In today’s most important news, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt are starring in a film adaptation of musical together. Gasp!!
But we won’t get to see it for at least 20 years. Double gasp!!!
As Collider reported, filmmaker Richard Linklater (you may know him from Boyhood) is adapting Stephen Sondheim’s musical Merrily We Roll Along, based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. (Before you Google: Yes, Sondheim, Kaufman, and Hart are all Jews.)
Beanie and Ben, the IRL Jewish BFFs and theater stars in their own right, will play Mary Flynn and Charley Kringas, and Glee star Blake Jenner will play Franklin Shephard. Per Collider, the plot follows Shepard, “a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career in New York and all his friends in order to produce movies in Los Angeles. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today.” Linklater, who famously filmed Boyhood over the course of 12 years, is sticking to the timeline of the play — which takes place over the course of 20 years. The world as we know it may not even still exist in 2039, but that’s the plan.
Twitter, obviously, had a field day this news. (Just like it did when Beanie was cast as Monica Lewinsky in an upcoming season of American Crime Story.) Here are some highlights:
1. Makes us tear up, too.
Just the thought of drunk, jaded 46-year-old Beanie Feldstein ranting over a martini at sad, jerky 45-year-old Ben Platt makes me tear up a little.
— Michael Schulman (@MJSchulman) August 29, 2019
2. Yep:
If I'm not dead by the time Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along comes out, then watching those characters actually regain their youth and promise on screen FOR REAL is probably going to kill me.
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) August 29, 2019
3. Cats joke? Double yep.
Taylor Swift did not personally create digital fur technology just so we can waste 20 years of Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt's lives. https://t.co/xe06KRhBL0
— Alex Zalben (@azalben) August 29, 2019
4. 20! Years!
them: Merrily We Roll Along is getting a film adaptation starring Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein
them: it’ll take 20 years to film pic.twitter.com/RWMijNpHkj— kelly (@my_slinki) August 29, 2019
5. Now we gotta live that long…
Damn it, now I have to live until 2040https://t.co/Q6xHU67E3a
— Ani Bundel @ France (@anibundel) August 29, 2019
6. *Whispers* but will we be alive?
e v e r y o n e w i l l b e d e a d b u t i a m e x c i t e d https://t.co/tw3pTaUtW0
— Katie Waldron (@drainladyspeaks) August 29, 2019
7. Can’t wait for Beanie to EGOT!
When Beanie Feldstein wins her Oscar in 2041 for Merrily We Roll Along pic.twitter.com/8KEgSH2fMc
— Buy and Stream Titanic Rising by Weyes Blood (@weyesbloodstan) August 29, 2019
8. Seems about right:
"It's my pleasure to welcome to the 2039 Sundance Film Festival… MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG!" pic.twitter.com/TQTVCUOwzS
— Alison Willmore (@alisonwillmore) August 29, 2019
9. I really don’t want to think about this…
NEW TWITTER MEME: how old will you be when Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along starring Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein comes out? (remember to account for about a year of post-production!!)
I’ll go first. 43?
— hot riverdale dads to the rescue. (@actuallyriles) August 29, 2019
10. For ME.
me in 2039:
well you see because I graduated college in 2019 and Richard Linklater began shooting that same year Merrily We Roll Along is really a time capsule of my life, friendships, career successes and failures, and therefore this film was actually made For Me
— goo$e (@lucyellman) August 29, 2019
11. I’m also done!
Yesterday* is** done…
*I
**amhttps://t.co/jaeU5nuxgy— John Robert Allman (@Johnny_Allman) August 29, 2019
See you in 2039, old friends?
Image of Beanie & Ben in header by Kevin Winter/Getty Images
