 MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
a musical comedy in two acts. Book by George Furth, based on the play
by George S Kaufman and Moss Hart. Music and lyrics by Stephen
Sondheim.
Alvin Theatre, New York, 16 November 1981
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 28 March 1983
Bloomsbury Theatre May 11th, 1983
Leicester Haymarket Theatre (revised version) 14 April, 1992
Produced at the Alvin Theatre, New York, 16 November 1981
with Jim Walton (Frank), Ann Morrison (Mary), Lonny Price (Charley) and
Jason Alexander (Joe). Produced at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama, 28 March 1983 with Hutton Cobb, Clare James, Bernard Wright and
Charles Millham. (6 perfs). Arts Theatre, Cambridge April 4th, 1983 (7
perfs); Bloomsbury Theatre May 11th, 1983 (11 perfs.); Produced at the
Leicester Haymarket Theatre, England in a revised version, 14th April
1992 with Michael Cantwell, Maria Friedman, Evan Pappas and Gareth Snook.
Synopsis
Act I
This is the story of Franklin Shepard, a rich, famous
and influential song-writer and film producer. But how did he get
to be where he is today? (Merrily We Roll Along) The years
begin to roll back. First stop: 1976 - Frank's swanky pad
in Bel Air, after the premier of his latest movie. A party is in
full swing, attended by the "Friends" of That Frank,
hangers-on, people who make things happen in show business, the movers.
His long-time friend and theatre critic, Mary, is also at the party.
She is disgusted that Frank has abandoned music - the one thing he
was truly good at - for the world of commercial film producing. She
gets progressively more and more drunk and, after insulting everyone,
is ordered to leave. Their friendship is over ... However, Frank
is stung by Mary's remarks, because he knows they are true - he has
concentrated so completely on being a "success" that everything
he most valued at the beginning of his career has long been left
behind. The evening ends traumatically with the breakup of Frank's
unhappy marriage to his wife Gussie when she viciously attacks Meg,
his mistress.
Merrily We Roll Along back to 1973 and
a New York TV studio. Frank is going to be interviewed with Charley,
his long-time lyricist collaborator. In the make-up room Charley greets
Mary as Old Friends, and tells her that Frank is now so busy
making deals that he never has time to write shows anymore with him.
Mary wonders plaintively why can't their collective friendship be Like
It Was. When the TV interview goes ahead, a nervous Charley -1n
case you didn't notice, this is my first time on TV - launches into
a demented assault on the way his composer has transformed himself
into a corporation, Franklin Shepard Inc. As Charley careers
ever more ferociously between bitterness and self-contempt, Frank walks
out. Their friendship is over ...
Merrily We Roll Along: it's 1968, Frank's
apartment on Central Park West. He and Charley are arguing over his
decision to do a movie version of one of their shows, "Musical
Husbands". Frank wants to do it for the money, but Charley says
that it will get in the way of writing any new musicals for some time.
Mary looks on, and when the argument starts getting out of control
reminds them that they are all still Old Friends. But nothing's
that simple anymore. The Broadway producer Joe Josephson and his wife
Gussie arrive. She and Frank have been having a long-term affair -
Joe has learnt to live with it, but Mary, hopelessly in love with Frank,
finds it much harder to accept. When the others leave, Gussie startles
Frank by announcing that she intends to live with him and divorce Joe
in the process (Growing Up).
1966: a courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Frank
is being sued for divorce by Beth, and they wrangle over the custody
of their son. Beth tells him that Not a Day Goes By when he
isn't a part of her life, but she can't live with him knowing he is
committing adultery with Gussie. The marriage is over. Okay, learn
to live with it, their friends say. Now You Know ...
Act II
1964: at the Alvin Theatre, the opening night
of "Musical Husbands". Gussie, having just discovered that
Frank really fancies her, lustily sings He's Only a Boy. Meanwhile
the curtain comes down on the show, and, as the applause swells,
Broadway's latest words-and-music team, Charley and Frank, have to
admit: It's a Hit! ...
Merrily We Roll Along and peal the years back
further to 1962 and a party at Gussic and Joe's elegant Sutton
Place apartment. Gussic has thrown her soirée so that Frank
and Charley, who are going to write a musical for Joe to produce, can
meet all the richest and most influential people in town - she calls
them The Blob because "they absorb everything". "Fermez
those bouches," Gussie orders and invites the songwriters to perform
their latest number, Good Thing Going. The guests love it, but
not enough to wait until the end before resuming their cocktail chatter
...
Merrily We Roll Along, back to 1960,
the dawn of a new decade with new hopes. Charley, Frank and Beth are
playing a small nightclub and celebrating the accession of America's
new First Family,Bobby and Frankie and Jack. Joe is in the tiny
audience and he's quite impressed, as is Gussic who is strongly attracted
to Frank at this first meeting. Afterwards, Frank explains that he's
marrying Beth and pledges that Not a Day Goes By when she's
not a part of his life. At an adjoining table, Mary echoes the sentiment:
it's how she'll always feel about Frank ...
1959-57: Frank, Charley and Mary are busy in
New York, establishing their careers, Opening Doors. The boys
audition for Joe, but he wants more hummable tunes. So they decide
to do their own show and end up hiring Beth.
October 1957, 5.30 am, on the roof of an old
apartment house on New York City's 110th Street, waiting for the first-ever
earth-orbiting satellite. Suddenly, Sputnik is there in the sky and
for the three young friends - Frank, Charley and Mary - anything is
possible: this is Our Time - "and there's so much stuff
to sing!. |
