Sondheim encore: 'Merrily We Roll Along'

Is there a more beloved, ravishingly musical problem-child than Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along"? A near-mythic failure that closed in 1981 after 16 performances, this idealistic flop about disillusioning success has been reworked in so many ways for so many different productions that its back-story feels as wistful as its show-business plot.

And so it goes, alas, for the incarnation at City Center's Encores!, a version with so much promise that the series extended its usual short week to 15 performances. Director James Lapine, Sondheim's collaborator for such masterworks as "Sunday in the Park With George" and "Into the Woods," would seem to have arrived ready-made with solutions from his well-received 1985 revival at the LaJolla Playhouse.

But the main casting, an exciting prospect on paper, lacks the chemistry to spark George Furth's awkward cautionary tale about the devolution of three talented kids -- told backward from Bel Air swank in 1980 to a dreamy-scruffy Manhattan rooftop in 1955. Lapine's direction is surprisingly sluggish. The useful and good-looking visuals belabor the familiar cultural timeline.

Buoying things up, as always, are Sondheim's excruciatingly beautiful songs about hopeful, smart young people who dare to sing about the joys of "Opening Doors" and swearing, "We are the movers/we are the shakers/we are the names in tomorrow's papers."

But, too often, these actors lack the necessary vocal heft. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the exuberantly talented fast-rapping star and Tony-winning creator of "In the Heights," is oddly subdued and cautious as Charley, the serious lyricist. Colin Donnell has the voice but not much pizazz as the composer who loses his way in Hollywood glitz and greed. Celia Keenan-Bolger has an endearing edge as the one-hit, sloppy-drunk novelist who pines for the oblivious composer.

For the record, this "Merrily" omits the graduation scenes and the songs "The Hills of Tomorrow" and "Rich and Happy." The onstage orchestra, enlarged from the original, sounds glorious. But of all the revisions and rearrangements I've seen, only the 2002 version at the Kennedy Center had a stage life to match the wonders of the music. On the bright side, though the characters wish they'd "kept growing instead of getting old," this show remains forever-young enough to keep trying.

WHAT "Merrily We Roll Along"

WHERE New York City Center, 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, Manhattan

INFO $25-$125; 212-581-1212, through Feb. 19; nycitycenter.org

BOTTOM LINE Sluggish production, beloved problem-child of a show.