Merrily We Roll Along (1994 Off-Broadway Revival Cast)

The 1981 version is muted and the sound quality is so poor it sounds like you are listening through a tin can down a really dark and hollow tunnel.

Fortunately, this version is clear as a bell and all the changes made to the much edited score and script are all for the better here. "The Hills of Tomorrow" framework was totally unecessary and I don't miss it or the song for a second. Michele Pawk as Gussie and Malcolm Gets as Frank are stand-outs vocally and while Adam Heller and Anne Bobby may not be the strongest singers, their acting ability comes through in their vocals, something that I think adds a great depth to Charlie and Beth, my favorite characters in the show anyway.

The best tracks on this one are "Good Thing Going" and "Our Time". They have a sense of purpose and longing that are perfectly in tune with Sondheim's creative flair. They make me wish I had actually seen this production live.

I've had the 1981 OCR for many years now and have always liked the score, but now with this version I feel I am listening to the score anew, and liking it even more! This recording adds something hard to describe, perhaps a sense of time, a smoothness, a unity that wasn't present in the OCR.

Totally worth every cent!


Much better than the original   August 24, 2003
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

I recently performed in a community theatre production of Merrily, and as such, fell in love with it's magnificent score...however, most performances of the show(if not all)follow the revival version, and not the clunky, confusing original. It troubles me to read that most people actually prefer the original to this wonderful version, regardless of the original's inexperienced, much too young cast(with the exception of a very young and excellent Jason Alexander) and clunky music that starts and stops at an annoying pace, not to mention the tempos for some songs that seem to drag on forever...someone complained that the revival's tempos were too slow, but there must be some mistake, because the original has songs that simply do not end. In addition, the characters of Gussie and Beth are completely sidelined, with barely a song to their names, but this is fortunately remedied in the revival with new songs such as "Growing Up", and Beth's renditions of "Not A Day Goes By" and it's reprise. And while "The Hills Of Tommorow" is a nice enough track, the whole idea of the show being one big "flashback" seems a bit hokey...another reason why the revival is superior, because it's opening and final scenes are extrmely more effective, opting instead to leave out a "framing scene" that has to tie everything together in such a gimmicky way. I will agree that the original does have a brassier orchresta(although the recording is so poor that it sounds as though they're playing from another room), and some of the voices are much more pleasent(the Mary of the 1994 version is extremely annoying at times, while some of the ensemble members must have slept with someone in order to have been cast), but one can see why it failed...from what I've heard the book was cleaned up from the original, which apparently had a very weak book, and if the pictures indicate anything(the original's costumes and sets look like some ...avant-garde production of Godspell) it's clear that the visuals weren't much better. Buy this version first...if you really like it, THEN buy the original...it's still worth your time, but this one deserves a bit more of your time. I've heard that the Roundabout theatre has recently planned a staged reading of the production...hopefully it will return to New York as a full-fledged Brodway production that is similar to this version.


Tempos too slow!   April 25, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Okay, just a few little notes on this one. If you don't have the original cast recording from 1981 or whenever, this one will do because it's a great, great score...but the earlier album is much more brassy and energetic, i.e., FUN! This is such an exciting show to listen to...it just zips right along, like musical popcorn exploding around luscious ballads. (I always get choked up during "Our Time".) "Opening Doors" is my favorite; it's like a whole Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney Lets-Put-On-a-Show musical crammed into ten minutes. (Cast members have said that this number, which condenses two years at breakneck pace, is a true nightmare to rehearse. Someone always comes in late, right up till dress rehearsal!) Speaking of pace, in this version it seems like the tempos in many of the songs are a shade too slow. This is noticeable on the album's very first song, ("Yeeesteeerdaaaay is dooooone"), and really bothers me in "Bobby and Jackie and Jack", a rollicking number that takes on a sort of dirge-like quality here. Here's the reason the first recording is superior, though: Without pointing fingers or naming names, the voices on display there are just better suited to the roles. On the plus side, a good thing about this version is a reprise of the tender "Good Thing Going" that's orchestrated to sound really torchy and sleazy. This is done to show how the character of Frank has commercialized his music, but I was surprised by how catchy it sounded that way! Also, there's a funny bit in "That Frank" where Mary brings a gossipy party to a screeching halt by getting drunk, and Frank makes her some coffee. After a shocked silence, the chorus whispers, "Poor Frank / He handled that well..." (Maybe you have to hear it, but it made me laugh.) Also, there's a new number called "It's a Hit" that has a weird, discordant section that sounds exactly like "Sweeney Todd"! Aside from these interesting little bits, though, I like the earlier version best...