From left: Brett Bowker, William Shipley, Catherine Ariale and Dominique Ramos in West Springfield High School’s production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along. Photo by John Ariale
When we're young, we're naïve. We're innocent. We're dreamers, and lovers, and most importantly friends. The world is at our feet, and we think nothing will ever get in the way of our relationships or our dreams.
Picture this: three friends — Franklin, Charley and Mary — with big dreams living in New York City. Frank has just come back from the military and is rekindling his love for music. Charley and Mary are aspiring writers. Mary is head over heels in love with Frank, but doesn't know how to tell him. These three friends have open hearts, but the city corrupts them. It doesn't happen all at once; it happens gradually, over almost three decades. Success chews them up and spits them out.
I just described one of the biggest cliches known to mankind. Now try to picture this: looking at the friendship backwards. We meet a corrupted Frank in Bel Air California, 1976. He's sold out to the movie industry. He's cheating on, and leaving, his second wife. He's lost the two most important people in his life — Charley and Mary. Going back in time from 1976 to 1957, “Merrily We Roll Along” by George Furth with music by Stephen Sondheim shows us just how fragile our dreams really are, and how irrevocably they can be destroyed.
Recently, the West Springfield High School Spartans presented this eye opening Broadway musical. Some might say that this content is too heavy for high schoolers, considering that the issues our main characters deal with are alcoholism, adultery, divorce, and the overall theme of dying dreams, but the Spartans handled the content extremely well and with impressive maturity.
Darion Roberts, Scott Burrows, and Mallory Astrow (Frank, Charley, and Mary respectively) perfectly portrayed their relationship, and the concept of going backwards by becoming just slightly more youthful each time we saw them. Scott Burrows carried the show with his humor, and overall perfect interpretation of Charley, while Mallory Astrow as Mary carried the show emotionally. Other knockout performers included Frank's first and second wives: Barbara Lawson as Beth (who shined especially in the second act) and Catherine Ariale as Gussie (whose overall sass combined with extraordinary vocals made her the perfect Gussie).
The set, special effects, and costume crews helped portray the time shifts in a beautifully simplistic way. Most of the set pieces were painted in shades of grey to represent areas of the mind that aren't remembered clearly. Special effects consisted of three hanging projection boards which showed photos of the cast, newspaper headlines, scenery, and sometimes even video to portray which year was taking place. The costumes were spot on with each member of the ensemble wearing a decade appropriate costume in the different scenes. The main characters were also decade appropriate, but always seemed to stand out in whatever situation they found themselves in.
The quick scene changes, for both costume and set, were seamless and deserve a standing ovation. Speaking of standing ovations, the pit orchestra was crazy in the best kind of way. They may have been the best high school pit orchestra I've ever heard.
I wish I could look back in time like Frank, Mary, and Charley to see this show again. The West Springfield Spartans deserve many applause for their outstanding performance of “Merrily We Roll Along.”