When it first hit Broadway in 1981, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's decades-spanning musical Merrily We Roll Along was a total flop. The original run of the show ran for 16 performances and 44 previews before closing.
But in the years since, Merrily We Roll Along has enjoyed much bigger critical and commercial success, and no production exemplifies that more than the show's 2023 Broadway revival. Directed by Maria Friedman, the revival starred Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez as Merrily We Roll Along's core trio of Franklin Shepard, Charley Kringas, and Mary Flynn. The show charts their friendship in reverse chronological order, starting with a bitter stand-off in 1977 before turning back the years to their first meeting in 1957.
The Broadway revival earned seven Tony Award nominations and took home four: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical for Groff, Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Radcliffe, and Best Orchestrations. Now, you can catch the award-winning production in all its glory on the big screen.
In an interview with Mashable Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards, Groff, Radcliffe, and Mendez broke down how they filmed the stage production for the film version.
"They filmed three shows at night in a row, and then during the day, they would have cameras that were on stage with us, and we would film close-up stuff," Radcliffe explained. "It was nice that it wasn't all the pressure resting on one night, actually."
The filmed version also allowed the actors to appreciate moments from the show that they couldn't actually see while performing their tracks.
"There were so many moments that I never knew existed because I'm busy doing my thing," Mendez said. "So to be able to zoom out and get to capture all these beautiful, amazing moments that our ensemble was doing, that was one of the best gifts to get."
2025's Merrily We Roll Along isn't the only one filmed version of the musical we'll be getting, though. Director Richard Linklater is currently filming his own take on the musical, with Paul Mescal, Ben Platt, and Beanie Feldstein in the lead roles. However, his production will span 20 years in order to capture the characters' growth over that length of time, Boyhood-style.
"If there's any film that is absolutely primed for the Richard Linklater Boyhood treatment, it is Merrily," Radcliffe said. "I don't know any of the actors in it, so I haven't had contact with anyone, but I'm pretty sure I walked past Beanie Feldstein on the street once when she was going to film a section of it... I'm very excited to see that film when it comes out."
Thankfully, Sondheim fans will have the filmed version of the 2023 Broadway revival to tide them over during the wait for Linklater's take.
Merrily We Roll Along hits theaters Dec. 5.
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Topics Film
