| MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG Tonight | |
| Posted by: sergius 11:17 pm EST 02/20/19 | |
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| The most clearly told version of this story that I've seen. And the least affecting. The breadth of feeling that the music conveys--raucous, hopeful, bitter, sad--is sacrificed here for narrative clarity. But MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG's strength has never been, will never be, its book. To foreground it, to basically privilege scenes over sound, unbalances the show and substantially drains its great feeling which is largely accomplished musically. Yes, the actors are merely adequate singers--all of them, though mostly miscast, are yet plainly and fully committed--but the show plays and sounds too small. This is one of Sondheim's biggest, brassiest scores. If it's to be drained of its volume, its emotional size, the story has to compensate for the loss and this story can't, in part because it's told in reverse. It's Sondheim's great score, not the book, that provides the retrospective feeling that the show limns so expertly. This version is evidently thoughtful and smartly conceived; it's viable but wan. | |
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