Video: Stars Walk the Red Carpet of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG on Opening Night

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Stephen Sondheim and George Firth's musical Merrily We Roll Along has come to Broadway

Under the direction of Maria Freeman, it features a star-studied cast, including Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez

And we're here on opening night to celebrate with the first-nighters. Well, first of all, I fell in love with this downtown

but I fell in love with the original production with you two. What does tonight mean to the two of you being here

Well, it's just so special to celebrate. a show we love so much and is part of our DNA at this point

So we're thrilled to be here and celebrate this cast and this great new production

I agree. I'm, like I just said back there, I'm a fan of Stephen Sondheim and the show

And it's not even so much that we were in it. I just, I love the score and the story and it's a brave way of telling it

So we're here to support this absolutely brilliant cast and beautiful, profound. production

And what it must have been like for you to be in the room with Stephen Sondheim, George

Firth, and Harold Prince, all at the same time creating this? Oh, it's thrilling

It was beyond, you know. Jim was talking before. I mean, when we first heard old friends after Sweeney Todd that Steve was writing Julie

Stein, primary-colored songs, it was beyond anything you can imagine. It was really thrilling

No I was the luckiest actor in the world to be a part of that to be in the room with those great minds and creators So we were all blown away by I don think people took it for granted as young as we were

We weren't taking it for granted because we knew it was special. Well, here we are open itemarily

How excited are you to be here? Here we are. It's so exciting

I've never seen this show on a stage before. And it's like a little love letter to us as artists

I'm so excited. It's like the best thing I could have possibly done on my day off ever

Okay, we're going to get into that, but did you know the score of this musical first

Well, Nona Day Goes By is like top five in the canon, no doubt, for everybody

And if it's not, like, that's weird. But I actually don't know the other music that well

So I feel like I'm in for such a treat tonight. And I just adore so many of the actors in this production

I'm, like, really looking forward to watching them be actual friends, you know

And, like, I don't know, show us what our lives will look like

He always does that. Sondheim always has this magic power of like showing us our full, like the extent that our whole lives can be

So I'm excited. Well, speaking of Mr. Sondheim, you were doing his last musical that he wrote with David Ives

It's called Here We Are. And you're in previews now. What is it like living in the world of this musical and singing Sondheim

It never, ever gets old. I'm only in week three of previews

but the 11 of us, it's cast of 11, and we're all on stage the whole time

And it just a joy It goes by so fast to us because we on stage the whole time and we just love it It like really really meaningful to be singing the last

I get to sing his last love ballad. Like, who gets to say that

It's like so magical. How excited are you to be here at the opening of Maryland

I know. I'm very, very excited. I think I've seen one production a long time ago

and this is, like, I'm a fan, so I'm really excited to just be in the room

and seeing it all happen, yeah. Did you know the score first? Yes

I knew the score, and then I saw the show. I saw a documentary, a while ago called The Best, Worst Thing That Ever Happened

which is sort of the thing that got me into it, and I saw it in London at some point

So I'm just like, I've been following it a lot, yeah. I think it's the expression of friendship

I think it's the expression of, like, not knowing where you fit, and then trying to make it, like, reinvent oneself

And I think it's just all of those things that we as human beings experience in our lives

and then trying to live our lives together, like making sure that we're there for one another

as much as we possibly can and when we fall apart and from the next to get. You know, all of those things

I think it's that. It's the expression of humanity that we still get in this business

that we try to get and try to hold on to. Would you like to come home to the stage here in New York

I will. I will at some point. I want to find the right thing, but I have not gone

Just waiting for the right thing, yeah. I'm beyond excited to see Merrily Roll-R-A-long for the first time

ever and also excited to support my friend shares alatahos making her Broadway debut on the show

tonight isn it great i mean for making their Broadway debut in a sondheim show i jealous i jealous Who gets to make their Broadway debut in a Sondheim show That a great thing

It's an amazing thing. Well, I've never seen it. I know the music pretty well

Some of the songs really well, the ones that get pulled out of the show and done in a cabarets and things like that

But to me, I think it's its most personal work. My understanding is that it wasn't a success when it was originally done

which I think is pretty indicative. of the way that this business chews you up and spits you out

any time you actually love something. Was that a little too emotional

I went there. I think that it's about the way what we love can sometimes hurt us

Not just who, but what. I'm so excited to experience it for the first time

I've never seen it. Never listened to it all the way through. I've only heard individual songs

I know parts of the story, so how many times do you get to experience? I experienced the Sondheim show at the first time

Did you do a matinee? I did. I just ran over from the booth theater. How crazy is that

No, but isn't that great, though? The show's about to start. How well would you know this show

Extremely well. I was the second person to direct it in the entire world

Right after the show closed, I was a senior at Yale. I directed it as a commencement show at Yale University

and Stephen Sondheim and George Firth gave a special permission to do it

Ted Spirling was my conductor. Slam Dunk. I know it. Well, yeah, I know the show

I can't wait to see my friends. Oh, wait till you see this. I'm bursting

I'm so excited