Emotional 2024 Tony Award Winner Finally Hits the Screen! 'Merrily We Roll Along' in Theaters from Friday, June 26

The musical 'Merrily We Roll Along,' which depicts the turbulent relationship over 30 years between a composer and his lifelong friends, a writer and a lyricist/playwright, is coming to theaters. The film version of the Broadway-acclaimed production directed by Maria Friedman, featuring a star-studded cast including Jonathan Groff (Kristoff in 'Frozen') and Daniel Radcliffe ('Harry Potter'), will be released in theaters, and the Japanese theatrical trailer has also been completed.

Film 'Merrily We Roll Along' © 2025 Now You Know Film LP

Based on the play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, 'Merrily We Roll Along' is a Broadway musical that premiered in 1981, depicting the turbulent 30-year relationship of popular Hollywood producer Frank, former best-selling author Mary, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Charley in reverse chronological order. The music was composed by Stephen Sondheim, a maestro of the musical world who has produced numerous masterpieces such as 'West Side Story' (lyrics) and 'Sweeney Todd' and 'Into the Woods' (music and lyrics). It features many of Sondheim's beautiful songs, including the title track 'Merrily We Roll Along,' 'Old Friends,' 'Not a Day Goes By,' 'Good Thing Going,' and 'Our Time.' The production you will see this time is the Maria Friedman-directed version that was performed on Broadway in the 2023-2024 season, becoming a massive hit that broke box office records at the Hudson Theatre. It received high praise from critics and won four awards at the 2024 Tony Awards: Best Revival of a Musical, Best Leading Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Musical, and Best Orchestrations. Please enjoy the masterpiece on screen, featuring Friedman's meticulous and clear direction that vividly brought to life the 'reverse chronological story' presented by George Furth's masterful script and Sondheim's complex music, along with brilliant performances by a talented cast including Tony Award-winners Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. Do not miss it, as it will be screened for a limited time at each theater.

Theatrical Trailer

We also received a comment from Keiko Tsuneda, a translator who supervised the Japanese subtitles for this release.

'The musical "Merrily We Roll Along" premiered in New York in 1981, but apparently it was not well-received and closed quickly. It seems it was a project Sondheim had a strong attachment to, and after significant rewrites including the music, it was revived Off-Broadway and in the West End in 1994, gaining popularity and coming back to life.

As for translated performances in Japan, it premiered with Amon Miyamoto's direction in 2013, and was performed in 2021 with the same direction by Maria Friedman as the one filmed this time. With this footage, you can see the characters' expressions more clearly, offering a different kind of enjoyment from seeing the stage performance live.

Even if you are not conscious of life's crossroads or turning points, everyone had the possibility of living a different life than they do now. That depends not only on one's own choices but also on the actions of people around them and an accumulation of coincidences. I was deeply moved once again by such subtle flavors and wonders of life.'

Keiko Tsuneda (Translator)

Film 'Merrily We Roll Along' Copyright/courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

■ Screening Theaters

Hokkaido: Sapporo Cinema Frontier 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Aeon Cinema Ebetsu 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Tokyo: TOHO Cinemas Hibiya 6/26 (Fri) -
TOHO Cinemas Ikebukuro 6/26 (Fri) -
Osaka: Osaka Station City Cinema 6/26 (Fri) -
Kanagawa: Lawson United Cinemas Minatomirai 7/10 (Fri) -
Ibaraki: MOVIX Tsukuba 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Gunma: MOVIX Isesaki 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Saitama: MOVIX Kawaguchi 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Aeon Cinema Urawa Misono 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Chiba: MOVIX Kashiwanoha 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Iwate: Chuo Eigagekijo 6/26 (Fri) -
Ishikawa: Aeon Cinema Kanazawa 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Toyama: Hotori-za Sequential release
Shizuoka: Cine Gallery Sequential release
Aichi: Midland Square Cinema 7/10 (Fri) - 7/16 (Thu)
Midland Cinema Nagoya Airport 7/10 (Fri) - 7/23 (Thu)
Aeon Cinema Nagoya Chaya 7/10