Broadway shows rarely play in cinemas. Merrily We Roll Along could change that

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

When the latest revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” premiered on Broadway in 2023, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, the show broke the Hudson Theatre’s house record, grossing $1.3 million in one week of previews.The actors became internet darlings, taking part in publicity gimmicks usually reserved for movie rollouts, like Vanity Fair’s lie-detector test.

“Merrily” went on to win four Tony Awards and closed in July 2024.For those who weren’t there to see it in person, that should have been the (sad) end of the story.

But not so fast.A month before the show’s closing, RadicalMedia announced it was filming the production for a theatrical release, which has finally arrived: “Merrily We Roll Along,” distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, hits 1,500 theaters on Dec.

5.While stage-to-screen adaptations are common — “Wicked: For Good” crossed $150 million on its opening weekend just last month — Broadway show recordings, also known as pro-shots, are less common, especially at such scale.BroadwayHD viewers get access to a variety of shows for $19.99 a month, but they’ve often aired on public television at some point, and National Theatre Live, which routinely screens in movie theaters, is limited to West End productions.

George Clooney’s performance in “Good Night, and Good Luck” aired on CNN this year but didn’t expand beyond the channel into cinemas.SPC, which similarly released “Vanya on 42nd Street” in theaters in 1994, grossing nearly $2 million domestically, isn’t presenting “Merrily” as an art-house feature but as an opportunity to have the best seat in the house for a Broadway performance.“It’s not a theater presentation.

It is a movie,” said Michael Barker, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics.“And what makes it a movie is, it has the intimacy.

It’s m...