Will This “Merrily” Come To Broadway?
I don’t want to die before Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” returns to Broadway, successfully, to counterpoint its flop 1981 premiere. Last season’s semi-staged New York version, directed by James Lapine, seemed as if it had a chance to do the Broadway trick. But no: it wasn’t quite brill enough. So it looks as if New York may, once more, have to import a little Sondheim from London. And, like the 2008 Broadway of “Sunday in the Park with George,” this “Merrily” may come from Menier Chocolate Factory. That group’s new production has just opened to some raves in London. The Guardian’s Michael Billington says: ‘Now comes a superb production by Maria Friedman, astonishingly making her directorial debut, that makes you wonder how anyone could ever have doubted [the musical’s] quality.’ Broadway producers would have to add a New York “name” before mounting it here. But why not?
