This time may be the charm for Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' on Broadway

Actors, we are told, "age out" of roles. A cruel reality of the business.

How nice to hear, in "Merrily We Roll Along," about actors who have aged in.

Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez, the leads in this revival of Stephen Sondheim's most autobiographical, most problematic and possibly best musical, are all in their 30s.

That, says director Maria Friedman, is about right. That's the age when an actor can begin to do justice to the show's rueful take on aging, compromise, love and loss.

"I think by casting older people, you get the weight," said Friedman, who has spent a good part of her own 63 years in communion with this piece.

She was one of the leads in a 1992 U.K. revival of the show, personally supervised by Sondheim and librettist George Furth; and she's shepherded her own production through iterations in London (starting in 2012) and off-Broadway, where it opened to great acclaim last year at the New York Theatre Workshop. That's the version that's coming to Broadway's Hudson Theatre Oct. 10 (previews begin Sept. 19).

"I'm pinching myself at how lucky I am," Friedman said. "I could keep on and on and on with this thing."

Out of the ashes

That "Merrily We Roll Along" is going on and on is something no one could have predicted in November, 1981 — when the show became one of Broadway's most notorious flops.

Despite the talent in the cast (Jason Alexander, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison), despite the magic name Sondheim, the show was savaged by critics and lasted only 16 performances. But the Broadway cast album, recorded the day after the show closed, was brilliant — and instantly became a fan favorite. Several of its songs became standards: "Good Thing Going" was recorded by Frank Sinatra, "Not a Day Goes By" by Bernadette Peters.

Ever since then, people have been tinkering with the show, trying to get it right. Friedman thinks she has. Thanks in no small part to her cast.

"They are the kindest, sweetest people you could ever work with," Friedman said. "I've never seen people with so much give so much."

Part of "Merrily's" difficulties stem from its offbeat structure.

This story of the fractured friendship of three talented people — the lyricist Charley (Daniel Radcliffe), the writer Mary (Lindsay Mendez) and the fabulously successful composer-producer Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff) — is told chronologically backward.

It starts in 1981, with the three of them middle-aged, disillusioned, and self-loathing. Then it winds backward in time, through arguments, divorces, infidelities, compromises, success and its discontents, and finally, poignantly, ends at the beginning — with the three of them, teenage BFF's, watching Sputnik from a rooftop in 1957 and vowing that they'll always be true to each other, and to their dreams.

Acting their age

The reverse timeline, which bears a family resemblance to Harold Pinter's 1978 play "Betrayal" and to the original 1934 "Merrily We Roll Along" by Kaufman and Hart, on which the musical is loosely based, comes with its own Catch-22.

The show covers 20 years. Do you cast younger people and have them play old for the first act — or do you cast older people and have them play young for the second?

An upcoming movie version, by Richard Linklater, is actually being shot over a period of 20 years, so the actors age with their characters. But on stage, you have to choose.

In 1981, it was decided to cast the show with teenagers. A disastrous choice, many critics felt the time. Friedman doesn't disagree.

"An 18-year-old cannot understand alcoholism, running a business, being a multi-millionaire, having very expensive doctors, going on cruises, having a third wife," she said. "It's not possible. You're playing dress-up. When they turn toxic and start screaming and shouting, it looks like a school play."

That's just one of the many reefs you have to steer clear of when you helm this play.

Another is making the show too downbeat. It's frequently funny, she says. At all times it's clever, and — needless to say — musically and lyrically dazzling. It's Sondheim. "There's so much humor, so much love, so much joy poured into the corners and cracks of the tragedy," she said.

Judge not

Another pitfall is making it too cynical, bitchy, judgy. "We all, by the time we are the age these characters are playing, have made mistakes," she said. "And it's OK. You can reset. I have a forgiveness and love for every single person on that stage. I find a way to explore their humanity, their fragility, their loneliness, the lack of love and the wanting of love and the not understanding of love. I don't blame anyone."

That goes especially for Franklin Shepard, frequently cast as the villain of the piece — the king sellout. Not in her show.

"Everyone says Frank is unlikeable," she said. "Well, watch this Frank. He's loveable. He's charismatic. He's a people pleaser. He's not a villain on any front. He's brilliant, and he loses his way because of other people's demands on him."

All credit to Groff's great performance, Friedman says. But Radcliffe, as his buddy Charley, is not a bit behindhand. Not least because we've all watched Radcliffe on his own "Merrily We Roll Along" journey — from beloved child star in the "Harry Potter" series, to adult, risk-taking actor in "Equus" and "Endgame." He won't disappoint his fans, Friedman said.

"He's dazzling, absolutely dazzling," she said. "A remarkable man, and a remarkable actor. He stops the show at several points."

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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway: Will Sondheim's flop be a hit?