“Merrily We Roll Along” at East Brunswick Community Players

In this legendary musical by Sondheim and Furth, we witness the rise of filmmaker Franklin Shepard and his two best friends -- from cold-water-flat artists to fame and fortune on Broadway stages and Hollywood screens -- and the heartbreaking series of personal compromises that get them there. The thrill is, the story is told backwards, starting with Franklin's fabulous but empty success and leading us through the spiral of mistakes that contributed to his journey down the wrong path. Knowing full well the doom in store, we see Frank break with his best friends Mary and Charley, watch him take a mistress that will lead to a manipulative wife, and see his younger self infused with the idealism we know he later loses. It's a brilliant, poignant retrospective of the American Dream -- and how it went sour