‘Merrily We Roll Along’ film capture to debut in cinemas this December

Broadway audiences who missed out on tickets to the sold-out revival of Merrily We Roll Along will soon have a second chance to experience the show, this time on the big screen. Sony Pictures and Fathom Entertainment confirmed on 16 July that a live recording of the 2024 Tony-winning production will open in movie theatres worldwide on 5 December.

The cinematic release preserves Maria Friedman’s acclaimed staging of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical, which stars Jonathan Groff as composer-turned-producer Franklin Shepard, Daniel Radcliffe as lyricist Charley Kringas and Lindsay Mendez as novelist Mary Flynn. All three performers earned rave reviews, and the revival collected the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, along with acting trophies for Groff and Radcliffe.

Filmed during the show’s record-breaking run at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, the capture offers a rare opportunity for a Broadway production to reach mainstream cinemas. Comparable releases have been scarce; Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton shifted from an intended theatrical launch to Disney+ in 2020 due to pandemic shutdowns, while live recordings of Waitress and Frozen streamed online after being shot in London.

First staged in 1981, Merrily We Roll Along famously flopped in its initial Broadway outing, closing after just 16 performances. Friedman’s revival reframed the story of three ambitious friends by emphasising its emotional core and staging the narrative in reverse chronological order, beginning with the disintegration of the trio’s relationship in middle age and winding back to their optimistic youth on a Manhattan rooftop.

The film version is not the only Merrily project in the pipeline. Director Richard Linklater is currently shooting a separate feature adaptation over nearly two decades, enabling his cast—Beanie Feldstein, Ben Platt and Paul Mescal—to age naturally with their characters. That project remains years away, making the December cinema release the first chance for theatregoers and Sondheim fans worldwide to witness the revival that reshaped the musical’s legacy.

Tickets and screening locations for the live capture will be announced by Fathom Entertainment in the coming months.

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