ROLLING ALONG

Last night my friend Julia & I went to see TheatreWork's production of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. I am a bit divided on how I feel about the show because even though the production is out of this world - Kelley's direction and his amazing production team, terrific casting with three amazing lead performers, a delicious band led by Billy Liberatore and of course those Sondheim gems (Not a Day Goes By, Good Thing Going, Like It Was, Now You Know, Our Time) the show... just doesn't really work. It's no surprise that the show failed on Broadway and all subsequent efforts have not really worked either.

Rolling backwards from 1976 to 1957 - the show (with a flawed book by George Furth) doesn't roll along like a musical should. The show lags and you just don't really care about the main characters enough so sit through the musical (although Act II is a lot better in pace.) Kudos to TheatreWorks for reviving this piece after producing it twenty years ago and making the very best of the material. True Sondheim aficionados will LOVE the show and the theme - "how do you get to be who you are?" - and the production itself is terrific, after all Robert Kelley is the best Sondheim interpreter director in the Bay Area.

It was wonderful to see so many local actors in the production - kudos to Leslie Martinson for seeing there is so much terrific talent here in the Bay Area! Of course having said - New York actor Damon Kirsche is dynamite as Franklin Shephard. I was introduced to Mr. Kirsche after the show and he was so gracious - not to mention incredibly handsome =+).

My friends Robbie Brewer, Diana Torres Koss, Stephan Smith Collins & Jackson Davis were terrifc and Robbie works his number Franklin Shephard Inc - those lyrics alone!! Bravo Robbie!! I was most impressed with Molly Bell's portrayal of Mary Flynn who was the character I really connected with. It was the reprise of Not a Day Goes By - sung as a trio with Molly off to the side singing about her unrequited love that really got me and of course the closing song - Our Time. Molly also gave great pizazz to her song Now You Know.

When I went to see this - I really wanted to like it (I am a great Sondheim admirer - I've studied him for goodness sake) and I did - I can't praise the production enough -but compared to other Sondheim material like Passion, Sweeney, Night Music, Forum, Into the Woods, Sunday in Park... this show just doesn't roll along for me.

Photo by: David Allen