City Cinema: Merrily We Roll Along

Musical. PG, coarse language.
Dir: Maria Friedman, US, 2025, 145 min.
Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez.

“Stephen Sondheim’s musical-that-goes-backwards was a smash on Broadway in 2023… In the summer of 2024, right after its triumph at the Tony Awards, where it won best musical revival, several performances were filmed live at New York City’s Hudson Theater, and edited into the smart, intimate film that you can now catch for the price of a movie ticket. The story takes three best friends – composer Franklin, playwright Charley and novelist Mary – from the dissolution of their friendship in 1976 (it goes backwards, remember) to the dewy-eyed kids they were on the roof of their apartment building on the night Sputnik passed overhead in 1957. Which is to say, this show about creative types learning about life and showbiz gets happier (and more bittersweet) as it progresses. That proved confusing for audiences in 1981… but the creative team fixed the problems in various revivals, and this one is as assured as any smash. The central performances, electrifying on stage, remain pretty stunning… Radcliffe, who grew up on film sets, capitalizes on the camera’s intimacy more than his co-stars, but they’re all terrific… the score is breathtaking, the lyrics scintillating, the emotions true, and as a Sondheim lyric has it, ‘that’s the sound of a hit.’” —Bob Mondello, NPR