‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: (left to right) Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff & Lindsay Mendez. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Maria Friedman
Hudson Theatre
141 West 44th Street
www.MerrilyonBroadway.com

By David NouNou

It is easy to see why Merrily We Roll Along was savaged by critics and bombed when it opened on November 16, 1981. It used up its advance sales on 44 previews and lasted only 16 performances. It was to be a Stephen Sondheim vehicle with a no-name cast; “just Sondheim” as its selling point. This was before he was a deity. It failed on so many levels.

It lacked the grandiosity of his 1979 Sweeney Todd, or the majesty of 1976’s Pacific Overtures, or the beauty of 1973’s A Little Night Music, or the extravaganza of 1971’s Follies or the brilliance of 1970’s Company. Merrily We Roll Along was a dreary musical about three friends examining their lives in 1978 and going backwards in time to 1957 when they first met in their prime. It lacked any sets; the costumes were made up of jeans, khakis and T-Shirts with the character’s names on it. I guess because the cast was so lackluster, it was the only way the audience could identify them. Its failure was also due to the feeling of detachment from the musical itself and its characters. In 1981, audiences wanted to feel empathy for their characters and Merrily just didn’t give them that. Another blow came in the form of Michael Bennett’s explosive razzle-dazzle Dreamgirls, loosely based on the formation of the musical group Diana Ross and the Supremes. There was plenty of attachment and empathy there. The choice was simple: It came down to dreary or razzle-dazzle.

Merrily has developed a cult following over the years. With songs like the bouncy “Old Friends,”  and the haunting “Not a Day Goes By,” the musical started picking up steam. Fast forward to 2023: Sondheim is a deity now. You’ve got three leads that are big names, full of charm, charisma and audience visibility/connection. It’s a fully mounted production with a multi-functional set and costumes galore. The detachment that failed in 1981 works wonderfully for the age we live in now. However, it is Maria Friedman’s visionary direction that has reshaped a dreary musical into a full-blown, knockout production.

Having Daniel Radcliffe (Charley Kringas), Jonathan Groff (Franklin Shepard) and Lindsay Mendez (Mary Flynn) has given this musical a luster that it desperately needed. It is 1976 in Franklin Shepard’s Bel-Air mansion with all the phonies and sycophants surrounding him and extolling him. He is a producer now; he has left his roots of composing music for the glamour of Hollywood and all its pretentiousness. He is on his second marriage to theatrical actress, Gussie Carnegie (Krystal Joy Brown). She divorced Broadway producer, Joe Josephson (Jeremy Kushner), who produced Franklin and Charlie’s first musical hit, Musical Husbands.

Also at the party is a second member of the original trio, Mary Flynn, who has always been in love with Franklin but he has always been blind to it. She has written a bestseller and has now become a critic. Also, she loves her liquor. She is the mirror that Franklin has to look into to see what he has turned into; not the brilliant composer he always wanted to be. He is a success as a moneymaker, but a total failure as a man, a friend, a husband, and a father.

Moving backwards in time to 1973 at NBC Studios in Manhattan, Charley Kringas is awaiting the arrival of his composing partner and friend Franklin for an interview, but instead Franklin is late due to another venture of moneymaking. They are asked what it is like to be working together, and Charlie interrupts by “if I may…” and sings “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” the showstopping number of the show, which incidentally sounds much like the style and tempo of “I’m Not Getting Married Today” from Sondheim’s Company.

Going further back to 1967, a courthouse where Beth Shepard (Katie Rose Clarke) is divorcing Frank and he asks her if she still loves him, and she sings the heart-wrenching “Not A Day Goes By.” End of Act I.

Act II is the weaker of the two. It starts in 1964 with Franklin and Charley’s first huge success, and keeps moving backward to 1960 when they formed their first revue at a downtown club in New York City where Beth auditions for them and Frank ends up proposing to her, until it’s finally 1957 on an NYC rooftop where the trio (Franklin, Charley and Mary) first meet, and sing about their bright future which is ahead of them in the song “Our Time.”

The musical was problematic from the onset. It had a difficult book to navigate through and the characters were most unlikable in its original formation—a no-no in musical comedy. However, over the years the book has been revised a few times, and there is no overlooking Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. They are the oomph this show so desperately needs. Their charisma and charm make you overlook a lot of their character flaws and that’s perfectly okay, because everyone is flawed in some form or another. They work in harmonious sync. They complement each other’s performances. This is a tremendous asset to this complicated show. They smooth out the wrinkles and give it an easy flow.

In addition to Maria Friedman’s excellent direction, there is the sublime live orchestra—not pre-recorded tracks that are used in so many musicals today to cut costs—conducted by Joel Fram, and the divine orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick carry this musical into melody heaven. This is how you take a flop, reimagine it, cast it with a splendid trio, and turn it into an incredible memorable revival.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 23, 2023
Reviewed at October 22, 2023 press performance.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: Katie Rose Clarke & Jonathan Groff. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: (left to right) Reg Rogers, Katie Rose Clarke, Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe & Lindsay Mendez. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: Krystal Joy Brown & Jonathan Groff. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: (left to right) Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, Reg Rogers
& Krystal Joy Brown. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG’: (left to right) Krystal Joy Brown, Reg Rogers, Natalie Wachen & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’: The West End cast. Photo: Johan Persson

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Book by Joseph Stein
Music by Jerry Bock
Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Based on the Sholem Aleciheim stories
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Choreographed by Matthew Cole
Originally directed & choreographed by Jerome Robbins
Playhouse Theatre
Northumberland Avenue
London WC2N 5DE
https://fiddlerwestend.com/

By David NouNou

I am one of the few remaining people (still alive to talk about it) who saw the original version of Fiddler On the Roof in September 1964 when it opened with the one and only Zero Mostel. I can honestly say that I had no real sense of what the show actually meant, why the critics raved about it at the time or it’s universality. It lacked the razzle-dazzle of the musicals I was accustomed to like Hello, Dolly or Funny Girl. However, it did touch on a nerve that this musical, like no other, was about my Jewish heritage and the customs I was used to since birth.

