"Merrily We Roll Along," which closed after sixteen performances …, was a blunder, all the more mysterious because it was carried out by some of the least blunder-prone people on Broadway—Hal Prince, who produced and directed it; Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and lyrics; and George Furth, who wrote the book. What on earth could have drawn them to this old play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart? It is a work remarkable only for the fact that its plot unfolds by starting in the present and going back and back through time…. Mr. Furth breathed little life into a book bristling with clichés of attitude and language, and for once Mr. Sondheim was unable to turn into memorable song those feelings of alienation and abortive affection he has so often given melodious utterance to…. The mercy of memory is its selectivity; this "Merrily" has...