Joseph Ruggiero as Frank and Emily Turner as Gussie in the University Players’ Merrily We Roll Along at the Studio Theatre, Cal State Long Beach.
Culture Writer
Merrily We Roll Along, playing through Oct. 12 at the Studio Theatre on the Cal State Long Beach campus, concerns Frank Shepard, a financially successful but personally bankrupt Hollywood mogul. Based on the 1934 play by the same name, the musical by Stephen Sondheim debuted in 1981 to less-than-favorable reviews, partly because of confusion as to what was going on. Though Merrily has undergone several revisions since then, this reviewer was still perplexed as to who was what to whom until sometime following intermission.
In the opening scene, dancers galore cavort about five tall dividers on wheels. They push, pull, and pose against what appear to be empty picture frames piled high atop each other, functioning sometimes as stage hands but mostly as an ancient Greek chorus that is not quite part of the action. Rarely, they play small parts, like the brunette who is either currently sleeping with Frank (Joseph Ruggiero) or is moments away from doing so.
Adding to this are questions about the relationship between the characters in this story-told-in-reverse, which starts in 1976 and ends in 1957. Is Mary (Colleen McCandless) Frank’s ex-wife? After all, she chastises him for not attending his son’s graduation in a way that only an ex-wife is permitted to do, lauding it over him that she did in fact attend. Or is Mary married to or estranged from Charley (Daniel Nakawatase), Frank’s spurned creative collaborator? Frank abandoned Charley when he heard the siren song of Hollywood and its mesmerizing promises of money— lots of it. Which in turn makes one question whether Charley is angry at Frank for giving up his ideals or angry at himself for not hitching a ride on Frank’s coat tails. Is Charley indignant or jealous? Self-righteous or self-loathing? Of course, the latter of these questions are the kind that good theater is supposed to elicit— but only after the logical questions posed earlier are answered.
Unfortunately, for no fault of the actors, it does not become clear until near the end of the play that both Mary and Charley have been suffering for 19 years from unrequited love. From the very beginning of their three-way friendship, Mary’s disappointment and feelings of rejection are of the common “hey, you fool, did you ever notice I’m a woman?” variety, while Charley’s are more complex, the betrayal of a male comrade-in-arms. This case, however, is even more tragic than most, since Frank barely realizes that a bond that deep ever existed between them, leaving one to wonder if it was all in Charley’s head.
Granted, Frank seems clueless in general, as is acutely apparent with Gussie, aptly played by Emily Turner in an orange tube dress that’s so form-fitting it must have been spray-painted on.
The vixen-starlet-turned-star does a masterful job of turning on her va-va-voom in a seduction scene with Frank, which, regrettably, half the audience couldn’t see because of those damn dividers. She puts sex right in Frank’s lap, and he barely takes notice. It’s as if she’s seducing a piece of plywood, not a flesh-and-blood man.
Which leads one to wonder: What’s so great about Frank? He’s a terrible friend, a lousy husband two times over, and from all that we can see with Gussie, not so hot in bed either. So what’s the appeal? Is it that Mary and Charley are stuck in a past that never existed and they think that by clinging to Frank in whatever way possible they can bring back those golden days? Or is it that Frank is so successful in the pedestrian sense of the word (read: fame and tons of money) that he must have done something right and so let’s glum onto him and maybe that will add some verve to our lackluster lives?
What is anything but lackluster is the singing of Maddie Larson, who plays Frank’s first ex-wife. One would swear she’s an opera star the way she hits the high notes and gives her all to her heartfelt solos. She brings a professionalism to her performance that is not often found in someone so young.
Colleen McCandless (playing Mary) is fantastic as a drunk in the opening scenes, spewing one-liners as quickly as she takes another swig. “What do you do?” asks a chorus member, to which Mary replies, “I drink.” The gal asks more insistently, “No! What do you really do?” Mary responds, “I really drink.” In the same scene, Frank introduces a cute, young thing to Mary: “We go way back.” Mary rejoins, “But seldom forward.”
Daniel Nakawatase as Charley steals the stage when he belts out a song of his frustration, anger, disappointment, sadness, and borderline hatred vis-Ã -vis Frank— during a TV interview no less.
McCandless, Nakawatase and Ruggiero, who plays Frank, are all at their best in the two final scenes when the characters themselves were also at their best— when they were young, idealistic and willing to take a chance with their careers and on each other.
Merrily We Roll Along continues at CSULB’s Studio Theatre through Sunday, Oct. 12. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm, 6pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm. General admission is $15, senior tickets are $12 and student tickets are $12 with valid ID. Attendees may park next to the theater for $5 or with a valid CSULB parking permit and access parking and the theater via West Campus Drive. For tickets and information, call (562) 985-5526 or visit csulb.edu/depts/theatre .
