It’s time to attend the tale of three friends, faced with the prospect of fame, battling against the artistic preservation of their craft, and the idea that through all of this, they will have each other. Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along has been brought to the big screen, taken from the live staged Broadway revival.

It is such an interesting year to get Merrily we Roll Along just a month after Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, which took us all the way back to the beginning of the golden age of Rodger’s and Hammerstein, and the end of Lorenz Hart. in that, the brief appearance of a young boy named Stephen suggests a musical prodigy in the making. Sondheim himself grew up in the presence of the greatest composers of his time, and it is hard to not think about the conclusion of a friendship in Blue Moon over the desire to further ones career, and see the parallel in Merrily We Roll Along, as the artists defend their right to fame and fortune, or alternatively, artistic integrity. I wonder what Sondheim took from his early days, and channeled into this project.

Sondheim, who was openly gay and left behind a younger partner, often denied the correlations between Into the Woods and the AIDS crisis at the time.it is nearly impossible to not hear some of the teachings Sondheim wove into that fantasy tale, and wonder if it wasn’t at least the product of its time, as Merrily might have been.

For this revival, Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez star as a trio of writers and composers. the show works its way from the future all the way to the past, so we see how it all will end, but we aren’t sure how we got here.

Franklin (Groff) seems to have it all. Success, but at what price? We see him at a celebration, and he’s joined by an old face, Mary (Mendez), who seems sarcastically happy for him, bemusing the idea that someone else should be here. that someone, is his old writing buddy Charlie (Radcliffe). Then, we hit the rewind button, and we get to see how it all came to be.

I have to admit, one of the reasons I loved this staging is that I don’t really love the show. but, I’m always open to be proved wrong. I didn’t like West Side Story, until Steven Spielberg gave me a reason to. here, Maria Friedman reinvents Merrily We Roll Along, and if it wasn’t for one song, I’d be swooning. I truly despise the finale, Our Time. Like, I think it is the worst Sondheim song. the first time I heard it, it felt like something clinically from the 80’s that played over a forgotten cartoon like a Care Bears film, or the Last Unicorn. I didn’t take it seriously then, and I can’t now.

Groff is at home here in a role that earned him a tony. Radcliffe is also excellent here as he continues to build a resume that is as far from Harry Potter as he can possibly get. but Lindsay Mendez, who I’m the least familiar with, really blew me away. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and handles some heavy moments, some darkly funny ones, and sings the hell out of everything.

The audio description here also struck quite a balance. There’s a lot of dialogue, which gave the AD team space to breathe around, and do it without needing to compromise the songs. If there is description that overlaps a song, it only exists in a repetitive chorus. those disappointed by the lack of room in Hamilton, should find more here.

Richard Linklater is working on an adaptation of this as well, bringing everything full circle. Eventually, we will see his version starring Ben Platt, but not until the cast literally ages as he needs them to.

A winning staging that should win over any fan of musicals. Sondheim’s underrated classic comes to life with this brilliant cast.

Fresh: 8.1/10