Screen View: Best Thing (That Ever Could Have Happened)

Lonny Price, Ann Morrison and Jim Walton on the stage of the Alvin (now Neil Simon) Theatre Photo: “Best Worst Thing That Could Have Happened” “Best thing that ever could have happened,” Stephen Sondheim has his characters sing in the first act finale of the 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along. Only not really; the protagonist’s wife has justly filed for divorce, the hero has lost custody of his beloved son, and things look dismally black. “Best thing that ever could have happened,” sing the friends of Frank, trying to get him to move on with life and career. Although the musical, itself, moved backwards. That reverse storytelling, which was at the heart of the material—it was devised by Kaufman & Hart for their 1934 play of the same title—was also at the heart of the original production’s troubles. A mere flop, it wasn’t; it was a posterchild for Broadway catastrophes, coming from the heralded Sondheim/Prince team who since 1970 had turned out Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. Merrily proved to be resilient. The score, from the first, bordered on the outstanding; but Sondheim and Furth continued to work on the show post-debacle, and the present, “final” version makes for a rousing evening. This has been the case, especially, in the 2002 production at Kennedy Center, starring Michael Hayden and Raúl Esparza; and the 2012 City Center Encores! version, starring Colin Donnell and a pre-Hamilton Lin-Manuel Miranda. But that was later; in 1981, Merrily was blasted, lambasted and withdrawn after a mere 16 performances (plus 44 previews, during which the show was frantically doctored in the face of abysmal word-of-mouth). While this is a mere hiccup in the mind of the majority of today’s audience—anyone who actually saw the original production would have to be around forty-five or so, unless they took you when you were six—the Merrily shellacking has haunted many of the bright-eyed young members of the original cast (who ranged in age from twenty-five to sixteen). That’s where “Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” comes in. Lonny Price has made a name for himself over the last fifteen years as a director of concert hall versions of Broadway musicals (including Sweeney Todd, Company, Candide and Passion, winning two Emmys in the process). At twenty-one, though, he originated the co-starring role of Charley Kringas in Merrily. A teenaged office boy at producer/director Hal Prince’s office, he ingratiated his way into the role. (Price notes that he invested his Bar Mitzvah money in Pacific Overtures, which says something about the lad.) He was very good as Charley, giving what was arguably the most accomplished and memorable performance in the original production. His breakdown-in-song, while delivering “Franklin Shepard, Inc.”, was riveting. Price has long thought of doing some kind of Merrily project. Many of the original cast members seem to have an enduring, almost familial relationship with the show and each other. (Twenty-one of the twenty-seven actors were making their Broadway debut; fourteen of […]

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