Actors tackle show that unfolds in reverse

In the second Strother Theatre show of the semester, student actors tackle a musical with songs by the legendary Stephen Sondheim and a plot that goes backwards.

“Merrily We Roll Along” begins with a party at the home of Franklin Shepard, a wealthy, influential and miserable Hollywood film producer. The musical rewinds three years prior, then five years—incrementally traveling backward in time and eventually ending almost twenty years before the first scene. We see Shepard as he began—“a young, optimistic, and eager composer looking for work in New York City,” said Jeff Pierpoint, the senior musical theatre major who plays Shepard.

Charley Kringas, another character in the play, is a writer and lyricist who “hopes to change the world through his writing and work with his collaborator and best friend Frank,” said Evan Duff, a junior musical theatre major who is playing Charley in the production.

Together, Frank and Charley are working to write a musical called “Taking a Left.” Throughout the process however, the artists’ integrity “take a backseat,” Duff said.

“What’s so difficult for Charley is to have a best friend who’s brilliant that could do so many great things and to see that potential squandered by petty distractions like money, women and fame,” he said.

Seeing Shepard’s life moments—the successes and failures­­­—lets the audience look introspectively at their own lives and decisions.

“As we watch Franklin putting off his dreams, the show continually asks the audience to look back on their own lives and consider how they pursued their dreams, and how their dreams changed,” Pierpoint said.

Although not all theatrical performances utilize a directly chronological timeline, presenting a show that's story order goes entirely backwards has presented a unique challenge to the actors, especially in terms of individual character arcs and the interactions between them.

“It’s so difficult because you’ll do one scene where you are incredibly angry with a character because of something they’ve done,” Duff said. “Then in the next scene you are fine with them because they haven’t yet done the thing that makes you so angry yet in the timeline.”

In order to aid the actors with this difficult process, Michael Elliott had them learn the show “in reverse of the reverse,” explained senior musical theatre major Casey Prins, who plays Gussie Carnegie in the show.

“We started [five acts before the end] in order to experience our characters together chronologically,” she said. “Now going back, it’s cool to see how we have developed through rehearsal.”

This approach to the storyline helps explore what made the characters who they are.

The show features music by Sondheim, who Pierpoint called “the Shakespeare of musical theatre.”

“[Sondheim’s] music is complex and utterly brilliant,” he said. “It has been a wonderful challenge learning and mastering all the music in order to properly do justice to Sondheim’s genius and the story he is trying to tell.”

This show also gave the actors the chance to learn from professionals in their field: the cast and crew worked with Liz Callaway who played the role of Mary Flynn in the original Broadway, as well as Michael Rafter, the musical director and an arrangement writer for the first Broadway revival.

“This was an outstanding opportunity to get feedback from industry professionals who helped create the show,” Pierpoint said.

The musical is also about being a performer, which inspired the actors to draw from their experiences and personal aspirations while they put together the show 

“It’s a huge gift as an actor to be playing a character whose dreams are so aligned with my own,” Duff said. "I can really resonate with who Charley is and what he wants and why it is so difficult for him when he watches his dreams and friendships wither away.”

Pierpoint said the show reflected the community aspect of the performing arts.

“[The characters] are working as hard as they can to make their dreams come to life, and relying so heavily on each other to do so,” Pierpoint said. “We all rely so heavily on each other in this cast and in our major that we really relate to the notion of pursuing our dreams and helping each other no matter what.”

Several of the actors said the show is about perseverance and not letting the little things get in the way of big dreams.

“Life will always have its hardships—people come and people go, dreams change,” said senior musical theatre major Brandy Drzymkowski, who plays Beth in the production. “But in the end, right here, right now, as students in particular, we can do anything, be anything. It’s up to us to make the change and to pursue, to reach out and grab life. It’s our time.”

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