Theater Review : ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ Stumbles at East West

The Stephen Sondheim/George Furth musical “Merrily We Roll Along” is one of the most frustrating shows in the canon. Hal Prince couldn’t make it work on Broadway, where it ran for 16 performances in 1981 and effectively ended the intense 11-year collaboration of Prince and Sondheim. Both James Lapine and Susan Schulman have directed rejiggered versions, regionally and Off Broadway, respectively. “Merrily” gets rejiggered but it doesn’t get fixed. The new production at East West Players is no exception.

Directors go on trying because they look beyond the show’s awkward book (which Furth adapted from the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart) to its raison d’e^tre--a sometimes great score with songs that flesh out the dreams of characters who are brittle and unlikable at first meeting. “Growing Up,” “Not a Day Goes By” and the especially beautiful “Our Time” are songs that beckon, and once they grab you, they hold you tight.

“Merrily” begins at a 1976 Bel-Air party at the home of one-time composer, now film producer Franklin Shepard (Scott Watanabe). His oldest best friend Mary (Deborah Nishimura) is a raging alcoholic who is severely judgmental about Frank’s shallow Hollywood friends. Frank’s other oldest best friend, his former lyricist Charley (Zar Acayan), is not invited; the two haven’t spoken in years and their breakup was so bitter that no one can even mention Charley’s name in Frank’s presence. The first scene ends with Frank’s nasty second wife, Gussie (Kerry K. Carnahan), throwing iodine into the face of her husband’s young mistress.

How did Frank’s life get to be such a pathetic mess? “Merrily” goes backward in time in increments to answer that question, all the way back to a night in 1957 when Frank and Mary and Charley first became best friends. In the play’s last scene, the trio, now college-age, stand on a Manhattan rooftop and watch together as Sputnik soars overhead, their pure hearts and aching ambitions soaring with it.

Essentially, “Merrily” gives us characters who are tedious and asks us to care how they got that way. Occasionally we do, but the character at the play’s center, Franklin Shepard, remains a blank, even with the addition of the lovely song “Growing Up,” which helps to explain his bad life choices only a little.

This is a trying musical under the best of circumstances, and the production at East West is not the best of circumstances. Under the direction of Tim Dang and Glen Chin, the show looks awkward. A few paltry dance steps are repeated over and over. “Franklin Shepard Inc.,” Charley’s blistering denouncement of Frank, should be a vital number; it is squeezed into a corner of the stage so that Charley, Frank and the TV woman who is interviewing them are right on top of each other. As Charley, Acayan delivers a decent rendition of the song, but he is trapped in this claustrophobic and ungraceful staging, in which he is required to manhandle the interviewer while singing.

Of the three principals, Nishimura stands out as Mary, who transforms from bloated and bitter to young, slender and heartbroken with unrequited love for Franklin. It is actually possible to care about her. In Watanabe’s hands, Franklin remains stolid and unreadable until he becomes young and sappy. The ensemble sounds good together, but there is not one outstanding solo number in the show, vocally speaking. In many cases, the singers seem unsure of their material.

As always with “Merrily,” you are invited to hear the songs and imagine another show that could have been.

* “Merrily We Roll Along,” 4424 Santa Monica Blvd., Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Nov . 5. $20-$25. (213) 660-0366. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.