Merrily We Roll Along is a play by George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...

 and Moss Hart

Moss Hart

Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...

. It concerns a man who has lost the idealistic values of his youth. Its innovative structure presents the story in reverse order, with the character regressing from a mournful adult to a young man whose future is filled with promise.

Although the 1934 Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production received mostly good notices, it was a financial failure and was not revived on Broadway.
Hart, on a journey from Hollywood to New York in 1931, was inspired to write a play about an American family's difficulties, over 30 years, coping with the challenges of life in the 20th century, beginning with their innocence and optimism at the beginning of the century to the dashed hopes caused by the stock market crash of 1929.