Rolling

Merrily We Roll Along, which opened (and closed) in 1981, was the sixth Broadway musical from director-composer team Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim.  It was such a flop that the two decided to go their separate ways.  The trouble with the musical was the same as with the 1934 Kaufman and Hart play it was based on--the gimmick of moving backwards in time wasn't clever enough to salvage a minor story about artists selling out.

Sondheim and book-writer George Furth redid the show a number of times till they came up with a version that satisfied them. And now there's going to be a movie.  Great.  Any time a Sondheim musical is made into a movie that's a good thing, even if the results rarely compare to the stage version.

But how will they deal with the reverse time concept? In a pretty bizarre way.  They're going to film it over 20 years.  When I read that, I checked the date of the article to be sure it wasn't April 1.  Sure, the actors will age properly over time for their roles, but haven't they heard of makeup?

The three leads will be played by Beanie Feldstein, Ben Platt and Blake Jenner. And I suppose other cast members will age along with them. Okay, but what if someone dies? Or is in a disfiguring accident?  Or has some sort of conversion and drops out of movies?  Heck, what if the world blows up?

The director is Richard Linklater, of course.  I say "of course" because he did Boyhood, a film shot over 12 years that literally shows a boy growing up.  It did pretty well and was nominated for a bunch of Oscars.  But Linklater (who, by the way, has no experience with flat-out musicals) isn't a kid any more.  He's almost 60.  Does he really want to sign up for a 20-year shoot?

At least the talent behind the camera can be replaced.  And let's be honest--if one of the actors does drop dead, I'm sure in ten years we'll have the technology to animate them on screen well enough that no one will know the difference.