Latest / Film Curious / Merrily We Roll Along Review - How Well Does This Great Broadway Musical Translate from Stage to Screen?

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Merrily We Roll Along Review - How Well Does This Great Broadway Musical Translate from Stage to Screen? · Film Curious

• 0:00
  Hey guys, welcome
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  to Film Curious, the podcast that takes a step back from the constant
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  media consumption to discover and ponder great films across genres and time.
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  We're always watching new things, so we're going to try
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  to keep you up to date on not only the most recent
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  in-theater experiences we have, but what's newish to streaming as well.
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  Because let's face it,
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  not everything is getting a theatrical release these days,
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  and if they do, a lot of times it's not going to be for very long.
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  This episode, Pete's giving you a brief review of the film stage
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  production of the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along on Netflix,
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  so consider this a kind of midweek mini review to give you something
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  to watch before the weekend.
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  Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy.
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  It all right.
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  So yeah, I want to talk about, Merrily We Roll Along.
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  This was the recent I think it was like 20, 25.
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  The, stage adaptation,
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  new stage presentation of the Sondheim musical
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  and starring Daniel Radcliffe,
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  Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez.
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  So this is now on Netflix, so it's relatively very easy to have.
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  You have a Netflix account, you can watch it.
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  You sure you can rent it somewhere else as well?
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  I did not see this on the stage when it played.
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  I had never seen it previously,
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  and I've really had minor interaction with this musical overall
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  when it first came out back in the original run,
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  early 80s, maybe even late 70s, it wasn't a success.
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  It's a lot of sound home ones.
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  As it grew on, it just gained
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  more of a fan club and more love.
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  So they put this out and the number one thing to take away from it,
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  despite the secondary saying that I'm going to bring up the chemistry
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  between the three leads is undeniable.
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  They're all fantastic.
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  It's it's wild to see
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  how much Radcliffe has grown into like this
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  other career post.
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  You know, it's hard to be Harry Potter in those movies in the ways
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  that they were so popular and find a career afterwards.
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  And he's.
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  Yeah, I think, part of his success is that he just doesn't
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  he kind of like, forgot all those big movie days.
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  And it just seems like he leans into what interests him.
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  And I think that's like what's worked for him is he just
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  does whatever weird or indie thing he wants to do.
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  And I think that that's kind of what's made, made it easier to delineate,
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  you know, his Harry Potter days from his adult work.
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  Yeah.
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  And he's done a run on Broadway shows lately,
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  which is, you know, fantastic, because that's going to get him into
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  so many more opportunities and so many different
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  stories to tell and jump back and forth.
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  And, you know, you get to do,
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  you know, you can do something slightly different every night.
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  But that's what this isn't now. Right?
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  So this is merrily we were long kind of locks in a play
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  into a version, into a performance,
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  which is great.
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  What I don't like about it
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  is the camera on, on a lot of occasions
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  there's a very there's a very plus side and a very negative side.
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  There's a ton almost
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  everything is a tight shot, like three quarters, not like and close ups,
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  like there's a lot of close ups too, but there's a lot of three quarters
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  and it's it kind of feels suffocating a little bit.
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  Sometimes when you think of when you think of what is happening
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  on the stage, you just sort of want to you wish they would take a step back.
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  Visually.
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  Now I understand why they did it, because, you know,
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  I'd ask you is if I could do an a questionnaire.
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  What's something that you don't maybe get to see?
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  And a Broadway play, depending on how much money you spent on your seat.
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  Yeah.
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  You're not gonna say the facial expressions a lot of the time.
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  Exactly.
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  You're not going to see the minute facial expressions.
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  You get to experience all of that here.
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  What you don't get to expect to get to experience, though,
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  is the stage experience.
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  So I kind of want these to lay right in the middle.
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  I want to I want to be able to explore that's, you know, the tightness
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  of some shots a little bit.
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  But then I want to move back.
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  There's a musical sequence with the three of them.
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  If you don't if you're not familiar with the way that the
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  the show works out, the play works out, you're going backwards in time,
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  and you're seeing them essentially at their worst
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  and then working backwards to when they first met.
