Terrific lead and featured performances make The Fable Theatre’s back-to-basics intimate revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along at the Whitefire a tasty Sondheim lover’s treat.

It’s party time circa 1976, and famed Broadway-to-Hollywood composer Franklin Shepard (Nick Giedris) finds himself surrounded by “the movers” and “the shapers” who have helped him reach the top, if only Frank hadn’t forgotten what it was that once inspired him.

Then, in a move that might at first stump audiences unfamiliar with the musical’s reverse chronology, Furth’s book jumps back in time to 1973 and the New York TV studio where Frank and his longtime best friend/lyric-writing partner Charley (Philip McBride) are being interviewed about their collaboration, Charley’s rant about “Franklin Shepard Inc.” making it abundantly clear that these “Old Friends” can never again make it “Like It Was,” to quote three of Sondheim’s best Merrily songs.

As Merrily We Roll Along progresses backwards, we meet the women in Franklin’s life, most prominently first wife Beth Spencer (Jennifer Knox), the third member of his nightclub act with Charley back in Greenwich Village circa 1960, and …

Gussie Carnegie (Katy Jane Harvey), the Broadway star who becomes Frank’s second wife.

Most important of all is the song writer’s onetime closest female friend Mary Flynn (Conchita Belisle Newman), finally fed up after twenty years of friendship by Frank’s career trajectory of late and ready to forge on ahead in life without him.

Other supporting characters include bigwig producer Joe Josephson (Scott Weintraub), ambitious TV journalist KT (Lauren Magness), lawyer/deal maker Jerome (Adam Fried), aspiring screenwriter Ru (Alex Brown), bubble-headed would-be actress Meg Kincaid (Annie Claire Hudson).

Merrily We Roll Along’s reverse chronology proves an inspired choice, tempering the joy and optimism of three 20something best friends with the knowledge of how sadly it all turned out.

Leading lady Newman wears multiple hats at the Whitefire, as co-producer with McBride, as set designer, and most significantly as director, making deft use of a mostly bare stage (aside from some movable furniture pieces and a piano on wheels) while eliciting what is most essential when Merrily We Roll Along is done bare-bones—performances that propel and inform both Sondheim’s songs and Furth’s book.

 Giedris’s leading-man good looks make it clear from the get-go that Charley’s envy of his best friend likely goes back years before they ever set pen to paper, and he’s got vocals and acting chops to match.

Newman’s Mary has us rooting for her even at her most self-destructive, and since Merrily’s reverse chronology has the character mellowing and softening as time rolls back, our affection for her only grows.

As for Charley, rarely has a musical theater performer been given a more thrilling or more devastating talent showcase than “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” and McBride pulls out all the emotional stops to thunderous, much-deserved audience applause.

 Knox plays against type as Beth and in so doing reinvents herself as an ingenue with edge, her “Not A Day Goes By” proving a particular heartstopper.

There’s not a false moment in Weintraub’s quintessential Broadway bigwig Joe, and in one of the year’s most sensational featured turns …

L.A. musical theater star Harvey burns up the stage with her fearlessly fierce and fabulous take on Gussie, a russet-maned Broadway diva you do not want to tangle with if you want to come out alive.

Company members Trae Adair, Arden Agos, Brown, Fried, Hudson, Sam Intrater, Lauren Josephs, Magness, Jacqueline Patrice, Jonny Perl, Gabriel Ramirez, Caleb Rogers, and Jini Scoville provide invaluable vocal support throughout in addition to essaying multiple cameo roles.

Sondheim’s melodies (and Jonathan Tunick’s orchestrations, adeptly scaled down to four musicians) are in the expert hands (and keyboard-tickling fingers) of music director Richard Berent, accompanied by Neil Cole, Cheryl Gaul, and Greg Niemi.

Add to this Paige Elizabeth Newman’s costumes (especially Gussie’s seemingly endless array of curve-hugging stunners) and her engaging bits of choreography, Derrick McDaniel’s vibrant lighting, and Jason Trevor Newman’s skillful sound design mix and you’ve got a production that may not be what you’d get to see with a bigger budget, but doesn’t fall even a bit short in entertainment value.

Ariella Salinas Fiore is assistant director and intimacy coordinator. Betsy Paull-Rick is production stage manager. Jeff G. Rack is set design consultant. Mitch Rosander is lighting and sound technician.

With Merrily We Roll Along about to make a star-studded return to Broadway in November, the time could not be riper for The Fable Theatre to revive it for L.A. audiences.

You may not get to see Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe, and Lindsay Mendez as Franklin, Charley, and Mary, but with tickets at the Whitefire going for about 5% of what premium orchestra seating would cost you in New York, there’s no better (or more entertaining) theater bargain in town.

Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.
www.thefabletheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
March 26, 2023
Photos: Amber Caul

Tags: George Furth, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Sondheim, The Fable Theatre, Whitefire Theatre