Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, Lonnie
Price's documentary on the making of Merrily We Roll Along, is jammed
with treasures, such as footage of auditions, rehearsals, and performances from
the original production and then-and-now interviews with members of the
original cast. What a disappointment, then, that it's not a particularly good
movie.
It might have hit me differently if I knew less about Merrily. But
I know a lot about it, and I was annoyed by what the documentary left out. For
example, at one point the movie refers to the successful productions after the
original disaster. But no one mentions that it was extensively rewritten. I was
also annoyed that so many cast members were barely mentioned or not mentioned
at all. Surely it's worth a few seconds to acknowledge the presence of Liz
Calloway and Giancarlo Esposito? It certainly would have been a better use of
the movie’s precious minutes than the cliché shots of spooling film and of
Manhattan that Price uses instead.
