Center the mission. Make the trade-offs. Pivot from what no longer serves the goal. It’s a familiar corporate strategy playbook, but one that gets complicated fast in creative industries, where artistic ambition and financial success don’t always point in the same direction.
That tension sits at the heart of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along, returning to Signature Theatre nearly 20 years after the company first produced it. Told in reverse chronological order, the musical follows successful composer Franklin Shepard (Jason Gotay) as ambition begins to pull him away from friendship and values—and how quickly a lifetime becomes the sum of seemingly small choices.
It wants better content.
“It started out like a song…”
Director and choreographer Matthew Gardiner has stealthily brought into focus another dimension of a musical about dreams, compromise, and the price of success. His production makes especially vivid the idea that we are not so much forced into compromises as presented with choices. Oh boy, do those choices add up quickly.
In Gardiner’s production, the question feels less “What does success cost Frank?” than “When is the cost worth paying?”
Gotay’s highly agentic Franklin Shepard convinces us he will do what success requires and deal with the fallout later. As longtime best friend and collaborator, Jake Loewenthal’s grounded Charley is an effective foil. Melanie Field is exceptional as Mary, the platonic third of the trio (though she wishes otherwise), a cynical alcoholic whose sarcasm barely conceals the wreckage underneath, which makes her bright-eyed enthusiasm as an emerging writer by the musical’s end (beginning) that much more heartbreaking.
The stellar ensemble and design elements work in tight concert with Merrily’s three central characters. Musical director Jon Kalbfleisch, celebrating 35 years with Signature, leads a tight 12-piece orchestra, while Wilson Chin’s scenic design and Cory Pattak’s lighting further focus the backward storytelling from an upscale Bel Air party to a humble Village cabaret venue.
Beyond the glitz and the glamour, what lingers is a tension any creative knows all too well: how much of the mission can you trade for commercial success before you no longer recognize what you set out to create? Sondheim and Furth understood that the danger isn’t ambition itself, but the choices made in its pursuit. Nearly 20 years later, Signature’s Merrily We Roll Along makes that warning feel as urgent as ever.
Is ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ worth seeing?
Signature Theatre’s stunning revival of Merrily We Roll Along doesn’t mourn ambition so much as clock exactly where it starts costing you something real.
- Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave, Arlington
- Notable performers: Jason Gotay, Melanie Field, Jake Loewenthal
- Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission
- Performances through November 1
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