Old Friends has a very strange mid-song discussion in this weeks….
Chip Zien, John Rubinstein, and Heather McRae in 1985. I cannot find the source of this photo.
The La Jolla production of Merrily We Roll Along is the first major production of Merrily We Roll Along after the disastrous original production.
It was directed by James Lapine (Librettist and director of Sunday in The Park with George) and origins of this are mixed.
Some sources claim that the decision for Lapine to direct the production came after Librettist George Furth saw a production of William Finn’s March of The Falsettos directed by Lapine and sent him a tape of the original production of the show. Others claim that Stephen Sondheim (Composer-lyricist of the show) approached Lapine and asked him to direct, eventually convincing Furth to allow this to happen. I don’t know which, if any, is correct, or if they’re both correct to some extent.
This production stars John Rubinstein (Pippin, Getting Away with Murder) as Franklin Shepard, Heather MacRae (_Falsettos) _as Mary Flynn, and Chip Zien (Falsettos, Into the Woods) as Charley Kringas. Mary Gordon Murray (Hands On The Hardbody, Little Me) plays Gussie Carnegie, Marin Mazzie (Passion, Kiss Me Kate) plays Beth, a role she’d later reprise, and Merwin Goldsmith (Minnie’s Boys) plays Joe Josephson.
The production makes some uhhhhh, choices…. Yeah.
The script is pretty similar to what eventually became the 1994 script, which I’ll talk about a later date. It has many of the bigger flaws of the revision, with the lack of real energy, spectacle, and purpose, but also has some of the benefits, like some further development of Gussie.
The graduation framing is cut in this production, and some songs have different lyrics from either the original Broadway production and the 1994 fully realized revision.
Some secondary sources claim that the production was slightly conflict ridden between Furth and Lapine. Whether or not that is true, the show continued with heavy revisions for the next decade.
Lapine directed the show again for Encores, after Furth’s death, in 2012. This cast notably involved Co-composer of Bring It On: The Musical, Lin Manuel Miranda, as Charley Kringas.
La Jolla is the first of many notable revisions!
As Stephen Sondheim said to New York Magazine, on the topic of the 2012 production, “I’m sure George is still tweaking in whatever world he’s in now.”