When the original production of Merrily We Roll Along opened on Broadway in 1981, it closed after a mere 16 performances with mostly negative reviews.
Now, more than 40 years later, Merrily is back on Broadway. And to quote one of the Stephen Sondheim-penned numbers from the show, “it’s a hit.” Merrily is now the audience and critics’ darling, walking into this year’s Tony Awards season with seven nominations.
Thus is the power of an outstanding musical revival. A fresh spin on existing source material can elicit phenomenal results. Though that’s not always the case, the shows up for this year’s Best Revival of a Musical Tony each bring their own panache to a jam-packed Broadway season.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing each of the 2023-2024 Tony-nominated revivals: Merrily, Gutenberg!, The Who’s TOMMY and Cabaret. While Merrily is almost certainly going to sweep the Best Revival award — among the additional categories it’s up for — greatness lies in every revival, each of which deserves acknowledgement.
Old friends find new ground in ‘Merrily We Roll Along’
The hottest (and priciest) ticket right now, Merrily We Roll Along is arguably the strongest show of the season.
Director Maria Friedman’s revival takes the core of Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 Broadway flop, and turns the unconventionally told story into a dazzling one of loss, self-fulfilment and the cost of success.
In reverse chronological order, we track the journey of composer Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff), writer Mary Flynn (Lindsay Mendez) and lyricist-playwright Charley Kringas (Daniel Radcliffe) through 20 years of friendship-turned-aversion.
Motifs, both musical and spoken, are sprinkled throughout the performance and evoke an emotive dramatic irony with indescribable weight. Coupled with its bright, brassy Broadway score and intentional lyrics, it’s almost cruel how Merrily can elicit such profound sadness for a friend group which grew apart.
Groff, Mendez and Radcliffe’s undeniable chemistry also helps propel emotions. Their trio performance of “Old Friends” is rife with joy, laughs and the slightest hint of tension.
Together, the three are also well-rounded individual characters. Through subtle mannerisms and mesmerizing songs — notably Radcliffe’s fretful “Franklin Shepard Inc.” and Mendez’s lyrical sensation “Now You Know” — we connect with each person’s inner conflicts.
Realizing how the three drift apart is a devastating experience, especially when their laughter and banter increase as the show progresses toward their youth.
‘Merrily We Roll Along’ is playing a limited run at the Hudson Theatre until July 7.
‘Gutenberg! The Musical!’ is packed with goofiness
Gutenberg! offers laughs and musical theatre inside jokes, though admittedly not much else.
After more than a decade since they led Book of Mormon together on Broadway, Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad teamed up again for Gutenberg, a two-man show about the inventor of the printing press.
The roles of Bud (Gad) and Doug (Rannells) — sweet but incompetent musical theatre composers who address the audience as potential investors to get funding for their show about Gutenberg — are perfect for the hilarity of the duo’s comedic styles.
Rannells was wonderfully farcical as assistant Helvetica (Bud and Doug play every part in their show, donning orange hats labelled with each characters’ name). Gad was equally comical, at one point squeezing in a “bless you” when an audience member sneezed during one of the show’s only emotional lines of dialogue.
If it weren’t for the Gad-Rannells headline, Gutenberg! would have fallen quite flat, despite their effortless landing of every punchline. The show’s humour can quickly dissipate if unfamiliar with niche theatre tropes or other Broadway shows.
The songs, though undeniably fun (particularly “Finale” where a different special guest enters for every performance — Josh Groban starred when I saw the show last October) are not musically engaging beyond evoking laughter similar to the show’s dialogue.
Nonetheless, Gutenberg! is supremely entertaining to those who can withstand the farce, and a breath of hilarity among more dramatic neighbouring productions.
‘Gutenberg! The Musical!’ played a limited run at the James Earl Jones Theatre from Oct. 12, 2023 to Jan. 28.
Rock opera ‘TOMMY’ smashes conventionality
It’s loud. It’s rambunctious. It’s difficult to swallow. The revival is what you would expect from The Who’s TOMMY.
Based on the 1969 album, the show, both the 1992 original and this revival directed by Des McAnuff, follows the fictional Tommy Walker from his journey as a traumatized child to a pinball master.
The show is relentless, omitting spoken dialogue and barely pausing between songs. The breakneck speed is paired with fever dream-esque projections and ballistic choreography.
Mirror usage adeptly reflects Tommy’s thirst to be understood and the way he flies into scenes is pure exhilaration. The urgency of the show becomes so charged to the point where the Act 1 closer, an electrifying “Pinball Wizard,” ends with a pinnacle burst of energy.
Ali Louis Bourzgui as Tommy navigates the show’s unforgiving pace with ease — his rich, deep vocals roil for the vulnerable “See Me, Feel Me (reprise)” and become more commanding as Tommy discovers his pinball talents in “Sensation.”
Anything but conventional theatre, TOMMY is an intoxicating experience. If not for its ferocious story — Tommy encounters an acid queen at one point and later develops a cult following — then for the pure ecstasy of witnessing such a tremendous feat of sound and performance.
‘The Who’s TOMMY’ is playing at the Nederlander Theatre.
In ‘Cabaret,’ life is not as beautiful as it seems
The experience of Rebecca Frecknall’s Cabaret starts 75 minutes before showtime.
Phone cameras are taped over and guests are offered a free shot of Schnapps upon entry. Green lights reflect off sequin-sparkling dancers floating among the mingling crowd as accordion and brass players perform their jazzy tunes. Bold, brash and borderline overwhelming, it’s a wonderfully immersive environment replicating the Kit Kat Club: the seedy Berlin nightclub where Cabaret takes place.
The show follows an American writer named Cliff (a persistent and commandeering Ato Blankson-Wood), and his relationship with cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Gayle Rankin) amid the rising threat of Nazism in late 1920s Berlin.
Through timeless source material (Joe Masteroff’s book, Fred Ebb’s lyrics and John Kander’s music), Frecknall’s revival reminds us of the dangers of romanticized ignorance.
Eddie Redmayne eerily narrates the performance as the hauntingly captivating emcee, and Rankin’s Sally Bowles is willingly naive with flecks of sadness — her “Cabaret” is vocally haunting and lets linger a sense of weariness.
Redmayne and Rankin’s equally flamboyant performances match the revived glitz and glamour of this production. And as the extravagance fades (particularly with the darkening costumes and lighting), the atrocities of the era become apparent.
‘Cabaret’ is playing an open run at the August Wilson Theatre.
Featured image by Alexa MacKie.
