Merrily premiered on Broadway on November 16, 1981, in a production directed by frequent Sondheim collaborator Hal Prince, with a cast almost exclusively of teenagers and young adults.
In subsequent years, the show has been extensively rewritten and enjoyed several notable productions, including an Off-Broadway revival in 1994 and a West End premiere in 2000 that won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
The 2022 Off-Broadway production staged at New York Theatre Workshop transferred to Broadway in fall 2023, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez, directed by Maria Friedman, and winning four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.
His oldest remaining friend, theatre critic Mary Flynn, attends the party too but is disgusted by the other guests' shallowness and Frank's abandonment of music: his true talent.
In 1962 ("Fourth Transition"), Frank, Beth, Charley, and Mary have been invited to a party at Gussie and Joe's elegant Sutton Place apartment, where they stand starstruck by the influential crowd ("The Blob").
In 1957 ("Seventh Transition"), early one morning, college-attending Frank and Charley are on the roof of an apartment building on New York City's 110th Street, waiting to spot the first-ever Earth-orbiting satellite, Sputnik.
]"[6] The show's production design was also informed by this notion: the set consisted of a group of movable bleachers lined with lockers and a screen on which projections were shown "to set the mood and period"/ Prince's original idea for the staging had been to "have no scenery", but rather "racks of clothes and these kids would come in looking like little kids, and they would pretend to be their parents as they see them", but this was discarded due to Prince's perception of what Broadway audiences, paying Broadway prices, would accept from a show (as he later put it, "[G]uess what?
While the score was widely praised, critics and audiences alike felt that the book was problematic and the themes left a sour taste in their mouths.
[17] In his New York Times review, Frank Rich wrote, "As we all should probably have learned by now, to be a Stephen Sondheim fan is to have one's heart broken at regular intervals.
"[19] The cast included Jim Walton (Franklin Shepard), Lonny Price (Charley Kringas), Ann Morrison (Mary), Terry Finn (Gussie), Jason Alexander (Joe), Sally Klein (Beth), Geoffrey Horne (Franklin Shepard age 43), David Loud (Ted), Daisy Prince (Meg), Liz Callaway (Nightclub Waitress), Tonya Pinkins (Gwen), Abby Pogrebin (Evelyn), and Giancarlo Esposito (valedictorian).
The reduced cast included Manu Narayan, Brittany Bradford, Jessie Austrian, Ben Steinfeld, Paul L. Coffey, and Emily Young.
[27] An Arena Stage production, directed by Douglas C. Wager and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, opened on January 30, 1990, at Washington, D.C.'s Kreeger Theater, where it ran slightly more than two months.
In his review of the production, Rich wrote, "Many of the major flaws of the 1981 Merrily, starting with its notorious gymnasium setting, have long since been jettisoned or rectified in intervening versions produced in La Jolla, Calif., and in Seattle."
[32] The first professional production in the UK was by the Library Theatre Company in Manchester in 1984, directed by Howard Lloyd Lewis and choreographed by Paul Kerryson.
The show finally received its West End premiere at London's Donmar Warehouse on 11 December 2000 in a production directed by Michael Grandage, running for 71 performances following eight previews.
[34] Karen Hebden's production for Derby Playhouse in May 2007 featured Glyn Kerslake as Frank, Glenn Carter as Charley, Eliza Lumley as Mary, and Cheryl McAvoy as Beth.
[35] Maria Friedman directed a revival of the musical at London's Menier Chocolate Factory, which opened on 28 November 2012 and transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End on 1 May 2013.
This production was directed by James Lapine and starred Colin Donnell as Frank, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mary, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Charley, Elizabeth Stanley as Gussie, and Betsy Wolfe as Beth.
An off-Broadway revival, directed by Maria Friedman and based on her prior staging at the Menier Chocolate Factory, ran at New York Theatre Workshop from November 21, 2022 to January 22, 2023, starring Jonathan Groff as Frank, Daniel Radcliffe as Charley, Lindsay Mendez as Mary, Krystal Joy Brown as Gussie, Katie Rose Clarke as Beth, and Reg Rogers as Joe.
It featured Tom Burlinson, Tony Sheldon, Peta Toppano, Greg Stone and Gina Riley, and was directed by Wayne Harrison.
[46] In 2002, the show ran for approximately 120 performances at the Shaw Festival in a production directed by Jackie Maxwell and featuring Tyley Ross as Frank, Jay Turvey as Charley and Jenny L. Wright as Mary.
The cast featured Michael Hayden (Frank), Miriam Shor (Mary), Raúl Esparza (Charley), Anastasia Barzee (Beth), and Emily Skinner (Gussie).
The production starred Hugh Panaro as Franklin, Kevin Chamberlin as Charley, Lea DeLaria as Mary, Teri Hatcher as Gussie, and Jean Louisa Kelly as Beth.
[49] A Derby Playhouse production ran from April 19 to May 19, 2007, starring Glyn Kerslake, Glenn Carter and Eliza Lumley in the lead roles.
[58] PAN Productions staged Merrily We Roll Along in 2014 at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre for the first time in South East Asia.
This production featured Peter Ong (Frank), Aaron Teoh (Charley), Chang Fang Chyi (Mary), Nikki Palikat (Gussie), Stephanie Van Driesen (Beth), and Dennis Yeap (Joe).
[59][60] Astoria Performing Arts Center produced an off-off-Broadway production in 2015 starring Jack Mosbacher as Frank, Ally Bonino as Mary, and Nicholas Park as Charley.
The Hayes Theatre in Sydney staged a production directed by Dean Bryant which was intended to start its run on 16 April 2020,[64] but was delayed by the COVID pandemic.
revival was released by PS Classics as a two-CD set,[71] featuring Colin Donnell, Celia Keenan Bolger, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Betsy Wolfe, and Elizabeth Stanley.
Various artists have recorded the show's songs, including Carly Simon, Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, Petula Clark, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, Cleo Laine, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, Patti LuPone, Barry Manilow, Audra McDonald, Michael Crawford, and Lena Horne.