My friend and noted poet, Peter M. Gordon, reviewed Merrily We Roll Along at Valencia College on June 7, 2024.
Most musicals that open on Broadway and close after just 16 performances are never heard from again. Not Merrily We Roll Along, which contains one of Stephen Sondheim’s most tuneful scores. After the show closed, Sondheim and book writer George Furth kept improving the show through a series of revivals over several years to craft the version Valencia College performed last night.
The original production featured a cast of actors from teens to early twenties, playing themselves from ages forty to eighteen. In his book Finishing the Hat, Sondheim said, “If the show had played in an off-Broadway house at off-Broadway prices, it would have stood a better chance of fulfilling our intentions.”
I am pleased to report Mr. Sondheim was exactly right. The production that opened last night in Valencia Theatre’s intimate black box space, featuring a cast of Valencia students, was a hit with this writer and the audience.
The story follows three long-time friends, composer Franklin Shepard, lyricist Charley Kringas, and writer Mary Flynn, who meet as young twenty-somethings in Greenwich Village in the 1950s. They dream of creating art that will make a difference, but instead find commercial success that brings them money and fame, but not happiness. The story is told backwards, starting in 1976 at a party in Frank’s Bel Air mansion, when the main characters in their forties and ends on a rooftop in Greenwich Village in 1957, with characters in their late teens.
The cast sings Sondheim’s soaring score magnificently. Courtney Harris plays Mary and gave great voice and depth to ballads such as “Like it Was” and uptempo songs like “Old Friends” and “Opening Doors.”. She delivers Mary’s wisecracks with perfect timing while letting the audience see the vulnerability under her tough exterior.
Edwin Perez II as Charley pulled off a tour de force of “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” about the difficulty writing songs with Frank and dealing with constant interruptions from Frank’s business deals.
Andy Hurtado creates a fully rounded character for Gussie Carnegie, in a part that might easily have been a cliche – the predatory older star who seduces a young composer.
Brigid Fitzgerald as Beth, Frank’s first wife, fills the lovely ballad “Not a Day Goes By,” with great poignance in act one as her marriage with Frank dissolves, and with great love and promise during the marriage ceremony in act two.
The ensemble played the various characters in Frank, Charley and Mary’s lives while also singing the transition sections that move the show backward in time. Everyone played their parts with vigor and sang skillfully. I particularly enjoyed Liliana Warman and Rich Jay’s nuanced portrayals of Beth’s parents, Mrs. And Mr. Spencer. It was clear they hated Beth’s decision to live in New York and marry Frank, but still supported her while getting in some zingers about artists and New York living.
Franklin Shepard is a part that has challenged many actors. When we first meet Frank, he’s a rich sellout who’s cheated on his wife and alienated his friends. Gabriel Ramos, as Frank, lets us see glimpses of the young idealist that still lives in the older man. That makes the choices he makes as he grows younger even more tragic.
The show ends with Frank, Charley, and Mary’s first meeting. They sing the soaring “Our Time,” a song about seizing their moment and moving toward their future. When the ensemble returns to the stage and adds their voices, dressed in the seventies’ costumes they wore in scene one, the music, acting, and staging creates a touching, heartbreaking, tableau.
Eric Pinder’s cinematic staging kept the show moving and the transitions smooth. The projections and Kat Henwood’s costumes made it easy for the audience to follow when and where we were in the story. Alexander LaPlante and the band, handled Sondheim’s complex music very well. I enjoyed Rebekah Lane’s choreography, and wished there was more of it in the first act. Being so close the actors in this small space allowed us to clearly see every nuance of the performances.
I saw the original production in 1981. At the time, I thought the show could never work. I am grateful to Producer John DiDonna, Director Pinder, and the entire cast and crew for proving me wrong. Merrily not only works well, it sings. The theatre only seats 95, so buy tickets soon. The shows will run through June 15.
What: Valencia College production of Merrily We Roll Along
Where: Valencia East Performing Arts Center, East Campus Black Box Theater, 701 N Econlockhatchee Trail, Building 3, Orlando.
When: June 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 2024 at 7:30PM, June 9, 2025 at 2:00pm
Running time: Two hours, 30 minutes (one 15-minute intermission).
Tickets: $15 General Admission, $10 Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Seniors, and Military, $7 Children 12 and Under
Call: 407-582-2900
Online: https://events.valenciacollege.edu/event/merrily_we_roll_along
Peter M. Gordon earned a BA from Yale with honors and an MFA in Directing from Carnegie-Mellon. He directed in New York and in regional theatre for companies including the Roundabout Theatre and Indiana Repertory Theatre. He is the Course Director of the Film Production MFA program at Full Sail University, where he’s been teaching the Business of Film since September 2013. Peter is also an award-winning poet whose published over 100 poems and three collections, appeared in four anthologies, and contributed to several books on baseball statistics.