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Sondheim: Merrily We Roll Along: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Stuart Pedler (musical director), Chelsea Theatre, World’s End, London, 2.10.2008 (BBr)

Stephen Sondheim: Merrily We Roll Along (1981)


There was a time when Stephen Sondheim’s shows didn’t necessarily grab the Broadway audiences, and Merrily We Roll Along is one of those shows – it only achieved 16 performances at its première. There are probably two reasons for this. Firstly, it’s another of Sondheim’s adult musicals, which started with Company, and it deals with the break–up of friendships, marriages and the way life seems to let one down. Not exactly the stuff of musical comedy. Secondly, we sometimes forget that Sondheim studied with Milton Babbitt and the angularity he learned from that teacher can be heard, in abundance, in this score: despite being highly melodic the tunes never do quite what you expect them to do.

That said, this must be one of Sondheim’s richest and most integrated shows. Every song grows from the action, comments upon it and illuminates our understanding of the characters. The plot concerns three friends who meet, in their early 20s, on the roof of their New York apartment building, where they wait to see Sputnik 1 fly overhead. “Thereafter” the show charts the collapse of their relationships. Frank and Charley write musicals for Broadway but split after Charley makes some inappropriate remarks on national TV. Their friend Mary starts work as a journalist, writes a novel, has a big success with it but fails to capitalise, artistically, on her achievement and turns to the bottle. Franklin’s marriage fails and he takes up with Broadway Diva Gussie Carnegie, wife of his first Broadway producer. Now this would seem to make for a very downbeat evening in the theatre were it no for the fact that all the action moves backwards, starting in 1976, and ending with the friends meeting in 1957, thus giving the show an happy ending, if tinged with sadness because we know what is going to happen as the three friends sing that they will be friends forever.

This production was minimal to say the least – the stage only contained a few chairs, a piano and a clock (most important that clock). The subtle movement of the furniture afforded all the scene changes needed to set the various scenes, whether they take place in California, at an opening night party, or the rooftop of the apartment house in New York.

The cast was uniformly excellent, there is no other word for it. As Mary, Rachael McCormick was magnificent, whether playing middle aged drunk, embarrassing herself and everybody else at the Hollywood party, or as the bright young thing on the roof. She impressed with her strong mezzo and fine stage presence. She was the real star of the show. Ben Peachey and David Malcolm as Franklin and Charley both displayed fine acting and singing talents, Peachey a melodious high baritone and Malcolm a very robust tenor. Sophia Amato as the Broadway bitch Gussie displayed just the right amount of catty cunning. Claire Baldry, as Franklin’s put–upon wife was brilliantly understated – the wife who loves her husband too much when he loves music much more. I hope the rest of the cast will forgive me for not mentioning them by name but they can rest assured that their contributions (some of them in multiple parts) made the evening the total success it must assuredly was. I totally believed in every character so strong were the performances. There was no orchestra but Stuart Pedler and Jim Henson made their keyboard playing so interesting that one never felt that anything was missing in the music department. One point I must mention is that when an actor turned away from me, and music was playing, the dialogue tended to get lost.

The production runs until 11 October and it’s worth a trip to south west London to see such a vibrant and exciting production of a show which isn’t seen that often. I should mention that on 8 October the cast members swap parts and I have no reason to think that it will be any the less enjoyable. A real triumph!

Bob Briggs


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