Merrily We Roll Along

We just got back from seeing Merrily We Roll Along: In Concert by Stephen Sondheim.  It was a collaboration between the Beck Center for the Arts, Baldwin Wallace University, and the Musical Theater Project.  I am a huge fan of Sondheim.  I had heard selections from this musical before, but I had never seen the whole show.  My mind is blown.

The story follows three friends, Charlie (a writer/lyricst), Frank (a musician), and Mary (a novelist) and their careers and friendship.  You might be puzzled that I have tagged this show as both a comedy and a tragedy.   The show starts in the most recent time period and goes backwards, similar to the movie Memento.  However, Sondheim produced this back in 1982, so this was ahead of its time.  It starts on a very destructive note, and ends on a very hopeful one where the characters first met.  It's a tragedy if the show is in chronologically ordered.  

This show contains a song that I really love, Not a Day Goes By.  Seeing it in its original context is incredibly powerful and moving. 

Also, note that this wasn't a fully staged show.  It was a concert.  All singers/actors (the senior music class of BW) have scripts and scores available in front of them on music stands.  It doesn't stifle the plot at all to not be fully staged.  I enjoyed the show, and left the theater feeling both happy and sad.