Merrily We Roll Along has a reputation as one of Stephen Sondheim’s problem musicals, with many a production struggling to rise to the brilliance of the score. The show famously flopped when it premiered on Broadway in 1981, running for just 16 performances. Critics pointed to the youthfulness of the original cast, who were in their 20s and considered too inexperienced to capture the jaundiced disillusionment of the middle-aged characters at the start of the show. Others felt that the structure of the musical, which moves backwards in time, was challenging for audiences.

Since then it has had a few rewrites and there have been a number of notable productions – including Maria Friedman’s stunning 2012 version at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London – that prove that when you stage Merrily We Roll Along really well, it really works.

Ainsley Melham, Andrew Coshan and Elise McCann in Merrily We Roll Along at the Hayes Theatre Co. Photo © Phil Erbacher

Dean Bryant has had great success at the Hayes Theatre Co, directing fresh, invigorating, insightful productions of Sweet Charity, Little Shop of Horrors and Sondheim’s...