Collider is reporting that Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Merrily We Roll Along, is being adapted into a movie by Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Where’d You Go, Bernadette) with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse producing. Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen, The Politician) and Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart, Lady Bird) are set to star in the project.
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Merrily We Roll Along, which was initially based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, follows Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career in New York and all his friends in order to produce movies in Los Angeles. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backward in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today.
Platt will play the lead, while Feldstein will be portraying his best friend, theater critic Mary Flynn. The film is reportedly being shot in reverse chronological order, as the play and musical end when the characters are in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.
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Feldstein’s upcoming projects include the indie comedy How to Build a Girl and A24’s The Humans. She is also starring as Monica Lewinsky in the third installment of FX’s American Crime Story. Platt, who is also known for his role as Benji in Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2, will next be seen on the small screen in Ryan Murphy’s The Politician.
(Photos by John Lamparski & Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
