Merrily We Roll Along (play)

Its innovative structure presents the story in reverse order, with the character regressing from a mournful adult to a young man whose future is filled with promise.

Niles is hosting a party for his wealthy friends at his Long Island home on the opening night of his newest play.

Among the guests at the party is Althea Royce, his materialistic wife; Sam Frankl, a prolific composer; and Julia Glenn, Niles's final remaining true friend and a struggling alcoholic.

The party guests play poker and talk until Cyrus Winthrop, an art dealer who invented a material called "cellopaper" a long time before, mentions a painter named Jonathan Crale.

After the arrival of newspapers gushing praise for Niles's newest play, Julia returns heavily drunk and collapses onto the drink table.

Niles's brother George comes to visit, and confronts him about rumors of an affair with Royce, who is married to Harry Nixon.

While Crale and Julia are trying to figure out which port he will arrive at, Niles comes into the house accompanied by Albert Ogden, the boat's captain.

Helen filed for divorce after catching Niles cheating with Althea on a leopard skin rug after returning to a party, and the tabloids have been covering the scandal and trial nonstop.

Niles seems unconvinced and wants to stay with his friends, but abruptly two tabloid photographers jump in with the leopard skin rug and stage a photo op.

He On a journey from Hollywood to New York in 1931, Hart was inspired to write a play about an American family's difficulty over 30 years coping with the challenges of life in the 20th century, beginning with their innocence and optimism at the century's start to the dashed hopes caused by the stock market crash of 1929.

But before he could realize his vision, Noël Coward's British version of a similar story, Cavalcade, premiered, and he shelved the idea.

The Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened on September 29, 1934, at the Music Box Theatre, where it ran for 155 performances.

[2] Critic Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote: "After this declaration of ethics, it will be impossible to dismiss Mr. Kaufman and Mr. Hart as clever jesters with an instinct for the stage."

Time wrote, "Superbly staged...; superbly acted by the biggest cast seen in a legitimate Broadway production this season, Merrily We Roll Along is an amusing and affecting study...."[3] Despite good notices, the play was not a financial success, as the demands of the large-scale production made it expensive.