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  And they're at their best.
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  You can also argue that they're not at their best in the very beginning,
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  and it's somewhere in the middle and the whole point of the show is,
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  what is it that sets them on a different trajectory?
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  Because it's not just one thing, it's it's so many different things,
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  so many small things, so many large things.
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  And that's really the fun for the, you know,
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  the the, the, the whole point of the play. So
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  it's great to
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  be able to see these, these little moments because I'll tell you,
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  Groff in particular, it's spectacular at those little moments in this show,
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  these very slight, just like turns
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  and looks at Radcliffe's character in particular.
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  They are songwriters together who have, drifted apart.
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  But there's a scene, but the three of them, Lindsay
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  Mendez, Grass and Radcliffe.
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  And in the play, it's like once across in the center,
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  Radcliffe is to, the right.
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  If you're facing this stage and Mendez is to the left and you never see them in
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  a wide screen shot with the three of them to get, like, the feel of the stage.
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  You get Radcliffe and Groff in one shot, and then Mendez alone,
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  which is technically correct because the two of them are in one
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  room and she's in her own.
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  But there's the fun of how
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  you see it on the stage, and you'd never get to experience it.
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  And that happens in a lot of scenes.
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  Then there's some very weird
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  decisions on editing.
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  One of the characters, Gussie,
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  Gussie Carnegie, she's played by Krystal Joy Brown.
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  There's a number of lines where
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  you should stick with her,
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  and they cut away.
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  One of them is is very strange.
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  Where her, her husband in the middle of the show and towards.
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  Yeah, the middle of the show.
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  Jo Jo, who plays, Reg,
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  she's like their producer in many ways.
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  He's married to her at some point, but then they separate.
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  And while he is
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  struggling with this later life of, you know, not having very much money
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  and having to borrow money,
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  there's a moment where the two of them interact and she gives him some money,
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  and then she walks away to go to, like, you know, her apartment
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  and the camera stays on him super tight,
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  and she's in the background and you can't really see her.
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  She's out of focus and she stops and is looking at him.
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  But you cannot see at all, like the expression or anything on her face.
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  And then she continues to start walking, and then it cuts back to her
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  as like her back is to the camera.
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  And she's walking away.
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  And I was like, was such a strange choice.
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  And then I saw it happen a couple of more times, just in
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  little moments where I would stay on her if I had the choice.
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  Anyways, I brought this up to a friend of mine who loves this play
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  and they were like, oh, I have something to show you.
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  And they sent me.
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  It was a post that she had put up on Instagram, I believe it was Instagram.
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  And she and the actress was like,
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  hey, I just finally got a chance to see Marilyn.
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  It a long, long.
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  It's very weird to see yourself get cut out at such
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  little tiny moments, you know, handed around.
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  And I was like, oh, okay, I'm not going crazy.
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  So it's a little strange.
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  So that aside, though, the whole thing with the
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  the ultra closeness and
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  and really just bad, bad editing around one of the central characters of
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  that has a massive impact on these three characters.
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  I fully enjoyed this, but man,
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  I wish they'd just backed up a little bit, so absolutely watch it.
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  I think it's well worth your time.
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  Radcliffe, I would say
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  steals the show with,
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  the song ink.
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  Oh my God, what's what's, what's his name?
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  Let me look this up super quick.
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  Franklin Shepherd ink,
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  which that song is maybe like a half hour or so into the play.
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  It steals the movie, steals the whole thing right there.
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  It's incredible.
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  Very Sondheim type song
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  where Radcliffe has to speak at a thousand miles an hour.
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  While delivering this song.
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  So. Yeah, merrily, long, long.
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  I want to see more.
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  We're seeing more of this.
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  You know, obviously, it depends on how successful the show is and all that.
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  But getting, plays that were limited runs,
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  which every play is a limited run except, you know, very, very few musicals
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  that live forever and all that kind of stuff.
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  I think it's important for people to be able to see it,
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  who would never get a chance to see it otherwise.
