Merrily We Roll Along

This afternoon Chris took me to see a staged concert version of Stephen Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' at the Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue as part of the Donmar's Sondheim at 80 productions. It was on the stage normally used by 'Les Miserables' so there was no scenery, no costumes or props, men in suits and open-necked shirts and the women in cocktail frocks. The interesting thing was that it brought so many of the original 1990 Donmar Warehouse production cast together, including the three leads of Julian Ovenden, Daniel Evans and Samantha Spiro.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but they seemed to play the musical straight, moving from microphone to microphone with their folder of music and lyrics, reading the lines between the songs as if they were playing them. Scenery and costumes would have added to the production but they fully told the story of the musical as it was without them, which is a credit to the cast and the play they were performing.

The play is made up of a series of scenes that go back in time from 1980 to 1955, telling the story of a group of friends who are successful in 1980 in literature, music and theatre and look at how they become successful, the sacrifices and compromises and how they started out as wide eyed and naive, hopeful of the future. The penultimate song, 'Our Time' seemed to sum up youthful hopefulness for me, looking forward and how we can change the world before cynicism and world-weariness spoils everything.

I've come across some of the actors before. The main character is played by Julian Ovenden who I saw at the Donmar in 'Grand Hotel' in which he played the flawed Baron whose songs made me cry particularly 'Roses At The Station'. I've seen Daniel Evans in a few things before, most notably Sondheim's 'Sunday In The Park With George' at both the Choccy Factory and at Studio 54 in New York. Chris reminded me that I'd also seen Samantha Spiro as the servant in 'A Winters Tale' last year, so she doesn't just do musicals.

It was great fun and a very thoughtful production. I'd like to see it 'properly' one day.