Merrily We Roll Along (play)

Background and production history

Hart, on a journey from Hollywood to New York in 1931, was inspired to write a play about an American family's difficulties, over 30 years, coping with the challenges of life in the 20th century, beginning with their innocence and optimism at the beginning of the century to the dashed hopes caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Before he could realize his vision, however, he was scooped by Noël Coward's British version of a similar story, Cavalcade, and he shelved the idea. A few years later, however, Hart turned to Kaufman, his collaborator on the 1930 hit, Once in a Lifetime. The idea had now evolved to tell a story backwards about an idealistic, yet ambitious playwright and his difficulties.

The Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened on September 29, 1934 at the Music Box Theatre, where it ran for 155 performances. The 55-member cast included Kenneth MacKenna as Richard Niles, Walter Abel as Jonathan Crale, Jessie Royce Landis as Althea Royce, and Mary Philips as Julia Glenn.

The play has not been revived on Broadway, and its tour following the Broadway production was short.

Critical response

New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "After this declaration of ethics, it will be impossible to dismiss Mr Kaufman and Mr Hart as clever jesters with an instinct for the stage." Despite good notices, the play was not a financial success, as the demands of the large-scale production made it expensive. Time Magazine wrote, "Superbly staged...; superbly acted by the biggest cast seen in a legitimate Broadway production this season, Merrily We Roll Along is an amusing and affecting study...."

In retrospect, the Times has noted that the play suffers from a "Depression sensibility. The notion that you can't get ahead without selling out is one that held particular appeal.... There was something both morally and politically suspect about worldly fortune at a time when, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his 1937 inaugural address, one-third of the nation was 'ill housed, ill clad, ill nourished.'"

Synopsis

Richard Niles is a pretentious 40-year-old playwright who writes successful but forgettable frothy comedies. Niles is hosting a party for his wealthy friends at his Long Island home on the opening night of his newest play. His life is empty, petty and loveless. The story moves backwards in nine scenes from 1934 to 1916, as Niles achieves success by, bit-by-bit, compromising his integrity and principles. He drives his friend, the novelist Julia Glenn (patterned after Dorothy Parker), to drink; loses his best friend, painter Jonathan Crale; and betrays his wife, the glamorous actress Althea Royce, simply to gain material comforts and satisfy his ambitions. In the final scene, Niles, on graduation day at his college, idealistically quotes the words of Polonius: "This above all, to thine own self be true."

Adaptations

In 1981, the play was adapted as a musical of the same name with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. While the original Broadway production was a notorious failure, the musical has since been successfully staged with numerous changes. Sondheim has contributed new songs to several of the show's incarnations.