next year's class.

Saddle Shoe-Break A Leg on your audition!!! Wow, I'm amzaed that a high school is doing Merrily!!!!

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/21/04 at 1:31pm

Thanks so much :)

Yes, I've been told it's very ambitious of the director but I have confidence in her. She did the show in college and loved it. I've asked her so many questions I feel bad asking more so that;s why I came to the kind folks at Broadway World :)

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 11/22/04 at 5:14pm

Bump. Can anyone else tell me more?

"Mezzo (D to F# )" Can someone put this in terms for a dense person? http://www.stageagent.com/cb/info.pl/ti/merrily_we_roll_along says that is Beth's. Also can anyone give me some good vocal exercises? You can PM them to me or post them here because I lost my voice earlier this year and in trying to practice singing, I've realized it never fully came back and doesn't sound quite the same. Dear God, it's puberty all over again.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 1:54am

The high school drama teacher that is putting on Merrily deserves an award.

Seriously.

[KateMusic]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 1:57am

I was in Merrily in college, and saw a high school production in CT that I was actually very impressed by. So it is possible.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 2:05am

I definitely agree that it's possible. It's also very very brave. It's demanding vocally, as well as emotionally, with actors in high school playing characters who age many years within the span of two and a half hours.
Not that they don't have their merits, but it's nice to know every high school isn't doing Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls, or Oklahoma.
I think it's great when teachers try to educate their students about the ART side of theater, not just the money- making HIT side of theater.
Of course Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls, and Oklahoma are all artful but well... you get my point. It's amazing for high school theater students to have the opportunity to be in a show like Merrily.

KateMusic, who were you in Merrily in college? What was your experience like with being in the show?

[VeuveClicquot]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 3:05am

I'm so happy to hear the high schools are staging MERRILY. It's the perfect show for high school students, thematically.

Many people say that one of the problems with the original production of MERRILY is that it was cast with young actors, and they couldn't act the early scenes in the show. I think this is MERRILY's biggest asset: because when you get to the end, the actors are the correct age for the characters. And as an audience member, you have HOPE for those characters, hope that the young actors playing those characters won't end up like Charley or Mary or Franklin or Beth.

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 9:11am

You should go out and buy both the original cast recording and the 1994 Off-Broadway revival cast, which is slightly different.

[BroadwayBound06]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 9:46am

It had alot of problems apparently, not just the actors. Like white t-shirts with the character name on it for costumes.

[Jon]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 10:04am

Actually, they were sweatshirts of various colors with the characters names on them. And sometimes not just the names - they explained relationships and how they changed. Charlie's shirt first said "Charlie", then "Frank's Best Friend", then "Ex-Friend".

This was a last minue decision by Harold Prince. Originally there were regualr costumes that suggested the period of the play, but Prince hatred them. Since the original concept was a bunch of kids putting on the show, he decided to just gave everyone wear sweatshirts.

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 10:19am

Lol, I was shocked to see this thread up t the top after so long. I'm in the chorus for the show, but it's fun. I really enjoy the music. I think our Frank is going to be very good. We are doing it more like the 1994 revival, I believe. That's the CD that our musical director had everybody go out and get. It was so hard to find but I finally got the last copy at Barnes & Noble. My school actually did, under the same direction, Guys and Dolls my freshman year and Crazy For You my sophmore year but I didn't try out for either (I was on the fencing team). This is my first High School musical :)

[BroadwayBound06]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 11:15am

Good thing Price didn't do that sweatshirt thing with Sweeney. Sweeney Todd- "Deamon Barber of Fleet Street". Mrs. Lovett- "Women who sells pies made from people". Old Begger Women- "Sweeney's wife (shhhh don't tell Sweeney)".

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 11:21am

Both versions are great, but I prefer the original. Some of the changes were nice, but Gussie having such a prominent role kind of took focus away from the three friends. Although, I do love Pawk in that role. :)

[saddle shoe side kick]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 11:27am

Could you tell me about the diffeences? You just made me curious. I feel dumb not knowing.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 1/23/05 at 11:33am

In the Revival, Gussie's part was beefed up; she was given a lot of songs, including The Blob and Growing Up (Both new songs for the revival). Gussie used to be a small role who's main part of the score was introducing Good Thing Going. Giving her a larger part made it more about her and Frank's marriage, and not about the friendship of Mary, Charley, and Frank.
There were some lyric and musical changes as well, particularly in It's a Hit, where instead of singing, "We're still good friends, nothing can kill good friends..." it became, "We're still old friends, nothing can kill old friends.... Updated On: 1/23/05 at 11:33 AM