Meet the cast of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ on Broadway

Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez play the lead roles in this classic Stephen Sondheim musical, now revived on Broadway for the first time.

How did you get to be here? Pose that question to the sublime cast of the hit Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along and the answers are truly impressive. They touch upon diverse careers marked by a Tony win and nominations, a $7 billion-dollar movie franchise, edgy TV series, and more major milestones worth bragging about.

The actors are all rolling along in director Maria Friedman’s eye-opening, ear-tickling take on Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical that originally ran less than two months. Based on a 1934 same-named play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the plot follows three friends – Franklin, Charley, and Mary – chasing creative careers whose close bond cracks under the test of time – and each other.

The core friendship isn’t the only casualty in the musical. Other people in the trio’s lives – Beth, Gussie, and Joe – are all impacted by the ripple effects. All six actors playing these principal cast members reprise their roles from the Off-Broadway premiere of this Merrily revival last year.

Discover more about the cast in the musical at the Hudson Theatre below.

Daniel Radcliffe

Globally famous for headlining eight Harry Potter movies released between 2001 and 2011, Daniel Radcliffe stepped outside the wizarding world on screen in The Woman in Black and Swiss Army Man, as well as on stage in plays and musicals. Since 2009 on Broadway, he blinded horses in Equus, schemed his way to the top in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, dreamed of a great escape in The Cripple of Inishmaan, and became an author's nightmare in The Lifespan of a Fact.

Off-Broadway, he starred in Privacy in 2016, and returned to the small stage to play writer Charley in Merrily before this production transferred to Broadway.

Jonathan Groff

Since his 2006 breakout starring role in Spring Awakening off and on Broadway to Tony-nominated acclaim, Groff has essentially worked nonstop. On screen, he lit up Glee as Jesse St. James, starred in HBO’s Looking, voiced Kristoff in Disney’s film Frozen, and took deep dives into the heads of serial killers in Netflix’s Mindhunter.

He scored a second Tony nod for his portrait of King George in Hamilton and stood out off Broadway as a doomed hippie in Hair and a besotted botanist in Little Shop of Horrors. Now, he leads Merrily as composer-turned-movie-producer Franklin.

Lindsay Mendez

Since making her Broadway debut in 2007 as Jan in Grease, Mendez has glided from one role to the next. On Broadway, she’s been a backup singer in Everyday Rapture, an ensemble player in Godspell, Elphaba in Wicked, a gay man’s bestie in Significant Other, and Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, the role that won her a Best Featured Actress Tony. She also made an indelible mark in the Off-Broadway musical adaptation of the movie Dogfight, and she's equally memorable in her current role as the lovesick Mary.

Katie Rose Clarke

Clarke gets the plum Merrily assignment of singing “Not a Day Goes By,” a Sondheim classic, as Franklin's first wife, Beth. Her Broadway credits also include The Light in the Piazza and Wicked, where she took over the respective roles of Clara and Glinda, as well as Allegiance and Miss Saigon.

Krystal Joy Brown

“Life is knowing what you want, darling,” sings pragmatic Gussie, a Broadway star who strikes up a relationship with Franklin. She’s right, of course, but the line delivers a chill, as it should. Brown’s Broadway credits since 2010 include Hair, Leap of Faith, Motown the Musical, Big Fish, and Hamilton.

Reg Rogers

A seasoned Broadway actor, Rogers’s resume reaches back to The Moliere Comedies in 1995. A year later, he was up for a Tony for his featured role in a revival of the 1928 play Holiday. He’s also appeared in The Royal Family, Present Laughter, and Tootsie. Off-Broadway credits include The Dazzle, for which he won a 2002 Obie Award, and Privacy, opposite Radcliffe. Hey, old friend, indeed.

Photo credit: Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez in Merrily We Roll Along. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)