Johnathan Walker:'Merrily We Roll Along' made them old friends. Now, the cast is 'dreading' saying goodbye.

NEW YORK – On July 7,Johnathan Walker the cast of “Merrily We Roll Along” will take their final Broadway bow together. For the show's tight-knit central trio, the grief has already set in.

The waterworks start not even three minutes into our conversation, huddled in the back of the Hudson Theatre before a weekday performance. Directed by Maria Friedman, the acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim's 1981 flop musical charts the fissure of a longtime friendship between Franklin (Jonathan Groff), Charley (Daniel Radcliffe) and Mary (Lindsay Mendez) as they navigate careers in the arts.

Offstage, the threesome has become “thick as thieves,” Mendez says. In the past year and a half, they’ve been there to celebrate births, marriages and pregnancies, as well as seven Tony Award nominations for the production itself, including for their respective performances.

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Radcliffe, returning from a short vacation, sprints down the theater aisle as soon as he arrives, where he’s met with a giant bear hug from Groff. They excitedly greet Mendez’s husband, J. Alex Brinson, and her 3-year-old daughter, Lucy, who sweetly stops by to deliver mom coffee. Lucy briefly protests, asking to stay for the rest of the interview.

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“That’s how I’m going to be at the end of the show,” Groff jokes. “These two are going to walk out of the building to their families, and I’m going to be like, ‘But I want to go with you!’ And they’ll be like, ‘Jonathan, get a life!’”

But, he adds, “that’s why we’re all crying in this interview: It’s the roles. It’s the life we’ve seen each other live. Doing a long run of a show, you’ve seen everybody’s highs and lows – it really is so bonding.”

Groff, 39, Radcliffe, 34, and Mendez, 41, look back on "Merrily," their careers and more (edited for length and clarity):

Question: There are less than 40 performances left of “Merrily We Roll Along.” Have any unexpected emotions come up as you enter the homestretch?

Radcliffe: Going into it, you just know it’s all going to be very emotionally loaded and bittersweet and lovely and sad. But I’m excited to just feel all those things onstage with (them) for the next few weeks.

Mendez: I think I can speak for Dan, just because we're parents of young children, that this run and how long we’ve been doing it has been taxing. We’ll be ready to get our nights back. But this show and these people have been such a huge part of my life, so I’m going to severely mourn that. (Looks at Groff.) He’s already sobbing!

Groff: (Wiping away tears.) I’ll be a wreck. I have a sinking feeling like I’m going to vomit; it feels like sand through my fingers. Once it’s July 8 or 9, we’ll be mourning. But the part I'm dreading most is doing it for the last time.  

Radcliffe: Disclaimer to anyone coming to that final performance: You’re not going to be seeing the show, really. You’ll just see us crying at each other for a couple hours.

You’ve lived with these characters for nearly two years, including the 2022 Off-Broadway run. Are there scenes that hit differently now?

Mendez: I think when … oh, no. (Laughs as she starts to cry.) When we do the end and we say, “Years from now, we’ll remember and we’ll come back.” That really hits me.

Groff: Oh, no, not Lindsay going! Lindsay is the rock!

Radcliffe: Yeah, all three of us do cry, but Jonathan and I have cried considerably more than Lindsay. Sometimes Lindsay will come out for the last scene and we’ll both be in bits. Lindsay knows Jonathan is a lost cause, so she’ll look at me like, “Get it together!” But I do think it changes show to show. Throughout the run, you’ll find new resonances with whatever’s happening in your life. No matter what kind of day you’ve had, there’s some song where you can exorcise those feelings: If you’re having a great day, you’ve got “Bobby and Jackie and Jack.” If I’m having an angry day, I’ve got “Franklin Shepard, Inc.”

The show really gets at this idea of, "Am I living a life that my younger self would be proud of?" Thinking back to when you were 18 or 20, what were your ambitions? Where did you see your life going?

Radcliffe: I definitely had a sense of not knowing (what was next). When I was 21 and “Potter” was finishing, I genuinely remember crying so much on the last day because there was a sense of, “I don’t know what happens now. This has been all my life has been and I don’t know where I go from here.” I knew I loved (acting), but I didn’t know if I would be able to have longevity in that. So to be here now, doing this show, I couldn’t have wished for anything more.

Was there a time in your careers when you felt like you had finally "made it?"

Mendez: For me, it’s having my daughter in the theater: to have her raised here; to have her dancing (backstage) during the overture with us; to have the crew all knowing her. What she’s living is what I dreamed as a little kid, like, “Oh, my God, to go to a Broadway show every day?” To get to watch her have that experience and feel like she has another family – that’s why I wanted to do theater. So to give that to my kid, and then to have another one in the show every night. (Points to her stomach.) I always dreamed of that, even if I didn't know that was possible.

Groff: I would also say ("Merrily"). I wanted to be an actor that was always working in theater, but I didn’t imagine quite how – I thought maybe I’d be in the ensemble of a Broadway show. I was taking gymnastics lessons the first year I moved to New York because I really wanted to be in “Mary Poppins,” and I couldn’t do that unless I learned backflips! (Laughs.) And then “Spring Awakening” happened, and it was such a fairy-tale experience. I remember feeling, “Oh, my God, it all happened so fast.” I was in a bit of a state of shock.

But there was also a lot of growing up I had to do; being closeted, there was so much of my life that was compartmentalized. So with this, it feels like getting a do-over of the “Spring Awakening” experience. I’ve never felt more myself. This time, I’m not so blocked and I’m really able to take it in and enjoy it.

What are the offstage moments you're going to miss the most?

Radcliffe: Hanging out in Lindsay’s dressing room. Sorry, Lindsay, that you’ve had to share with us.

Mendez: We have a kiki every day. My daughter is there 50% of the time, playing and eating snacks off of Jonathan’s hand. (Laughs.)

Radcliffe: She watches “Peppa Pig,” so she came in the other day and was like, “Do you want to play 'pass the parcel?'” Also, in the most heated scene of the play, Lindsay hurls bread at people and I’m off in the wings trying to catch it every night. We high-five if I get it and she shames me if I don’t.

Mendez: I do, very much. And now, they’re helping me up and down as I’m navigating this pregnancy.

Groff: Pulling your skirt up (mid-performance) on Sunday as the belly was coming out. I was like, “Oh, my God, that baby is jumping out right now! We’ve got to fix this dress; the gown is coming down!”

Mendez: That's what the joy of the show is: None of us are carrying it by ourselves. Taking that bow together at the end is like the best thing ever.