Audiences will know the ending of the show when the curtain rises in Elon University’s upcoming production of “Merrily We Roll Along,” which will be the final production of the 2024-25 season.
“Merrily We Roll Along” is written by Stephen Sondheim and chronicles the lives of three struggling artists backwards in time from their late 40s to early 20s during the years of 1976 to 1957. The show will run in Roberts Studio Theatre from May 2 to 4.
Director and professor of music theatre Jacob Brent said when the show originally opened, it was considered “Sondheim’s most famous flop.”
“People just weren't ready to tell that story backwards, whereas today we have a lot more media that jump around timelines,” Brent said. “Our brains are used to jumping, making that leap. So I think it's a little easier for people to digest now.”
The show follows a trio of old friends: composer Frank Shepard, lyricist Charley Kringas and aspiring novelist Mary Flynn. Brent said the trio’s story is told in a non-linear format through individual scenes that come together to tell the story.
“It's vignettes, it's scenes, it's snapshots of someone's life going backwards,” Brent said. “It doesn't necessarily exactly line up with the scene before. It's this section of Frank's life, and then we go to this section, and then this section, and they connect.”
The cast of "Merrily We Roll Along" practices a moment from the opening number of the show April 15.
Brent said that since the show will be performed on a black box stage instead of a traditional stage, the scale of the show will be smaller.
“We're really focusing on the text, and the score, and the drama of it all,” Brent said. “It is not big and flashy sets and costumes like we would see with ‘Legally Blonde’ or ‘Great Comet.’ So the focus is a little bit more on the text and the work and the process than a product.”
Senior music theatre majors Mia McManamy and Gabriel Bommarito will play Mary Flynn and Frank Shepard, respectively.
Bommarito and McManamy said the process has been incredibly therapeutic as they start the same chapters in their lives that the characters start at the end of the show, which represents the beginnings of the characters’ careers.
“So we're analyzing ourselves because of this next chapter that we have to enter. We want to enter it well,” Bommarito said. “The characters are literally experiencing the exact same thing, and it's great.”
McManamy said the two have known each other and been doing theater together since their senior year of high school, and it was really special to do their last show together. She said the final song in the show, “Our Time,” related well to where she and Bommarito are in their lives.
“That's gonna break us. It's really gonna make me cry, because we did act one last night, and it's so heavy and it's so hard,” McManamy said. “Then you go back and you end at the moment of, ‘This is my beginning,’ and that's where we are. We're at the beginning of our lives, our careers.”
Senior Gabriel Bommarito, who plays Frank Shepard, practices spacing for a scene with castmates Andrew France and Ella Davison April 15.
Playing the third member of the trio, Charley Kringas, is freshman Jonah Uffelman. Uffelman said that as a freshman at Elon, it is nice to have seniors to look up to.
“I sort of feel like their son, they're great,” Uffelman said. “It's really intimidating as a freshman who's in this new space, in this new environment, who's just been thrust into this thing, not knowing which way to go, to have those two figures sort of guiding me through it all. So I'm really thankful for both of them, and I think they're doing a fantastic job in the show.”
Uffelman said a major theme of the show is how money can affect art. He said some people work to use money to do the things they love, whereas people who work in theater love what they do.
“Our work is something that we genuinely enjoy, and also sometimes get paid for it,” Uffelman said. “What I want audiences to take away most is that money can corrupt art, and we can't let that happen.”
Bommarito said the most important thing he learned from the show is to be conscious of time.
“It’s all about waiting and searching and letting things settle. People nowadays and kids are so afraid of nothingness and boringness,” Bommarito said. “Something always has to be happening. And I think the takeaway is to sit with the people who mean the most.”
“Merrily We Roll Along” will run in Roberts Studio Theatre in Scott Studios with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. May 2 and 3, as well as matinee shows at 2 p.m. May 3 and 4. All tickets are currently sold out but more information on a waitlist can be found on the Elon Performing Arts website.