Thursday, January 31, 2019

MERRILY! a Musical by George Furth (Ronnie/Henry) and Sondheim

There are a plethora of amazing supporting actors who have appeared on the Monkees TV Show, and several amazing writers.

If you don't know about George Furth, he was both.  Not only was he IN 2 episodes-the first "One Man Shy?Peter and the Debutante" was written by Treva Silverman-who went on to win an Emmy for writing for the Mary Tyler Moore Show. His performance in the episode is QUITE a showcase, and he is an evil delight to watch in every scene that he gleefully steals.
His next appearance, in the 2nd season, was "A Coffin Too Frequent"-which was otherwise notable for showcasing Ruth Buzzi (don't try too hard for a plot).  Sadly, there is no decent scene of them together-one of the MANY real missed opportunities of the series.

Besides this introduction to Monkee fans, he kept working as an actor (96 credits on IMDB!!!), including in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (he was no slouch!)

And despite having passed away in 2008, he is STILL WORKING! Or at least his words are! ;)

Currently, in NYC, you can see them being performed in the show Merrily We Roll Along!
https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/get-tickets/2018-2019-season/merrily-we-roll-along/

It's a story that is told backwards-an idea from the George S Kaufman/Moss Hart original.  We start with all the characters "old" and cynical. (Old being 43!) then we get scenes of how they got to be so unhappy, and finally, we end at their beginning-when they get excited about their futures.  Funny, seems to be the way a lot of people discovered the Monkees too. (Seeing them as middle aged men on MTV, talking about their glory days in the show-and the middle years being a question of unexplored scenes)

And this is sometimes known as Sondheim's big flop (when it was on Bway, it lasted 6 performances).  Don't feel too bad-their other collaboration was Company.