Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

“Merrily We Roll Along’s source material leaves little room for its women to have agency or nuance.”

Title: Merrily We Roll Along (2025)
Director: Maria Friedman 👩🏼🇨🇭🇬🇧
Writers: George Furth 👨🏼🇺🇸🌈 with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim 👨🏼🇺🇸🌈

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 3/5

Maria Friedman’s Merrily We Roll Along captures the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical during the latest revival’s final weeks in 2024. Having directed the stage revival, as well as London’s 2013 production and filming of Merrily We Roll Along, Friedman tells Playbill how quickly this latest film recording happened: “It took us two weeks to get the financing, and then we got the green light, and we did it.”

She goes on to share her thinking behind the film’s direction, noting that the “wide shot had no energy to it … It's not a choreographic show.” But the resulting barrage of close-ups on stars Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez feels limiting. The viewer is cut off from any spatial awareness, and we lose understanding of set design or actors’ blocking when scenes jump from emotive face to emotive face.

But the sheer power of Sondheim’s music pulls through, delivering an enjoyable experience nonetheless. And Furth’s story, which focuses on complicated friendships, feels more timely than ever as today’s audiences crave more platonic stories in media over the usual romantic exploits.

Gender: 2.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

Among Merrily We Roll Along’s three central friends, writer Mary Flynn (Mendez) is one of them. But the other two main characters, composer Franklin Shepard (Groff) and lyricist Charley Kringas (Radcliffe), are men.

Mary’s plentiful screen time would normally get a higher rating in this category, but the musical uses a firmly male-centric lens. Specifically, every significant female character is in love with Frank. The musical spans decades, ranging from when the trio first meet in 1957 to “present day” 1977, and yet Mary hopelessly pines after Frank for all of the intervening years. Meanwhile, Frank’s current wife, Gussie (Krystal Joy Brown), is portrayed as a homewrecker who broke up the old gang. At the same time, ex-wife Beth (Katie Rose Clarke) falls into the trope of being a disappointed woman whose philandering husband leaves her no choice but to take their child away.

Among these many female characters, none of them establishes meaningful relationships with one another. They’re merely hinted at, such as a brief glimpse of Mary’s roommate, Evelyn (Jamila Sabares-Klemm). Even then, Evelyn is more defined by her marriage to Charley. Despite a female filmmaker behind the camera, Furth and Sondheim’s source material leaves little room for its women to have agency or nuance.

Race: 3/5

While the main characters are white and white-passing, Mendez has Mexican heritage on her father’s side, and the supporting cast is racially and ethnically diverse. Frank’s wife, Gussie, and mistress, Meg (Talia Robinson), are played by Black and Afro-Latina women, respectively. The rest of the Broadway cast includes other Black and Latino actors, as well as Filipino, Iranian, and Indian American performers.

Still, the musical never touches on race, leaving diversity at a surface level. It’s also unfortunate that the only two characters (besides Frank) who have affairs are both Black women. But the clichés feel more incidental than targeted, given the musical’s colorblind approach to storytelling.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.25
Bonus for Religion: +0.25

Gay and Jewish representation exists off screen in central positions: Composer Sondheim, playwright Furth, and main actor Groff are gay, while director Friedman, Sondheim, and female lead Mendez are Jewish.

Mediaversity Grade: C 3.00/5

Despite imperfect direction and male-centric source material, Merrily We Roll Along skates by on the energy of its charming songs and strong performances.

Like Merrily We Roll Along? Try these other titles featuring complicated friendships.

Grade: CLiDecember 5, 2025Female/Nonbinary Creator