John Doyle's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG Opens in Cincinnati

Tony Award-winning director John Doyle, who has previously staged Broadway revivals of Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD and COMPANY directs the composer-lyricist's musical MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park which opens tonight. The production will run through March 31.

Starring in MERRILY are Malcolm Gets, Daniel Jenkins and Becky Ann Baker. The cast also features Jane Pfitsch as Beth, Leenya Rideout as Gussie Carnegie, Jessica Wright as K.T., Matt Castle as Scotty, David Garry as Jerome, Bruce Sabath as Joe, Katrina Yaukey as Meg, Fred Rose as Tyler, Matthew Deming as Ru and Ben Diskant as Frank Jr.

This remarkable Broadway fable of friendship and the high price of success opens in the present and moves backward in time. The triumphs and failures of a jaded composer and his two closest friends are traced from their estranged ending to their idealistic beginning. "I am thrilled to be returning to The Playhouse in the Park, and with a Sondheim show. I am also honored to have been invited to be a part of Ed Stern' s farewell season," said Director Doyle.

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is where Doyle debuted his actor-musician production of Sondheim and George Furth's COMPANY which transferred to Broadway in 2006. The production earned Doyle the Tony Award for Best Revival and a nomination for Best Direction.

MERRILY has a book by Furth and is based on Kaufman and Hart's 1934 Broadway play. The John Doyle-helmed production, in which the actors also serve as the show's musicians, runs through March 31, 2012 in The Playhouse' s Robert S. Marx Theatre.

According to Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern, "It's such a pleasure to bring back Stephen Sondheim and John Doyle with his use of actor musicianship for this production at Playhouse in the Park. It's time for a major revival of MERRI LY WE ROLL ALONG."

Mary-Mitchell Campbell, orchestrator and musical supervisor for Doyle's COMPANY, is also to be involved. Tony Award winner Scott Pask (THE COAST OF UTOPIA, THE PILLOWMAN) will design the set. Additional casting and creative teams will be announced at a later date.

In the past, Doyle has also staged a new production of Chekhov's THREE SISTERS, adapted by Tony-nominated playwright Sarah Ruhl, at The Playhouse in 2009. Doyle last collaborated with Sondheim on the 2008 Off-Broadway production of ROAD SHOW and earned a Tony Award for his direction of the 2005 revival of SWEENEY TODD. He also directed the Broadway musical A Catered Affair.

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