Daniel Radcliffe to Star in “Merrily We Roll Along” Broadway Transfer Next Year
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe is currently starring in the off-Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along. The original production first showed in 1981 and had a very mixed reception, closing two weeks after it opened, but it has been announced that this current version that Radcliffe is starring in will be transferred to Broadway next fall.
It is clear that present-day audiences are enjoying this musical much more than they did back in the ’80s. With a score by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, the musical is based on a play of the same name, which was written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart and first shown in 1934.
The musical is currently directed by Maria Friedman and follows the lives of three friends: a composer (played by Jonathan Groff), a playwright (Daniel Radcliffe’s character), and a novelist (Lindsay Mendez), whose relationships change and become fractured over time. The premise of the musical is similar to that of the original play, with the story being shown in reverse order, beginning in 1976 when the three friends are in their 40s and ending in 1957 when they originally meet at college.
Johnathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez, and Daniel Radcliffe as their characters in “Merrily We Roll Along.” Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Merrily We Roll Along isn’t Radcliffe’s first experience acting onstage, nor will it be his first time performing on Broadway. In 2007, he landed his first stage role as Alan Strang in Equus alongside fellow late Potter actor Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon). He also starred in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for a year (in which he received high praise for his singing and dancing), the Broadway revival of The Cripple of Inishmaan, and the off-Broadway show Privacy.
Merrily We Roll Along is currently playing at New York Theater Workshop, New York. The first performance took place on November 21, and it runs through January 22, 2023, with all of its tickets now sold out. Jesse Green (chief theater critic for the New York Times) has voiced that “maybe, finally, it’s a hit” because “it is perhaps for the first time perfectly cast.”
The Broadway revival will be produced by Sonia Friedman, sister of Maria Friedman, and it has been confirmed that Radcliffe, Groff, and Mendez will be reprising their roles as part of the Broadway cast.
