Merrily We Roll Along – EUSOG @ St Augustine

At the beginning of 2024 I was as fortunate enough to be in New York to see the Broadway production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ which eventually won 4 Tony awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Now Broadway comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with an excellent student rendition of this poignant commentary on the nature of friendship from EUSOG at Edinburgh University.

On its initial run in 1981, ‘Merrily’ closed after just two weeks and was a commercial disaster for Sondheim and co-writer George Furth, critics at the time found the storyline confusing and the characters unsympathetic and audiences agreed. But, as with many Sondheim productions, a reassessment has happened in the intervening four decades and helped by significant changes in subsequent productions, modern audiences now get a chance to fully appreciate another work in the canon of a modern musical theatre genius.

The original criticisms still have some validity; the story of the friendship between Franklin (Max Middleton), Charlie (Levi Jones) and Mary (Bella Burgess) is told in reverse chronology and means we meet them at the bitter end of their relationships in the mid 1970’s, then working backwards over twenty years to their first meeting at the launch of Sputnik satellite in 1957. This structure has an immediate drawback for an audience without prior knowledge of the show; they are launched into a story and characters that are fully developed, all of whom are toxic and damaged in different ways, and only discover their reasons and motivations as the plot unwinds over the next two and a half hours.

In the case of a Fringe audience, this was obviously disconcerting and the atmosphere was strained as people settled to this challenging narrative, but happily by the conclusion they were held in rapt attention and rose to their feet in unanimous acclaim at the curtain. What is initially confusing becomes beguiling and it works as an uplifting musical principally because it starts with the cynicism of age and ends with the optimism of youth, rather than in a conventional timeline which would have left us with a downbeat ending.

Director Dan Bryant ensures the audience are clear in their understanding of Sondheims words, the transitions delineating the passage of time are clear and unambiguous and the off stage orchestra is never allowed to overshadow the subtle lyrics and arch tone of the songs. The ensemble choreography is successful in moving the largely female group effortlessly from static line into the Fosse like Frug dancing during ‘The Blob’. I felt that the energy from this large group was lacking in the early stages and the wordplay and asides during the opening number ‘That’s Frank’ fell flat, the sharpness required was lacking.

The featured support were uniformly excellent, I particularly enjoyed the exploration of the character arc of Gussie (scenery chewing Arkham Khosravipor) and Joe (Daniel Fischer), the former rising from dowdy secretary to Broadway star, whilst the latter fell from successful producer to a man both broke and broken following their divorce.

The leading trio were all well cast and demonstrated the necessary chemistry to convince, all starting from unsympathetic premises they gradually peeled back the cynicism to reveal the underlying love and shared experiences of their lives. Middleton brought assuredness to the central role of Franklin Shepard, more convincing as the show progressed, he was the pivot around which more demonstrative performances orbited. Levi Jones gave Charlie a beautiful downtrodden everyman character at the outset (think Amos in Chicago), before bursting with manic musical energy during his breakdown live on television (Franklin Shepard Inc). However, as strong as the cast was, it was Bella Burgess who blazed through the matinee like Sputnik across the heavens, from her first appearance, drunk and cynical and defeated, through her unrequited love for Franklin, all the way through to her initial meeting with her friends at the end/beginning, all facets of the character were fully realised. Real pathos combined with comedy is a difficult balance to achieve and she carried it off sumptuously, from the knockabout of ‘Old Friends’ to the pure comedy of ‘Bobby and Jackie and Jack’ cumulating in the emotion of ‘Not a Day Goes By’, this was a fully immersive performance.

Overall, a funny, clever and warm adaptation of an underperformed classic that will hopefully get the appreciation such a gem deserves.

To quote a song from the show ‘It’s a Hit’!!

Reviewer: Paul Wilcox

Reviewed: 14th August 2025

North West End UK Rating: