Don’t disagree with your second sentence, but as to the first, if Merrily was ever going to be on Broadway again, it would be with those three leads, and at this time, as part of a seemingly ongoing unofficial Sondheim celebration.
It does make me laugh, the idea of Company, Merrily and Sweeney all potentially running on Broadway in the span of less than a year, since that’s essentially half of the Sondheim season the Kennedy Center did 20 years ago.
Regardless, if the reviews don’t completely kill it - unlikely, as it comes with those names along with the imprimatur of an acclaimed British production - and if the plan is already to move it, I don’t see why it wouldn’t. Especially since, unlike something like last year’s Assassins, it won’t nearly have played out its intended audience or given everyone interested a chance to see it in a 6-week run at that tiny theater. Indeed, it’s thrilling and not at all implausible to even contemplate new theater fans or Sondheim aficionados eager to discover the score of Merrily and see it in-person after the summer when Into the Woods improbably became one of the biggest hits on Broadway. And maybe that’s how the show becomes at least a little less niche. |
