Merrily We Roll Along Sets New York Return with Fiasco & Roundabout

Now you know! Roundabout Theatre Company has announced a new, reimagined production of George Furth and Stephen Sondheim's iconic musical Merrily We Roll Along. The 2019 staging from innovative company Fiasco Theater will play off-Broadway's Laura Pels Theatre beginning on January 12 with an opening slated for February 19. Fiasco Theater Co-Artistic Director Noah Brody will direct, with music direction and orchestrations by current Carousel Tony nominee Alexander Gemignani and choreography by Lorin Latarro (Waitress).

"Merrily is a project that has generated great excitement among us for the opportunities and challenges it presents," said Brody in an exclusive statement. "Getting to work on a Sondheim musical, let alone to collaborate with him directly, has been deeply enriching. In particular, we're a company with long, collaborative friendships, and Merrily is a show about friendship and the challenges of artistic collaboration. In many ways, we're facing ourselves in these characters and in this story. We're hoping to bring the strongest, fullest and most joyful production that Fiasco can conceive."

Based on the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, Merrily We Roll Along features a book by Furth and score by Sondheim. The musical revolves around a former Broadway composer named Franklin Shepard who has abandoned his friends and his music career to become a Hollywood film producer. The musical starts at the height of Shepard's Hollywood success and goes backward, showing snapshots of his life.

Roundabout's Merrily We Roll Along will feature Fiasco company members Jessie Austrian, Paul L. Coffey, Ben Steinfeld and Emily Young. An announcement of additional actors and the full creative team will be forthcoming.

The original Broadway production of Merrily, directed by Harold Prince and starring Jim Walton, Lonny Price and Ann Morrison, opened in 1981 and closed after just 16 performances. Fiasco's Merrily will be the first major New York production since a 1994 off-Broadway mounting directed by Susan H. Schulman and featuring Malcolm Gets, Adam Heller and Amy Ryder. James Lapine directed a 2012 staging at City Center Encores! led by Colin Donnell, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Celia Keenan-Bolger.

Fiasco Theater was created by graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep M.F.A. acting program. Past shows include Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Company), Cymbeline (Theatre for a New Audience/Barrow Street), Into the Woods (Roundabout, Old Globe, McCarter, Menier Chocolate Factory, national tour), Measure for Measure (New Victory/Long Wharf), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger/Theatre for a New Audience) and The Imaginary Invalid (Old Globe).