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Sony Pictures Classics will release a filmed version of Broadway’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” a Tony-winning production starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.
SPC, which acquired worldwide rights to the movie, hasn’t announced theatrical release plans.
This adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical became a critical and commercial smash, recouping its $12 million investment in addition to winning several Tonys including best musical revival and acting awards for Groff and Radcliffe. It’s a sharp contrast to the reception of the original 1981 production, an infamous flop that was panned and closed after a short stint of 16 performances and 44 previews.
Told in reverse chronology over decades, “Merrily We Roll Along” follows the relationship between three lifelong friends — composer Franklin Shepard (Groff), writer Mary Flynn (Mendez) and playwright Charley Kringas (Radcliffe). The show features Sondheim classics like “Old Friends” and “Franklin Shepard Inc.” Maria Friedman, who helmed the stage show and was praised for finding a way to deftly crack the show’s intricate narrative structure, also directed the cinematic version.
“Sony Pictures Classics is the perfect home for our film. From the very beginning, they felt what we felt — that ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ is, at its core, a universal story about friendship: how it changes, how it lasts, and how it shapes who we become,” Friedman said in a statement. “This isn’t just a stage production captured on film — it’s something more intimate.”
“Merrily We Roll Along” joins a slew of Broadway productions, like “Hamilton,” “Come From Away” and “Waitress,” that have been preserved on film and distributed by companies such as Disney+, Apple TV+ and Bleecker Street. Meanwhile, a separate feature film adaptation of “Merrily We Roll Along” is in the works with director Richard Linklater and Paul Mescal as Franklin Shepard, Ben Platt as Charley Kringas and Beanie Feldstein as Mary Flynn.
“’Merrily We Roll Along’ is unlike anything we’ve seen before,” Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement. “With precise editing and a knowing camera that moves from closeup to sweeping gesture, Maria Friedman not only establishes herself as a formidable filmmaker but she more than preserves the seminal performances of Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez in creating with them an even greater goosebump experience for the audience than ever.”
Sondheim, the composer and lyricist of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Company,” “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” “Sunday in the Park With George” and “Into the Woods,” died in 2021 but his trust was involved in the filmed version of “Merrily.”
“As a film history maven, Steve would be overjoyed that Sony Pictures Classics, the home of countless brilliant, auteur-driven independent films, is our partner in bringing this production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ to the world,” Rick Pappas of the Stephen Sondheim Trust said in a statement. “The success of Maria’s film derives in large measure from her lifelong friendship and collaboration with Steve on so many of his shows, not least playing Mary in a 1992 production of ‘Merrily’ that Sondheim and Furth rebuilt on her, which led to her stage directing debut of this revival in London with him by her side in 2012.”
The deal was negotiated between Metzger Iwashina Media and Danny Passman of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman on behalf of the producers, and Sony Pictures Classics.
