Credit: Netflix

A lot of actors hit it big early, and then they go on spending the rest of their careers trying to stay inside that same lane with “safe” roles and films. Daniel Radcliffe, though? This guy clearly didn’t get that memo.

Think about it for a second. Radcliffe spent a full decade starring in the massive Harry Potter franchise and will forever be imprinted in a generation’s mind as the OG Harry. Those movies made him globally famous and, most definitely, set him up financially for life. At that point, most actors would double down on the blockbuster route.

But Radcliffe took one look at that road and chose the other because the kind of roles he does and has been doing take a lot of courage. But he never hesitated for once. He played a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man, a horned devil in Horns, and then went on to play an FBI agent going undercover as a neo-Nazi in Imperium. What has he not done?

What most people miss is that somewhere along the way, though, theatre became a big part of that journey. Radcliffe built a solid reputation on stage, proving that he wasn’t just a movie star dipping his toes into Broadway but someone who was committed. And that ambition of his has led us to one of the most talked-about revivals in recent years: Merrily We Roll Along, and it is coming to Netflix on April 4th.

The Tony-winning Broadway musical is on its way to Netflix, which means a whole lot more people will finally get the chance to watch it. See, if you have ever tried getting tickets to a big Broadway show, you already know the struggle. So when Netflix finally decided to bring this musical, it was a bigger deal than you think.

What is the plot of Merrily We Roll Along?

Merrily We Roll Along follows the lives of three friends who are trying to make it big in the entertainment world. We have a composer, Franklin Shepard, a lyricist, Charley Kringas, and a writer, Mary Flynn. The story starts in the late 1970s, when Franklin has already become a successful Hollywood producer, but things are not looking good for him. His friendship with Charley has collapsed, and the creative passion that once drove him seems long gone.

As it moves back in time, we see Franklin and Charley during their creative partnership, writing musicals together while Mary cheers them on as their loyal friend.

Going even further back, the audience eventually sees the trio when they were younger and full of excitement. All of them had big ambitions about making it in New York. All they had was a dream of a bright future ahead. As it goes in reverse and the closer it gets to the beginning of their journey, the clearer it becomes just how much those friendships once meant.

Now here’s another interesting bit. When Merrily We Roll Along first premiered on Broadway back in 1981, people didn’t really like it. In fact, it closed pretty quickly. But over the years, theatre fans started looking at it differently.

Merrily We Roll Along is directed by Maria Friedman and stars Radcliffe alongside Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. The production became one of the hottest shows on Broadway. Before long, it picked up multiple Tony Awards.

Radcliffe, in particular, got a lot of praise for his performance. Watching him on stage, it’s pretty clear he’s not just doing theatre for fun but is something he genuinely cares about. And now that the show is coming to Netflix, a much bigger audience will finally get to see what all the buzz has been about.