Merrily We Roll Along is infamous in musical theatre. The current Broadway revival is changing that legacy. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez, the musical won multiple Tony Awards this year, including Lead Actor in a Musical and Supporting Actor in a Musical! But when can you see it?
The Stephen Sondheim musical is known for quickly closing during its original Broadway run. With 52 previews and 16 performances, the show closed and was labeled as a failure and is one of the reasons that Sondheim eventually wrote Sunday in the Park with George. To see Merrily shine now on Broadway and find success after Sondheim’s passing has meant a lot to us theatre people but you need to see the revival while you can.
Currently, the show is still on Broadway but there isn’t much time to see it. While some shows have open-ended runs (with star actors leaving the show and being replaced at various points), Merrily We Roll Along is a limited run. That means that it has an ending date and, well, it is pretty soon.
The show, which opened first Off-Broadway and then transferred to Broadway in September of 2023, is set to have its last performance on July 7, 2024. Luckily, the entire cast is staying until the show’s run is over and you can see Radcliffe, Groff, and Mendez together on stage—if you can get tickets!
Just make sure you bring your tissues
Merrily We Roll Along is about three friends—Franklin Shepard (Groff), Charley Kringas (Radcliffe), and Mary Flynn (Mendez). They’re each embarking on dreams of making it in the entertainment world when they meet each other, and when Franklin ruins their friendship, it weighs heavily on the trio.
The musical spans 20 years of their friendship and works backward in time from the moment when their friendship fully falls apart back to where they first met. Hearing the trio singing “Old Friends” is an experience like no other and the show itself really highlights the pain that friendship break-ups can have on us.
I love Sondheim musicals, I think he is one of our greatest lyricists and composers. Seeing Merrily We Roll Along getting its due (with this revival and an upcoming film adaptation from Richard Linklater) is emotional because it is the show that almost ruined Sondheim at the time. I just wish he was here to see this newfound appreciation audiences are showing it.
If you want to see Daniel Radcliffe (now a Tony Award winner!) in the musical, you have until July 7 to secure a ticket. If you can, this is a show you don’t want to miss.
