Merrily We Row Along

"Something is stirring, shifting ground...it's just begun. Edges are blurring all around, and yesterday is done. "

I am a sondheim fan but not a fan of this show and am trying to get into it. Any sugggestions or comments such as the best songs or story line would be helpful.

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I think it is one of his best scores and I listen to the OBC often. Not A Day Goes By, Franklin Shepard Inc, Our Time, Good Thing Going are just a few of my favorites.

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Perhaps his best score (but aren't they all?)!

Merrily tells the story of three friends who drift apart as one abandons his art to become "Rich & Happy". The "hook" to the show (and some say downfall) is that the show runs backwards. It starts as Franklin Shepard gives the commencement address at his Alma Mater. He gives a speech counseling the kids to give up their dreams and get ready to compromise. One by one, the kids turn against him and tune out, wondering how he ever got to be a success with such a defeatist attitude. Each following scene is a few years earlier, until you get to Frank's college graduation where he gives a speech urging people to hold on to their dreams at all cost.

There are a whole lot of great songs and they only get better when you fully understand the context. The show was seen as a major flop and seemed to end Sondheim & Prince's working (and personal) relationship. It has been retooled repeatedly and while it is certainly better than it was, is still not 100% successful. The score, hoever, is gorgeous and the RCA recording is fantastic-- one of the best sounding cast albums ever, with huge lavish packaging in the original LP.

When you get deep into the score, one of the things that fascinates me most is the way the score plays off itself: Franklin is a song writer and the songs he writes in the context of the show all sort of "fit" together-- Sondheim really develops the themes and melodies in a wonderful way. There is one song ("Not a Day Goes By") which is first "reprised" (because of the backward structure) as a bitterly sad breakup song then presented in it's 'original' context as a beautiful love song. Incidentally, this song was covered at the time by Carly Simon and Frank Sinatra, both then major recording artists. Sadly the show and the record were neither hits.

I recommend it highly- there will be a new remastered version coming in September!

Updated On: 5/6/05 at 05:28 PM

wow Joe, great post...I just bought the CD and this helps!

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God, this score is incredible. Was anyone else at Wall to Wall in March? A major highlight was hearing the Merrily overture played with Gemignani's 30 plus piece overture.

Notable Names from the original Merrily cast:

-Lonny Price (Now, stage director)
-Jason Alexander (Seinfeld)
-Daisy Prince (Hal Prince's daughter, stage director)
-Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change most recently)

Jim Walton was the original Frank - he is wonderful!

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I was in NYC the last week of October 1981 hoping to catch one of the "final" previews. The day I arrived, the NY Times reported the show had replaced leading man James Weissenbach with Jim Walton, that choreographer Ron Field had been fired and the opening had been postponed 3 weeks. There was a nasty gossip story in the New York Post ("Not so Merrily they roll out of the theatre") reporting mass walkouts at recent previews.

Undaunted I made my way to the Alvin theatre and settled into orchestra seat N101 and the lively, brassy overture began. There was appreciative applause at the end of it.

Then the curtain went up. The youthful cast had been directed to declaim each line like high school students putting on a play and shouting to reach the last rows. There was nothing subtle about the performances. The jokes seemed forced. But the songs... the songs were wonderful and most received strong applause. But you sends as the evening went on people were losing interest. As Act II began and the cast began singing "It's a hit! It's a Hit!" many in the audience started walking out...not one or two, but 10, 20 at a time. (Did they have a sudden engagement they just remembered.)

Of course as the show progressed and the cast began playing characters closer to their own age the performances became more believable. By the end as the cast were singing "Our Time" - a beautiful anthem of hope - you could sense the audience responding. It was too late. While some of the scenes played well, the whole show didn't gel into a cohesive whole. Just to hear the songs again, I returned to the Alvin 2 nights later but the performance hit some technical glitches and didn't go well at all.

A few weeks later the show officially opened to 1 favourable and 7 unfavourable reviews. It would close after just 16 performances. The day after it closed the cast recorded the album. When it was released many critics wrote that the score was a fine one saddled with an unworkable book. (In the original reviews only one of two had anything good to say about the songs.)

I did not see MERRILY again until 2002 when it was done at the Kennedy Centre in DC and at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The revised version retained most of the original score but Act I had almost all new dialogue and much of Act II was re-written as well.

There were still some on the audience who didn't get it, but there were also a good many with tears in their eyes as they left the theatres.

MERRILY will never be a big hit. It works well in smaller theatres played to fans (old and new.) Actually it probably works best on the cast recording.

I just hope RCA's Remastered edition fixes the sound. The original CD release sounds heavily compressed.

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The score makes for a nice listen on CD but simply doesn't work in the theater or in the context of the show. Having seen several incarnations of it, there are only two moments that regularly land with audiences: OLD FRIENDS and NOT A DAY GOES BY. The rest makes little impression and the show, thanks to its retrograde structure, eventually self-destructs.

Sorry, I've seen the show and I've done the show. Audiences loved it and got it. Younger people seemed to like it more. But many moments landed including Franklin Shepard INC., It's a Hit, Opening Doors, and Our Time. Older people appreciate Bobby jackie and Jack. It's a total falsehood that these numbers don't land. I'm sure some places it doesn't land but many places it does. People came away from the show moved. I think one has to fall into a certain pattern of thinking and take the journey of this show. A lot of artists like it. I think it is flawed but works well and it doesn't self destruct at all. I think people get the show once they realize why the show was backwards and what it was trying to say. It's actually a rather hopeful show.

P.S The only version available is the Revival. George Furth won't let anyone touch the original. In the revival, Gussie's part is larger and the bookends (graduation) are gone. There are new songs etc.

Also this show def didn't end Steve and Hal's relationship (professional or personal). They may have worked with other people for a while, but they eventually came back to do Bounce. I think they worked for over 10 years together (knew each other longer) and wanted a new collaboration experience. But during the entire time they've remained friends and attend each other's openings and such. It def didn't end their relationship

Get the original Broadway cast. It's a thrilling recording - even though some of the music is dfferent from the "final official" version that is performed now.

The Kennedy Center did a revival as part of their Sondheim festival a few years ago, and while I've always loved the OBC album, they really did a wonderful job of putting it together (ha) on stage. It is a tough one to pull off, but when done well, it really sings.

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It works better with older performers. Older people know what it is to have the hopes and dreams of the young. The young don't clearly understand the compromises and dissauslions of growing older. I saw this in Washington (at the Sondheim celebration), with Raul Esparza, and was tremedously moved.

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