cityboy and

Merrilly---well last night saw it at 6:30, the film about the 35 years between the opening of Merrily and the present for most of the original cast. Amazing film! I remember seeing it almost 35 years to the date at the Alvin---did not know what to expect---thought the cast would be downtrodden---found to my surprise that they were exhuberant and that the first act had some flaws but was viable. And then the second act. I was blown away---as someone who had lived through the excitement of musical theater that was generated in the late fifties, the second act seemed to be all about that.  Totally authentic---Sondheim's music and lyrics really captured that time. How could the show be closing, I asked myself. This was beautiful and the Times review, the one that counted,  had dealt with the show as if there were no differences between the first and second act. Left the theater feeling great but angry that this show was closing the next day. Tried to see it the last performance, but could not get in. Wondered if there would be a future for it.
Early May of 82, I am in DC, visiting my cousin---she is in law school and I cannot see her until early evening. I look at the theater section of the Washington Post, and there to my surprise is---
Merrily, being done by a student group at Catholic University. I really can't believe it---but there it is. I take the train and see the musical for the second time---still very moved by it.
So it follows, the Arena production in 1990, the Kennedy Center Sondheim celebration in 2002, and finally the Encores version a few years ago. Each time manage to get through the "clunky" first act, (which has been revised a great deal since the original) and then the wonderful second act. And now the movie, which discusses the energy of the young original cast (or at least six of them) and where they are now.  Total exhiliration! I was swept up in the enthusiasm of the young kids and happy that they had resolved their lives to this point. Afterwards spoke briefly to Jim Walton, who was participating in the discussion with the director. The Q and A dealt more, I think with the feelings of the audience then some hard facts about the show and its progress over the years. For instance, one of the reasons that it is done very often is that in the 35 years since the show opened, the number of not for profit theaters has exploded, and this is where it gets done, so there is no "hit or flop" connotation attached to it. These productions are funded and also short---time enough for the Sondheim fans to come out to see it, but not stretched too far in time.
More, maybe later---will add some thoughts the next blog.
Now in Brooklyn, at the library, as I walked east on Sterling Place from Flatbush, remembered when this was an area one did not want to go into---tried to envision the whole set of changes in the area  for the last 45 years. Would love to take an apartment house and look at its population in 1940, 55, 71, 91 and now. See how it changed. It is all mythic to me.
A little bit out of ideas now, will continue to report.