December 22, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Merrily We Roll Along” (2025)
Directed by Maria Freidman
Culture Representation: Taking place New York City and in Los Angeles, from 1957 to 1976, the musical “Merrily We Roll Along” (based on the original 1981 Broadway musical and 1934 Broadway stage play of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Three best friends go through ups and downs in their relationships and careers as writers in their Broadway show careers.
Culture Audience: “Merrily We Roll Along” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the stage productions of the same name, the movie’s headliners, and composer Stephen Sondheim.
It’s hard to go wrong with filming performances from the Tony-winning 2024 Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” the classic tale of three best friends in the entertainment industry whose relationships change over 19 years. With a stellar cast and engaging cinematography, this movie is the next best thing to having a front-row center seat while watching the show live. The movie (which has many close-ups of the principal cast members’ faces and never shows the audience on camera) doesn’t have a lot of fancy effects, elaborate production designs, or gimmicky revisions. It’s a fairly faithful version of the original Broadway production, with most of the on-stage magic coming from the cast’s performances.
Directed by Maria Friedman, “Merrily We Roll Along” was filmed at New York City’s Hudson Theater in June 2024, when the Broadway revival of the show (also directed by Friedman) extended its run, which began September 2023. Friedman also directed the 2013 movie version of the 2013 West End revival of “Merrily Roll Along,” with the 2013 movie released in the U.S. by Fathom Entertainment. These movies should not be confused with a movie musical remake of “Merrily Roll Along,” directed by Richard Linklater and starring Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein. Linklater’s version of “Merrily Roll Along,” which began filming in 2019, is being filmed in a time frame that reflects the story (over 19 years) and is expected to be released sometime in the early 2040s.
This 2023-2024 Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” won the 2024 Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (for Jonathan Groff); Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical (for Daniel Radcliffe); and Best Orchestrations. Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics. George Furst wrote the musical’s book. “Merrily We Roll Along” is an adaptation of the 1934 play of the same name, written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The musical’s most well-known songs are “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Our Time,” “Good Thing Going,” “Not a Day Goes By,” “Old Friends” and “Opening Doors.”
“Merrily We Roll Along,” which has two acts, is told in reverse chronological order. The movie takes place from 1957 to 1976. Beginning in 1976, the musical’s first scene shows Broadway-composer-turned-Hollywood-producer Franklin “Frank” Shepard (played by Groff) hosting a party at his Los Angeles-area home. Frank, who is handsome and charismatic, is celebrating his upcoming new movie, which will star his mistress Meg Kincaid (played by Talia Simone Robinson), a much-younger woman who is also at the party.
Frank’s affair with Meg is an open secret in his social circle. Frank’s second and current wife Gussie Carnegie (played by Krystal Joy Brown) is at the party too. Gussie suspects that Frank is cheating on her with Meg. Her suspicions are confirmed at the party. Gussie is conniving and vindictive, while Meg is somewhat naïve about how much Frank might be willing to sacrifice for her.
Meg thinks Frank will eventually leave Gussie for Meg. However, Frank is reluctant to do that because Frank and Gussie got romantically involved when they cheated on their respective spouses at the time, leading to Frank having a messy divorce scandal that he doesn’t want to go through again. Frank and Gussie are both ambitious and value being rich and famous over anything else. But these common goals have made Frank and Gussie very toxic together.
Another party guest is someone who’s been in love with Frank for even longer than Gussie and Meg have known Frank: Frank’s longtime platonic friend Mary Flynn (played by Lindsay Mendez), who became a journalist/novelist and currently works as a theater critic in New York City. Mary (a never-married bachelerotte with no children) has flown out to Los Angeles to be at this party, but she becomes disgusted by all the shallowness and phony attitudes she sees at the party.
Mary has an outburst at the party that’s the catalyst for Frank to reflect back on this life, going all the way back to 1957, when he met Mary in New York City. At the time, Frank was a student at Juilliard and his best friend Charles “Charley” Kringas (played by Radcliffe) was a student at Columbia University. Frank and Charley were both aspiring Broadway composers who would go on to have collaborative success on Broadway, particularly with a musical called “Musical Husbands,” starring Frank Sinatra.
