‘Merrily We Roll Along’ Review – An Electric Recording That Bridges The Gap Between Live Theatre And Cinema

DANIEL RADCLIFFE as Charley Kringas, JONATHAN GROFF as Franklin Shepard, LINDSAY MENDEZ as Mary Flynn in ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ | Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Director Maria Friedman breathes new life into one of Stephen Sondheim’s most infamous musicals in this exquisitely filmed production of Merrily We Roll Along. After a notoriously disastrous debut on Broadway, Merrily spent years in notoriety—a show that was so far ahead of its time that not even a long life of off-Broadway revivals, regional productions, and international runs could truly offer it its time in the spotlight. Until Friedman’s 2022 off-Broadway revival, that is, headlined by Tony Award winner Lindsay Mendez (Carousel) and future Tony Award winners Jonathan Groff (Hamilton) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter). Opening to rave reviews and a 2023 Broadway transfer, Friedman’s revival made accessible and coherent a musical that was once considered a legendary flop. And now, that Tony Award-winning production has been captured for posterity in a recording that bridges the gap between live theatre and cinema.

A Difficult Musical Made Accessible

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, Merrily We Roll Along explores the unraveling of a friendship as it follows the ups and downs of composer Franklin Shepard’s (Groff) career alongside his best friends and collaborators, Charley (Radcliffe) and Mary (Mendez). Told in reverse chronological order, Merrily careens audiences from the heights of Franklin’s career as a successful film and theatre composer, to the lows of his personal life, all the way back to his earliest moments of optimism, on a dingy rooftop with his two best friends. However, Merrily We Roll Along isn’t a hopeful tale about a group of friends changing the world and sticking together through thick and thin. It’s a cautionary tale about the corrupting power of fame and the cost of achieving your dreams. And, in all honesty, it might just be one of Sondheim’s most biting and cynical pieces.

It’s that cynicism, combined with the show’s unusual structure, that’s long been a thorn in the musical’s side. Put simply, Merrily We Roll Along is a profound work of art that borders on being so dense and difficult to parse that you lose sight of the thematic and emotional truths on display. But finding and highlighting those moments of emotional truth within the density is exactly where Friedman’s revival shines. Led by Groff, Radcliffe, and Mendez’ immensely nuanced and grounded performances, Friedman turns Merrily We Roll Along into the heartbreaking, darkly funny tale it’s always been—a tragedy in reverse; bittersweet, hopeful, and deeply cynical all at once. It’s a combination that historically hasn’t clicked but works brilliantly here.

A Trio of Nuanced, Grounded Portrayals

What’s most impressive about this production is that Friedman has tweaked very little of the original material. Sure, she’s streamlined some of the excess and laser-focused on the deterioration of Franklin, Charley, and Mary’s friendship—and how each of their decisions ultimately leads them to the catastrophe that awaits them at the top of the show. But Friedman’s real success here is bringing Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez together to breathe life into these characters. It’s their performances—the warmth they have with each other and the love they all clearly share—that makes audiences buy into the musical’s central conceit of these friends being ripped apart from each other, one terrible decision after another. And it’s the emotional truth within those performances that keeps the show grounded.

Groff absolutely steals the show here. The amount of pathos he offers through his eyes alone is more than enough to draw you into Frank’s orbit. Groff fully embodies Frank’s charm, smarminess, and penchant for chasing after his desires at the cost of everything else in a way that makes him both sympathetic and horrific. Radcliffe, too, gives Charley such a depth of emotional truth that underscores his heartache and bitterness on display in his defining song, “Franklin Shepard, Inc.”. And while Mary is largely a comedic role, Mendez still finds moments to dig into the character’s combination of hopefulness and cynicism. On the whole, you immediately believe these three share the kind of complicated history that spans decades of triumph, failure, and pain.

An Electric Recording

Trying to translate a live theatrical performance for the screen has always been a difficult task. After all, the stage offers little in the way of dimensionality; that separation between artist and audience an intentional part of the art form. But with this recording of Merrily We Roll Along, Friedman tries to bridge the gap between live theatrical performance and cinematic film with remarkable success. Largely eschewing the traditional ways of filming staged performances through a collection of full-stage shots and medium closeups, Friedman and director of photography Sam Levy take the camera onto the stage, laser-focusing on the ways Groff, Radcliffe, and Mendez interact with each other. Here, the camera is as much a part of the performance as the actors are, capturing moments in close-up detail that would easily be missed by a theatregoer sitting in the audience.

It’s a bold way of filming a stage musical, to be sure. And while the opening sequence feels chaotic, loaded with frantic camera cuts and enough extreme closeups to render an already dense sequence nearly incoherent, the bulk of the film works brilliantly. Friedman’s decision to highlight the ways her actors interact with each other and the goings on around them goes a long way towards underscoring the themes at the heart of Sondheim and Furth’s script. It’s a story of the unraveling of a friendship, and Friedman uses this recording to visually focus on that dynamic as much as is humanly possible. Some may find themselves longing to see what else is happening on stage in some of the show’s busier moments, but by and large, this recording succeeds at following the emotional throughline of the material in a visually interesting and coherent way that offers something new to longtime fans of the show.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve never seen a production of Merrily We Roll Along, Friedman’s recording of her award-winning revival offers an electric, shockingly accessible entryway into a notoriously dense and complex musical. Carried by a trio of nuanced, heartbreaking performances from Groff, Radcliffe, and Mendez, Merrily finds the emotional truth within this pessimistic and cynical exploration of the perils of success. While it’s no replacement for seeing the musical live, it’s not trying to be one. But as a sort of hybrid between live theatre and cinema, it works brilliantly. It’s an electric capture of a beloved production that finally gives Sondheim and Furth’s long misunderstood masterpiece its time in the spotlight.

Merrily We Roll Along opens in theaters on December 5, 2025, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.