Merrily We Roll Along (play)

Merrily We Roll Along is a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It concerns a man who has lost the idealistic values of his youth. Its innovative structure presents the story in reverse order, with the character regressing from a mournful adult to a young man whose future is filled with promise.

The 1934 Broadway production received mostly good notices, however it was a financial failure and has not been revived on Broadway. The 1981 musical adaptation has been considerably more successful, having been revived several times.

Hart, on a journey from Hollywood to New York in 1931, was inspired to write a play about an American family's difficulties, over 30 years, coping with the challenges of life in the 20th century, beginning with their innocence and optimism at the beginning of the century to the dashed hopes caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Before he could realize his vision, however, he was scooped by Noël Coward's British version of a similar story, Cavalcade, and he shelved the idea. A few years later, however, Hart turned to Kaufman, his collaborator on the 1930 hit, Once in a Lifetime. The idea had now evolved to tell a story backwards about an idealistic, yet ambitious playwright and his difficulties.

The Broadway production, directed by Kaufman, opened on September 29, 1934 at the Music Box Theatre, where it ran for 155 performances. The 55-member cast included Kenneth MacKenna as Richard Niles, Walter Abel as Jonathan Crale, Jessie Royce Landis as Althea Royce, and Mary Philips as Julia Glenn.

The play has not been revived on Broadway, and its tour following the Broadway production was short.

New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote: "After this declaration of ethics, it will be impossible to dismiss Mr Kaufman and Mr Hart as clever jesters with an instinct for the stage." Despite good notices, the play was not a financial success, as the demands of the large-scale production made it expensive.Time Magazine wrote, "Superbly staged...; superbly acted by the biggest cast seen in a legitimate Broadway production this season, Merrily We Roll Along is an amusing and affecting study...."

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