Movie of the Week: Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened

Alexa: “Best Worst Thing that Ever Could Have Happened” is a compelling tell regardless of whether or not you’re familiar with the musical at its center. There is something immensely relatable about youthful idealism and journeying toward a future you may not have imagined. On paper, “Merrily We Roll Along” sounds like it should have been a surefire hit. It has an intriguing structure that plays with time. The choice to cast teens and young adults playing older versions of their characters rather than the other way around adds an extra layer of interest. And of course, the original Broadway production had two of theater’s most prolific minds at the helm. The documentary does a solid job of exploring the show’s problems without diminishing the young cast’s enthusiasm for it and the lasting impact it had on their lives. The movie is a love letter to a transformative experience, but it’s also honest. It almost functions as a reverse “Merrily We Roll Along” in structure, beginning with the actors’ optimism for the future and escalating toward their eventual realities. It piqued my interest in the show on its own merits, and made me want to see it just to witness this creation that influenced these people’s lives so greatly. You can’t help but become emotionally invested because of their sincerity all these years later, and the film’s intimate execution only bolstered my connection to it.

Joel: I had heard of Merrily We Roll Along before watching the show, but really, it’s just been this tiny musical that came and went during the height of Sondheim. The show came out between Sweeney Todd and Sundays in the Park With George, with Into the Woods following right after that. With it being surrounded by Sondheim’s biggest hits, it’s easy to see how Merrily We Roll Along is a show that’s easy to overlook, so it seemed a bit odd that this would be the show that got an entire documentary dedicated to its production. Apparently several hours of footage was shot during the production in 1981 for a documentary on ABC that was never completed. It would have made since at the time to try and capture the process of a Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince show since at the time they created five straight musical hits in the past ten years.

In many ways this documentary is a completion of that unfinished ABC documentary. Tons of footage from the time is incorporated into the movie giving you an amazing glimpse behind the curtain of what goes into getting a show from concept to opening night. But what really makes the documentary is the juxtaposition of the footage from 1981 and the new footage added thirty years later. Perhaps by coincidence, the musical that is the main subject of the movie is about the passing of time, hopes and dreams for the future, the process of dreams lost and dreams changed, which echos the documentary as well. The movie takes both its viewers and its subjects through an emotional roller coaster. You watch a handful of kids achieve their dream at an impossibly young age, and at the same time get to witness where they are thirty years later and follow the different paths they took to get from then to today.

This is a heartfelt and emotional story and it’s told with a genuine passion for musical theater and this show in particular. If you have any passing interest in broadway or musicals at all this is a fantastic look at the process of a show coming together. But this also works as a story of life dreams changing and adjusting as time goes on. It’s incredibly powerful to listen to this group of people talk about something that happened to them decades ago at this point and how it impacted their lives, and how they today each approach the show and the theater differently.

Chris: I'm curious to find out what was it exactly that caused future productions of Merrily We Roll Along to be more successful compared to the original production. Was it the original cast too young to portray the older, bitter versions of their character? Was the plot executed better in those productions? Or was the familiarity with the musical through the original cast recording the factor in causing the story to be more easily digestible in later productions? It could be a combinations of these and many other factors and perhaps the critics at the time simply weren't ready for a musical such as Merrily We Roll Along. Ultimately I think that it might mostly lie in the hands of the blissfully, ignorant youthful cast because hardly any of them spoke up during rehearsals and didn't really notice anything wrong with the musical until they saw the reaction of the crowd during previews. A more seasoned cast might have made suggestions or at the very least would've spoken up against the decision of the silly shirts instead of costumes. Any type of production is a collaborative effort and you're not getting much of a collaborative back-and-forth if the cast is just happy to be there and too starstruck to really offer any input. I do like that the documentary doesn't point fingers which could have been an easy avenue to go down especially since the director was one of the main cast members. Instead, it offers an inside look to a musical that should've done so much better than the outcome and showed what that failure did to everyone involved.

Jason: Merrily We Roll Along is not a show with which I am familiar. I had heard of it in passing and may have heard a song or two here and there but I knew nothing of the story or anything. It's concept was daring. The idea of telling a story backwards on stage with kids playing jaded, middle-aged fogies was a tough gamble, especially for the early 80’s. It's a story and a concept that was ahead of its time. Were it pitched to producers today, I feel that it would be a totally different tale. Stage-based story telling has evolved so much over the last 30 years. Considering the cult following the show has gained since its initial flop, I am not surprised that modern musical fans go for a concept like this.

The others have mentioned that this documentary nicely parallels the show’s plot. The optimism and excitement felt at the beginning is crushed and trampled but then turned into hopeful, forward-looking nostalgia. That is exactly what the story is about.

After watching this doc, I would like to not only get my hands on the album but also try to find a local production and see what it's all about.

Two unrelated notes. Jason Alexander has hair at the end! Where did that come from?? Also, Netflix is now suggesting I watch “Oh, Hello”... Screw you, Netflix.