It has become a pleasure for me to look forward to performances by The Fiasco Theater, the company that created something like minimalist magic with Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and then with even more unpretentious inventiveness with the challenging Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods, each to wondrous results. I am not surprised that they have gone right back to Sondheim to tackle his difficultly structured 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along, but this time with the production resources of the Roundabout Theatre Company. This musical about idealism gone astray has been a test for many theater groups since it first made the rounds. Although it had an original run of only two weeks, Merrily boasted a memorable score that would become a legend in its own time. Sardonic as it was, George Furth’s book (based on a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart) had a hard time marrying itself to the often flinty lyrics of the score, that included such melodic treasures as “Good Thing Going,” “Not a Day Goes By,” “Old Friends,” and “Our Time.” The program notes reminds us that Fiasco explored and combined earlier versions of the script—a good idea for a very good result. I might say that this version has been scaled down to a streamlined one act but not terribly diminished by this paring. The notes also remind us of the lengths that Sondheim and Furth went to solve the show’s problems when it first opened, the first being to clarify a problematic plot device that keeps the action going backward in time, instead of forward...just as did the original play. Like the play, the musical focuses on a talented composer willing to compromise his professional and personal ethics in pursuit of success and without regard for its effect on his friends and collaborators. Tainted throughout by betrayals and tinged with a bittersweet perspective, the musical hits us in hard in our gut as we follow the path of friends once life-long friends who once shared the same optimism and romantic ideals. This production, under the fine and get-right-to-it direction of Noah Brody, boasts a more awesome frame than Fiasco is usually afforded. The setting designed by Derek McLane suggests a large warehouse of antiquities and collectables and is notable for its floor-to-ceiling shelving. It pleases the eye if it doesn’t necessarily add any corroborative value to what is being performed within it. I admit that I may have missed the message. The players, however, are terrific in their roles as expected and express the trenchant realities of their characters. This, as I also admit this company is not noted for its singers. In this case, the singers are merely adequate but also singularly impressive in their interpretive abilities. Watching the mix of jaded and naive characters make those wrong turns, as they grow younger over the musical’s regressing 20-year span, may just break your heart. Although I choose to not single out each of the six terrific cast members, half of whom do more than double duty, I do feel compelled to say that Ben Steinfeld, as the egregiously self-serving centerpiece Frank, has a firm grip on his demanding role, something that can be said for all. The costumes designed by Paloma Young and Ashley Rose Horton are often good for a laugh, and the lighting design by Christopher Akerlind is as pro as one might expect. What one doesn’t expect and but gets with this collaboration between Fiasco and Roundabout is a reminder of how Sondheim has always challenged us to ascend from any complacency with musical theater. In its smaller way, the Fiasco Theater does it all with heart.
