Malcolm Gets to Lead MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has announced casting for the exciting new revival of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth. 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.

Malcolm Gets will play the ambitious songwriter Franklin Shepard, Daniel Jenkins is songwriting partner Charley Kringas and Becky Ann Baker will appear as their loyal but disillusioned comrade Mary Flynn.

Malcolm Gets' New York theatre credits include The Story of My Life, Polish Joke, Amour, Boys and Girls, Hello Again, A New Brain, Merrily We Roll Along (Drama Desk nomination), The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Boys from Syracuse, The Molière Comedie, Finian's Rainbow, Juno and The Apple Tree. Gets was awarded an Obie for his work in Merrily We Roll Along and The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1995. He played Richard, the tortured artist, on NBC's Caroline in the City. Films include Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Love in the Time of Money, Adam and Steve, Sex and the City and HBO's Grey Gardens.

Daniel Jenkins' Broadway credits include Billy Elliot, Mary Poppins, Wrong Mountain, Big, Angels in America, Huck and Big River. Recent Off-Broadway credits include Sex Lives of Our Parents, Benefactors and Love Child.

Jenkins' films include O.C. and Stiggs, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, The Perfect You, Infested, Joshua, Cradle Will Rock, Five Corners, Glory and In Country.

Becky Ann Baker has appeared on Broadway in Good People, All My Sons, Assassins, Titanic, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She is well known for her portrayal of Jean Weir on NBC's Emmy Award-winning Freaks and Geeks.

Off-Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, Suddenly Last Summer, The House in Town, The Sisters Rosensweig, Wonderful Town, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Shanghai Moon, June Moon, Durang Durang and Laura Dennis. Films include Nights in Rodanthe, War of the Worlds, Two Weeks Notice, Men in Black, In & Out, Sabrina, Unstrung Heroes, White Squall, Lorenzo's Oil and Come See the Paradise, among others.

Other cast members include Jane Pfitsch as Beth; Leenya Rideout as Gussie Carnegie; Jessica Wright as K.T.; Matt Castle as Scotty; Bruce Sabath as Joe; Katrina Yaukey as Meg; Fred Rose as Tyler; Matthew Deming as Ru; and Ben Diskant as Frank Jr. (Rideout, Castle, Sabath and Rose were all in the Tony© Award-winning Playhouse production of Company.)

Doyle has received numerous awards for direction, including a Tony©, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League Award. Doyle directed The Playhouse's 2006 production of Company, which moved to the Ethel Barrymore Theater for a successful run on Broadway and received the Tony© Award for that year's Best Revival of a Musical. During the 2009-2010 Playhouse season, Doyle directed a new version of Chekhov's Three Sisters, commissioned by The Playhouse, by Sarah Ruhl. He has staged more than 200 productions during his 30-plus-year career in the theatre, including Sweeney Todd, The Gondoliers, Amadeus, Mack and Mabel, Fiddler on the Roof, A Catered Affair, Road Show and Irma La Douce.

The use of actor-musicianship was pioneered by Doyle while he was an associate director of the Watermill Theatre in the United Kingdom. He featured actor-musicians for the critically acclaimed production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, which went to Broadway. In 2006, The Playhouse production of Company also used this technique.

In addition to Doyle, the acclaimed artistic team includes Music Supervisor/Orchestrator Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Music Director Matt Castle, Set Designer Scott Pask, Costume Designer Ann Hould-Ward, Lighting Designer Jane Cox and Sound Designer/Composer Dan Moses Schreier. The Stage Manager is Andrea L. Shell.

Tickets for MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG are on sale now. Prices range from $25 - $71, depending on day and seat location, and are subject to change. The official opening night is Thursday, March 8, 2012.

The Playhouse is fully accessible. Audio enhancement receivers, large print programs and complete wheelchair access are available.

The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to ArtsWave.

The Ohio Arts Council helps fund The Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

The Playhouse also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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