Theater: Rue Tristesse

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Music, Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by George Furth Directed by Harold Prince

Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim seem to have been born middleaged. Rue, disenchantment, a kind of middle-aged tristesse recur in their collaborations. In the most brilliant of them. Company and Follies, melancholia about marriage and success was imminent but airborne; in Merrily We Roll Along it falls with the thud of a foregone conclusion.

Duplicating the chronologically backward structure of the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart 1934 play of the same title, Merrily begins with the commencement address to the Class of ’80 at Lake Forest Academy. The school’s most famous graduate, a hugely successful composer and film producer, Franklin Shepard (Jim Walton) prates of the need to compromise in order to get ahead. But when the musical ends, and Franklin is the valedictorian of 1955, he gives a ringing, idealistic peroration. In tracking back over the quarter-century, we watch this singularly unappealing hero being cruelly false to his wife, his best friend and his creative gift. Why? Outside of the cliche lure of Hollywood’s big bucks, George Furth’s brittle, bitchy book never offers a plausible clue.

Considering that the members of the cast are in their late teens and early 20s, the evening is studded with exemplary performances. Lonny Price brings an agonizing honesty and the humorous, woebegone mien of Woody Allen to the role of Franklin’s lyric-writing collaborator. Ann Morrison is perky and personable as an alcoholic film critic who relives her younger self as a smart, surging novelist.

Larry Fuller’s choreography is mostly of the hop, skip and jump variety, rather like a discarded thought from Agnes de Mille’s brain. To save the saddest for last, much of the show’s score sounds like an aside from Sondheim. Fragmented strains from Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music, Company and Follies filter through the air like aural ghosts. One ballad, Not a Day Goes By, beautifully captures the bittersweet mystery of love, and the single smash number of the musical, Good Thing Going, has the stamp of permanence about it. Frank Sinatra, who has impeccable judgment in such matters, has already recorded it in his current album. The album goes for $8.95. Merrily We Roll Along, at Broadway’s Alvin Theater, goes for $35. Take your pick.

—T.E.K.