John Doyle to Stage Revival of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG in Cincinnati

Tony Award-winning director John Doyle, who has previously staged Broadway revivals of Stephen Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD and COMPANY is set to direct the composer-lyricist's musical MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in March 2012.

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 March 3 through March 31, 2012 in the Playhouse' s Robert S. Marx Theatre. Tickets will go on sale Aug. 15.

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 M ERRI 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.

The Playhouse has yet to determine if it will use the licensed 1994 version of the musical or if Doyle will use earlier incarnations of the work for the new production.

Talk of a Broadway revival of MERRILY has been traveling the past few seasons. Doyle's track record with Sondheim could be the beginnings of a further life for the piece but no announcements have been made.

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.

For further information, phone (513) 421-3888 or visit CincyPlay.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos