The tolp, er sorry, plot keeps barreling backwards, rewinding through spats, kids, divorces and affairs. His number is a New York therapy session gone horribly wrong - or right, depending on how holistic you’re feeling. The British actor, who after five shows is now Broadway’s Daniel Radcliffe, scores a showstopper with the song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.,” but following this staging’s trend toward restraint, he doesn’t play it as wacky as many others instinctively have. During a live NBC interview his shy, neurotic lyricist character Charley Kringas suffers a mental breakdown and spews that all his friend and collaborator Frank cares about is money. Then, we whoosh to 1973 and Radcliffe whooshes in. 1 reason why this production works so well, makes the tricky Mary instantly heartbreaking and hilarious.Ĥ Charley (Daniel Radcliffe, left) explodes at Franklin (Jonathan Groff) during a lively TV interview in the song “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” Matthew Murphy (murphymade) ![]() The glue who holds the group together, she’s the only person willing to tell her famous pal to his face, in this sea of barnacles, that he’s turned into a jerk and a hack. ![]() The wit and incisiveness of Furth’s dialogue suddenly sparkle, and tears and chills arrive well before the reliably emotional finale “Our Time.”įrom the start, at a glamorous 1980 party thrown at the California home of Franklin Shepard (Groff), a Broadway-composer-turned-film-producer, the revelry, shameless sucking-up and whispered backstabbing come across as believable instead of an obnoxious Hollywood cartoon.Īn especially recognizable guest wisecracking in the corner is Mendez as Franklin’s best friend Mary Flynn, a former novelist who became a critic - and a drunk. This comparatively human revival, gently directed by Friedman, dials down the lunacy and the showbiz cliches and makes it much easier for average Joes to see themselves in these relatable characters. Sondheim’s opening lyric, “yesterday is done,” couldn’t be truer or as welcomed as it is here.Ĥ Gussie (Krystal Joy Brown) and Franklin (Jonathan Groff) go through major ups and downs as the years pass by. You would be floored by the acting of Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, whose perfect chemistry is acting alchemy.Īnd you would be dead certain you did not just sit through a perfunctory trotting-out of a notorious Broadway disaster, but one of the best and most alive musicals of the season. You would, however, be often intensely moved observing a once-airtight friendship deflate backwards, as the scenes play out in reverse order. Were you to walk in cold to Broadway’s first-ever “Merrily” revival that opens Tuesday night at the Hudson Theatre, you would never know about the gossip-ridden preview period during the 1980s, the calamitous early closing for the celebrated composer of “Sweeney Todd” and director Harold Prince and the decades of trial-and-error rewrites that followed. ![]() Two hours and 45 minutes with one 15-minute intermission.
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