Not So Merry

I was recently listening to the score of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along (1981).  It's one of his best, with songs such as "Old Friends," "Not A Day Goes By," "Our Time," "Good Thing Going" and "Opening Doors." Yet the show was a flop, the original, troubled production running only 16 performances.  Unlike most Sondheim shows, it's never had a Broadway revival.

After writing in a Japanese vein for Pacific Overtures (1976) and operatically for Sweeney Todd (1979), you might think that going back to 32-bar tunes would be like taking a vacation, but Sondheim claims it was one of the hardest scores he ever had to write--a modern show in an old style.

With such fine results musically, why did the show fail?  Probably because it's built on a gimmick--one that didn't work in the original play the musical's based on.  The story is told backwards.  We start in the present with the leads successful, but cynical and unhappy.  Each scene goes back in time as we see how they succeeded career-wise, but gave up a lot along the way.

Telling a story backwards is a questionable tactic. It can work if you're clever, and have something worthwhile to reveal as you uncover the past.  But in this case, it comes across as a trick that palls as the evening wears on. Just as bad, we start with people we don't care about, so why bother to see how they got this way?  Further, as was noted about the original, we start with a fabulously successful character and then try to answer how did he get into such a mess?

Sondheim and book writer George Furth would go on to tinker with the show for years before they were satisfied.  And Merrily has had some notable revivals.  But I'm still not sure it works.  It's worth seeing for that score, but the story is still weak and not particularly involving.  Though maybe it works better today because you go in knowing what to expect.