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  Although you can if you ever go to the New York Library,
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  you can actually watch almost any Broadway show
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  that's ever been put on, because they've almost all been filmed.
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  And you can watch it.
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  I think what's and they kind of have like a record of who's who's watched what.
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  So you could actually do that as well.
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  But I, I hope we keep seeing this.
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  Obviously, the success of Hamilton was was one of these.
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  And now we have Mary Lee real long
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  which was supposed to be a movie shot also like four years ago with Paul Mescal.
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  I have no idea what ever happened to that.
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  But yeah, check out Merrily We Roll Along on Netflix.
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  But just keep in mind stage.
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  Let it be a stage. You can do both.
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  I, you know, we want to present it as a dramatic thing, give you a,
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  an experience you would never get in the theater, which it does give you.
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  But there's only maybe I have
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  4 or 5 moments where we actually see the stage, for what it is.
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  And funny enough, one of them is with that actress
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  who gets kind of cut in in weird ways,
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  because she's alone, on stage, and they go to an ultra wide
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  because there's a show lighting going around.
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  But I found it
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  again, a little odd. How?
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  Oh, now we use a wide shot when it's only one person.
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  Strange, but.
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  Yeah, check it out. Really worth it.
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  Jonathan Groff is fantastic.
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  Lindsay Mendez is the emotional glue
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  that keeps the two of them together and, you know, drives the show.
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  But fuck me, Radcliffe is so good.
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  So Hazel has all of that.
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  And everyone involved at that stage, everything.
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  All the actors and actresses.
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  Well done.
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  Sondheim would have would have done that. It's like.
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  Yeah, I'll definitely be checking it out.
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  I just didn't have the the time before we recorded to to watch it.
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  But yeah, there's,
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  there's an interesting thing now that where you, as you were saying,
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  like we're going to be seeing more filming of, stage productions.
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  I mean, you Marvel. Yeah,
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  yeah.
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  But, there is something that will be interesting
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  to see as, like as they gain popularity, are,
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  are they going to be over or like because, you know, it's not a film, right?
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  You kind of do have to acknowledge that you are filming a stage production here.
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  So okay, I don't know if you, you really want them to be overproduced
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  because at a certain point it's like, well, then,
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  well then it's a make it a film. And
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  I can I can give you an example of what I would say
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  is that perfect middle ground, the tragedy in Macbeth.
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  Where you could not.
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  You probably could, you might be able to pull off the production of that movie
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  on a stage, but it's absolutely shot as if it was a production on the stage.
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  But it feels like a movie.
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  It is, it is a really a unicorn.
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  In that sense I warn it's not in
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  my and I can't recall another one, but,
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  yeah, that that would be one where I would say.
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  Lives
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  right there in the middle, successfully.
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  And unfortunately, it's doesn't have a physical release.
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  I really hope it gets one one of these days.
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  I got I want to see that in, you know, uncompressed
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  4K on my TV and not have to have a goddamn subscription to Apple.
• 13:46
  So there's no there's no physical off the tragedy of Macbeth.
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  What?
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  No, there is not.
• 13:53
  That's wild. Yeah. It sucks.
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  That is. It sucks.
• 13:57
  That is out of control.
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  Apple. What is going on?
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  My hope is everything eventually winds up a criterion.
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  Like that's where my brain lives.
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  I'm like, dammit, just make this on criterion.
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  You know,
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  they've done Coen Brothers, even though it's have the Coen brothers on that one.
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  I think it's just Joel Coen, who worked on that one?
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  Yeah.
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  That's my distant hope is that's where it eventually happens.
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  Yeah.
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  Is that, you know, physical media stuff that you never thought
• 14:27
  would get a sucker for, like, troll two
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  has a 4K release.
• 14:35
  Suck it.
• 14:35
  Yeah, I. Guess. Cause I guess because they.
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  I mean, hey,
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  because there is a market for it, and you don't have to overproduce that disc
• 14:43
  because you know that that market is sort of like in this pocket, right?
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  And don't forget 35 millimeter.
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  I think, you know, if you were to technically scan it
• 14:55
  and scan it and scan it again so you could give it a resolution, it's like six K.
