The art of the filmed stage play has progressed markedly over the last decade. You’ll often get shots that you wouldn’t be able to as part of the audience, even with binoculars. If you’re in the cheap seats, you might bring binoculars to see everyone on stage up close and personal, especially if it’s the Tony Award-winning 2023 revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” that includes Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff.

This revival received seven Tony Award nominations, winning Best Revival of a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical (Jonathan Groff), Best Featured Actor in a Musical) Daniel Radcliffe) and Best Orchestrations (Jonathan Tunick). Director of the stage play, Maria Friedman, also directs this musical film.

I love musicals. I love Jonathan Groff. I did not love this filmed musical. See it for the Tony Award worthy performances and production values.

Friedman had previously directed a revival in 2012 that opened on the West End in 2013. The three stars of this musical movie, Groff, Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez starred in the 2022 New York Theatre Workshop production and all six principal actors reprised their roles at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway.

The play goes backwards chronologically and looks at how three New York City-based friends: Franklin Shepard (Groff), Charley Kringas (Radcliffe) and Mary Flynn (Norwalk, California-born Lindsay Mendez). Franklin and Charley begins as college students watching the New York skies for Sputnik (1957). Frank asks Charley to turn one of his political satires into a musical. Mary meets the two when she also comes up to the rooftop to see the Russian satellite. The beginning scene, however, shows the audience that Charley has become successful in 1977, but is now alienated from both Mary and Charley and, his wife, Gussie. The play then rewinds to 1973, to the sixties and finally to 1957, showing how Charley’s choices led to these estrangements.

The play does have California roots. “Merrily We Roll Along” is a musical by Stephen Sondheim with book by George Furth, all based on a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The musical has been changed since its 1981 Broadway debut.  James Lapine directed a production in 1985 at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego.

While there’s nothing wrong with any of the performances and I do love being able to have closeups occasionally of the actors, as the movie director, Friedman indulges in closeup too often and that hurts some of the flow and transitions. You don’t get a sense sometimes that you could read the room–the room here being the stage and whatever room the set is trying to define. I wanted to sit farther back in the theater than I usually do, but it wouldn’t have helped. I have seen Groff perform, in person, from the front row of a hotel ballroom and the film still has closeups that are way too close and too often. According to the director, a lot of work was done to improve the lighting on the faces in post. Still, if you couldn’t fly to New York to see these performances, do see it but lower your expectations.

“Merrily We Roll Along” had its cinematic premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival (12 October 2025) and screened a AFI Fest (25 October 2025). The film will be released in theaters on 5 December 2025 by Sony Classics.