Merrily We Roll Along

March 30, 2026 00:03:26
Merrily We Roll Along
Flicks with The Film Snob
Merrily We Roll Along

Mar 30 2026 | 00:03:26

/

Show Notes

Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical goes backwards in time telling of three friends and their pursuit of fame and fortune on Broadway. I always thought the idea of telling a story in reverse chronological order was a relatively recent one—from Harold Pinter’s play “Betrayal” in 1978, to be exact. But I’ve just discovered that over a century ago, in 1923, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart did it in their play “Merrily We Roll Along.” It starts with the smashing success of a playwright (the main character), and then goes backward in time through each act, showing through this remarkable reversed…

Other Episodes

Episode

March 03, 2020 00:04:13
Episode Cover

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Celine Sciamma’s remarkably intimate, elegant drama about the bonds between women explores the path of women artists, and how love is fostered when women...

Listen

Episode

September 18, 2018 00:04:49
Episode Cover

Bisbee ’17

Robert Greene documents the centenary reenactment of the Bisbee deportation, the infamous rounding up and expulsion of striking copper miners in Bisbee, Arizona, in...

Listen

Episode 0

July 17, 2022 00:03:25
Episode Cover

Lost Illusions

A splendid adaptation of Balzac’s great novel about a young poet becoming embroiled in the petty world of Paris journalism in the 1820s. Lost...

Listen