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  So 4K isn't even the full picture of what, 35 as possible.
• 15:04
  And and shit, what you talk about, you know, 70 millimeter Uber
• 15:08
  we're up to like 1112 K, which imagine
• 15:13
  a film looked three times clearer and larger at your home.
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  That's why.
• 15:19
  Yeah,
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  you probably would need a, projector, though.
• 15:23
  You'd have to have, like, large space, too, because.
• 15:27
  Yeah, I will say that there, it's not a lot,
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  but there are some films where I'm like, it does not
• 15:35
  your your TV at like, I have a 65, we have a 65 inch.
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  It's like it doesn't capture the grandness of.
• 15:43
  Imagine. You know the the theater.
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  Imagine Ashley of 20 years ago heard you say
• 15:51
  the 65 inch just isn't really capturing the size.
• 15:55
  Meanwhile, we were like 500 pounds Sony
• 15:58
  because that was 32in that we were pushing upstairs and.
• 16:02
  I didn't think anything of it.
• 16:03
  I yeah, you were like, this thing is fucking huge.
• 16:06
  Yeah I.
• 16:07
  Yeah.
• 16:08
  By the way, that that visual that does an actual thing that I had to do
• 16:12
  once, I owned a it was like a 32 inch, Sony Vega.
• 16:16
  That thing weighed hundreds of pounds.
• 16:19
  And me and my father and my friend Brian,
• 16:24
  we actually got planks of wood
• 16:27
  and laid it on the stairs and then pushed
• 16:30
  that TV up the stairs.
• 16:33
  You were behind it.
• 16:34
  You're pushing?
• 16:35
  Yeah, we were. Looking at it.
• 16:37
  Yeah. Yeah, we were. Yeah. And we.
• 16:39
  That's not, Yeah.
• 16:41
  We could not lift it and get it into the house safely.
• 16:44
  So that was what we had because it did like the one that we had
• 16:47
  didn't come up with the full box anyways, I will always remember that.
• 16:50
  And then thinking this TV now lives here, it will never be moved.
• 16:56
  And I think it did stay there until we moved.
• 16:58
  So it is while the progress we have made.
• 17:01
  Yeah. And now yeah.
• 17:02
  Now I'm a, I'm a snob of like when we,
• 17:06
  we were buying another TV
• 17:09
  for another room, I was like, I cannot it has to be an old.
• 17:12
  I can not go back.
• 17:14
  Oh no. Sitting here, sitting here.
• 17:16
  Like such a snobby like, nope.
• 17:18
  This like, I like watching movies at a friend's house or something,
• 17:22
  or a sister's house.
• 17:24
  Like a short.
• 17:25
  I'm like, this is.
• 17:27
  I was like, I cannot, I cannot possibly watch this movie.
• 17:29
  And this quality.
• 17:30
  That's that's like.
• 17:31
  Come down, just watch the movie.
• 17:33
  With no, no, no, no as things that I like.
• 17:38
  Eating but like, you can enjoy a movie.
• 17:41
  Yeah sure. You can get in 4K. But it won't.
• 17:45
  That won't be happening in my house. Okay.
• 17:48
  That's true. I mean, yeah.
• 17:50
  I'm say
• 17:51
  I have to travel a lot for work, so like I have to deal with motion
• 17:55
  sucking, blah, blah blah horseshit being on every TV
• 17:58
  that I see because I'm in hotels and you can't change that.
• 18:01
  They took away those remotes.
• 18:03
  Yeah, but hey, life is short, man.
• 18:07
  Okay, yourself going online?
• 18:08
  Why not go?
• 18:10
  God knows what'll happen next, right?
• 18:11
  Let's.
• 18:15
  Hey, guys.
• 18:15
  Ashley here.
• 18:16
  Thanks for listening to film. Curious if you enjoyed this episode.
• 18:18
  There's plenty more to come.
• 18:20
  I'll be reviewing new theatrical releases and new streaming as much as possible,
• 18:23
  so make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
• 18:26
  Thanks again! See you real soon!