Charley and Frank, who used to be share the same apartment when they were college students, met Mary on the same night, when she heard the two pals playing music together in their apartment, which was near her apartment at the time. Mary is passionate about Broadway shows, but she doesn’t have musical talent. She would rather be a playwright or novelist. Frank, Charley and Mary became fast friends from the moment that she met them. Mary’s romantic feelings for Frank began during this first meeting, but she is too afraid to tell him. Mary is self-conscious about her body size, and it affects her self-esteem when it comes to her love life.
Charley is nerdy and not motivated by fame or money when creating art. Over the years, Charley stays married to the same woman and is a devoted father. In other words, Charley is the opposite of Frank. Although they have successful musical collaborations, Frank and Charley had a falling out and no longer speak to each other. This estrangement is talked about in the first scene in the musical, when someone at Frank’s party mentions Charley and the broken friendship. The flashbacks show the rise and fall of the friendship between Frank and Charley.
“Merrily We Roll Along” has captions that label each year and each location for the flashback scenes. There’s a lot more to the story than the core bond between Frank, Charley and Mary. Three other people have significant influences and impacts on the lives of Frank, Charley and Mary: manipulative Gussie; sad-sack Broadway producer Joe Josephson (played by Reg Rogers), who was Gussie’s husband before she married Frank; and Frank’s first wife Beth Shepard (played by Katie Rose Clarke), who got full custody of their adorable son Frank Jr. (played by Max Rackenberg) in the messy divorce. Frank Jr. is depicted as being 4 to 6 years old for most of the musical.
With the story having a 19-year span, the three main characters are supposed to age from their early 20s to early 40s, “Merrily We Roll Along” doesn’t always succeed at being convincing in this aging process. Mendez does the most in her mannerisms and voice to “age down” to her 20s, but the results come across as a little too affected. She acts more like someone in her mid-teens in the scene where Mary first meets Frank and Charley. However, Mendez is very good at showing Mary’s growing bitterness over broken dreams and unrequited love, which leads to Mary having alcoholism.
Radcliffe doesn’t do much to show Charley’s emotional growth over the years, but he and the rest of the principal cast members excel in their song and dance numbers. Charley’s most outstanding performance is his solo on “Frank Shepard Inc.,” when Charley makes a bold and assertive move that forever alters Charley’s relationship with Frank. Radcliffe is also convincing in the story’s intent to show Charley as Frank’s longtime moral compass and emotional anchor who grounds Frank when Frank gets too caught up in Frank’s “success at all costs” ambition.
Groff stands out for his portrayal of Frank, who is the most complex character of them all. Frank is both cynical and sincere, selfish and generous, calculating and impulsive, an emotional abuser and an emotional victim. He can be a self-assured egomaniac or a pathetic lost soul, all depending on the circumstances. Groff non-verbal acting is superb, whether it’s in Frank’s tear-filled eyes that don’t shed tears when he experiences pangs of regret, or the way Frank might wink at Mary to make her feel special.
Brown’s portrayal of Gussie is of an egotistical diva who always seems like she’s performing for her own selfish agenda. It’s not quite a caricature, but Gussie in this musical is a villain without much nuance. Rogers’ depiction of Joe, whose slurred speech suggests that Joe has a longtime drinking problem, brings some comic relief since he’s one of the few characters in the story who says exactly what’s on his mind. Joe is hopelessly in love with Gussie, even after she dumps him for Frank.
Clarke makes a distinct impression as Beth in the lesser time that Beth is in the story, compared to the time for Frank, Charley, Mary, Gussie and Joe. Beth is the embodiment of all the joy that turns into pain because of Frank’s actions. Clarke doesn’t make Beth a “scorned wife” cliché but rather a fully developed and talented person whose own dreams were derailed by things that she did not expect. Beth represents all the people who become collateral damage when a selfishly ambitious person steps over and discards others while trying to get to the top.
“Merrily We Roll Along” is set in the 20th century, but this story explores timeless themes of loyalty and betrayal in relationships; artistic integrity versus monetary success; and the immeasurable cost of finding and losing friendships. This particular Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” has several supporting cast members portraying different characters in the story, but these multiple roles per person are not a distraction and just exemplify these cast members’ versatility and the imagination of the director. With so many Broadway shows having budgets and set designs that rival productions from major studios, “Merrily We Roll Along” has a fantastic “back to basics” approach where what shines the most are the vibrant performances on stage.
Sony Pictures Classics released “Merrily We Roll Along” in select U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025.
