Merrily We Roll Along (Menier Chocolate Factory, until 9 March) lets you escape the winter cold to a showbiz party in a Bel Air beach house. Still, despite its summery setting, Stephen Sondheim’s musical has a stock-taking feel that suits it to a run at the changing of the years.
‘How did you get to be here?’ the opening chorus asks Hollywood mega-success Franklin Shepard (played with charisma by Mark Umbers), who has alienated his friends and lost the will to live. George Furth’s book answers with a stepwise journey back in time from 1976, putting meticulous reverse engineering to touching effect.
A wistful tune Franklin picks out on the piano turns out to be from his first hit — before he sold out. Then, in an ambivalent moment outside the divorce court, Franklin and Beth (Clare Foster) sing a charged duet we learn later was their wedding song. A simple device this; but it works.
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