Since then, I have been yearning to see a production that would explain to me its universality and adoration from its admirers. Of course, I knew the score by heart and its songs have been sung by every major artist of the day. There is the gritty 1971 film version with the over-the-top performance by Topol. Countless revivals on Broadway and elsewhere: one with Topol even more over-the-top in 1991, the misguided 2004 version with a miscast Alfred Molina, and the abysmal 2016 version with Danny Burstein. When my editor asked me to review this version in London, I was hesitant because I’ve seen so many disappointing revivals, but I went anyway and am so glad I did. Lo and behold, here is the “miracle of miracles,” that revival I have been yearning for since childhood.

You might ask yourself what makes this version so special? I’ll tell you in two names: Trevor Nunn, the director and Robert Jones, the set designer. What they have done is captured the heart and soul of the village of Anatevka. Most directors and designers create the set in an abstract form or representational, this is mostly to cut corners and they know the audience is familiar with the material and will use their imagination to fill in the rest, thus robbing the audience of the full immersive experience. Robert Jones has created the best conceivable set, capturing the essence of Anatevka, a small claustrophobic village where everyone knows each other’s business. He built the homes around the village square where everyone congregates and then goes to their homes. After all, Anatevka is this tiny village in early 1900s Tsarist Russian-controlled Ukraine, and it was a tiny dot on the map and now gone. In that village lived an array of put-upon, downtrodden people but they always seemed to be hoping for the best.

The story centers on Tevye (Andy Nyman), a poor milkman who lives in Anatevka. He has five unmarried daughters, a shrewish wife, Golde (Tania Newton), a lame horse and has a penchant to talking to God about his misfortunes. The one thing that has kept Anatevka going for all these years is tradition (no one knows how these traditions started, but they exist) and Tevye has to watch each tradition that he holds sacred unravel. Therein lies the beauty and texture of the family dynamics and Tevye’s turmoil of upholding his covenant with God and his religious beliefs, versus his love for his daughters having to watch his three eldest daughters marrying in nontraditional ways especially when his third daughter, Chava, marries the Russian Orthodox Christian soldier, Feyedka.

In Andy Nyman you will not be getting a bombastic, “bigger than life,” argumentative Teyve. You’ll be getting a sweet interpretation of a man who speaks to God in a gentle manner and gingerly admonishes God about couldn’t He just once throw him a little extra his way as in the song “If I Were A Rich Man”? What he lacks in being bigger than life, he makes up for with his rendition of his songs. He has a remarkable voice and his interpretation of “Tradition” and “Chavaleh (Little Bird)” is flawless and heart wrenching.

Unfortunately Judy Kuhn finished her run as Golde the week before we saw the show. At the performance we saw, Tania Newton brilliantly played Golde. Ms. Newton’s portrayal of Golde is the quintessential earth mother. Tevye’s Daughters: Tzeitel, (Molly Osborne), Hodel (Harriet Bunton) and Chava (Nicola Brown) are all a constant delight with their angelic voices. Broadway and Olivier Award-winning West End veteran Maria Friedman has now taken over the role of Golde.

Now, let’s discuss the second man who worked on this glorious production, director Trevor Nunn. With the aid of set designer Robert Jones, they brought to life this miracle village with its glorious characters: Lazar Wolf, the butcher (Dermot Canavan), Motel (Joshua Gannon), a tailor who wants to marry Tzeitel, Tevye’s oldest daughter. Perchik (Stewart Clarke), a revolutionary student who wants to marry Hodel and of course, Yenta, the matchmaker (Louise Gold). Where in previous presentations, these characters became caricatures; in this environment they are real, breathing souls from the past. The recreation of the marriage scene between Motel and Tzeitel, where the entire cast sings “Sunrise Sunset” under the chuppah tied to the four corner wooden posts had me in tears; it was exactly the same as my marriage to my partner of 16 years in 2017, presided over by a female rabbi (I’m sure that would have been a most unconventional tradition). Nothing will prepare you for the finale of the heartbreaking rendition of the song “Anatevka” started by Tevye and filing in a member or two at a time of the cast carrying their meager belongings, as they are now singing of their beloved village which they are being ousted from; and how precious this village was to them at one time. As the entire cast engulfs the village square singing their village anthem with just voices and no musical accompaniment, their voices ascend to a musical gut-wrenching crescendo.

It is at that moment you see all the joys and heartaches of life merging into one. After 55 years of waiting, I have finally seen the definitive revival of Fiddler on the Roof. L’Chaim!

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published June 25, 2019
Reviewed at performance in London on June 13, 2019

‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’: Dermot Canavan & Andy Nyman. Photo: Johan Persson

‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’: (left to right) Harriet Bunton, Nicola Brown & Molly Osbourne. Photo: Johan Persson

‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’: Dermot Canavan & Andy Nyman. Photo: Johan Persson

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