‘Merrily We Roll Along’ review: The movie version isn’t just filmed theater

I come to you from the opposite end of the film's musical spectrum, where “Wicked” “Perches” is a compact, dynamic film by Maria Friedman about her famous revival of the production Stephen Sondheim“We're rolling along merrily.”

The revered composer's 1981 musical is a canonical rarity: a flop (it closed two weeks after opening, for example) that eventually became a treasured classic. It's a nice twist of fate for a story that uses reverse chronology. Filmed at the Hudson Theater last year during its Tony win on Broadwaythis “Merrily” is a powerful testament to the hit production, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendes as a close-knit trio of New York creatives whose friendship, depicted in the past over decades, feels like a broken vase being put back together so we can appreciate the cracks and cohesion.

Sometimes it feels like you are on stage with the actors. And yet, in the right hands, this simple approach captures the magic that only cameras and editing can create: bringing distance and time into singular intimacy, allowing strong actors with expert-level songs to create the greatest of special effects.

Filmed theater gets a bad rap, but that shouldn't happen if it's more than just a recording, and so far this version holds true. (That's as it should be, since Richard Linklater's upcoming cinematic rendering he's directing “Childhood”style for over 20 years—it's truly a “distant shore,” in Sondheim's words.)

Think back: It all starts with a bitter ending: at a glitzy party in the Hollywood Hills in 1976, full of showbiz hangers-on. Frank (Groff), once an aspiring composer, has given up music to become a successful film producer and two-time husband. Mary (Mendez), a witty writer, is an alcoholic who can no longer tolerate the betrayal that Frank has become.

As the present fades into the past, we see first the nervous breakdowns, then the moments of hesitation that preceded them, and finally the first blossoms of camaraderie, success and love. We meet lyricist Charlie (Radcliffe), who doesn't like the limelight. It's a joy to watch as the magnetic Groff traces the idealistic origins of a nasty guy, Radcliffe's face transforms from a judgmental colleague to a wide-eyed hopeful face, and the wonderful Mendes peels back the layers of unrequited love. Equally strong in throwing back the years are Crystal Joy Brown and Katie Rose Clark as talented wives who become collateral damage in Frank's soulless quest for fame and fortune.

It's fitting that the trajectory leads not to a bright crescendo, but to the softer, melancholic landing of the finale of “Our Time”: the dreamy reverie sung on a rooftop in 1957. In an era when so many filmmakers have forgotten how to make films with multiple people in close quarters, there are lessons to be learned from Merrily We Roll Along's modest goals: to engage moviegoers in life on stage. and, thus, to these thorny stages of life.