The George Furth-Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along is one of those shows — there are several — that contains so much good work by Mr. Sondheim that the theatrical community doesn't want to turn loose of it despite its other shortcomings. The original Broadway production opened in November of '81 after lotsa previews then closed after only sixteen performances. If you and I wrote a show that only lasted two weeks and received such non-rave reviews, it would never be heard of again…but then neither of us is Stephen Sondheim and we're likely to remain that way.
What's happened since is that Merrily is constantly revived (and sometimes revised) and it appears that a lot of the directors come at it from the viewpoint, "I'm going to be the one to make this show work." Many productions have probably improved on the original but it seems like no one's ever done the definitive "improved" version. A recent production in the West End of London has reportedly come darned close. I haven't seen it but I may be about to. It was captured on high-def video and it's being shown for one night at theaters across the continent on October 23. I may not go to one but there will probably be a DVD/Blu-ray release shortly after and I'm looking forward to that. Here's a little preview…
