Roundabout announces Merrily We Roll Along in Fiasco production

ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY

Announces

Fiasco Theater’s Production of

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Book by George Furth

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Based on and with additional material from the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart

Performances begin Saturday, January 12, 2019.

Opening is set for Tuesday, February 19, 2019.

Limited Engagement at Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre

---

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO) is pleased to announce a new collaboration with Roundabout’s Company in Residence: Fiasco Theater. Roundabout will present Fiasco’s new production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG featuring a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Merrily We Roll Along is based on and with additional material from the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

Merrily We Roll Along will be directed by Fiasco Co-Artistic Director Noah Brody and will feature Fiasco company members Jessie Austrian (Fiasco, Co-Artistic Director), Paul L. Coffey, Ben Steinfeld (Fiasco, Co-Artistic Director) and Emily Young. The production will feature Music Direction & Orchestrations by Alexander Gemignani and Choreography by Lorin Latarro. Announcement of additional actors and the full creative team will be forthcoming.

Performances will begin on Saturday, January 12 at 7:30PM with an opening night set for Tuesday, February 19, 2019. This will be a limited engagement at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

With Fiasco’s one-of-a-kind imagination, this audacious musical about a trio of friends in showbiz who fall apart and come together over two decades emerges as newly personal and passionate. The ensemble brings to life a reimagination of Furth and Sondheim’s creation in an emotionally rich new production that confronts the pains and pleasures of fame, fortune, and old friends.

Roundabout reunites with the acclaimed Fiasco Theater following their 2015 production of Into the Woods, which Entertainment Weekly called “Pure Stage Magic! A wildly inventive, emotionally gut-punching, delightfully off-kilter production” and Ben Brantley of The New York Times exclaimed “Truly enchanting…. I fell head over heels.”

In the fall of 2015 Roundabout partnered with Fiasco to provide a residency for them to begin experimenting with Merrily. Fiasco was officially named Roundabout’s Company in Residence in the fall of 2016, and since then they have continued to work on their vision of the musical with Roundabout over multiple workshops and readings.

In addition to the acclaimed revival of Into the Woods in 2015, Roundabout has a long relationship with Stephen Sondheim having produced five Tony Award-nominated Sondheim revivals including Company (1995), Follies (2001), Tony Award® winning Assassins (2004), Pacific Overtures (2004) and Sunday in the Park with George (2008). In 2005, Roundabout honored Sondheim with the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre for the indelible impact his life’s work has made on the theatre and in 2009, Roundabout presented a one-night only gala concert reading of A Little Night Music. In 2010, Roundabout presented a special Broadway musical tribute to Sondheim entitled Sondheim on Sondheim conceived and directed by Into the Woods’ librettist James Lapine and in the same year, renamed Broadway’s Henry Millers’ Theatre in honor of Mr. Sondheim.

Merrily We Roll Along benefits from Roundabout’s Musical Theatre Production Fund with lead gifts from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Perry and Marty Granoff, Michael Kors and Lance Le Pere, and Diane and Tom Tuft.

Underwriting support for Roundabout’s most recent Merrily We Roll Along workshop generously provided by Gina Maria Leonetti and Elizabeth Armstrong.

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets for Merrily We Roll Along are first made available to subscribers and donors. Whether you are interested in the best value or VIP experiences, Roundabout has a package option for you. Visit roundabouttheatre.org or call 212-719-1300 for more info. Sign up for Roundabout’s email club at roundabouttheatre.org to be notified when tickets go on sale to the public.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Merrily We Roll Along will play Tuesday through Saturday evening at 7:30PM with Wednesday, Saturday matinees at 2:00PM and Sunday matinees at 3:00PM.

BIOS:

STEPHEN SONDHEIM (Music & Lyrics) wrote the music and lyrics for Saturday Night (1954), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), The Frogs (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sunday In The Park With George (1984), Into The Woods (1987), Assassins (1991), Passion (1994) and Road Show (2008), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side By Side By Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), Putting It Together (1993/99), Moving On (2001) and Sondheim On Sondheim (2010) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist. For films, he composed the score of Stavisky (1974), co-composed the score for Reds (1981) and wrote songs for Dick Tracy (1990). He wrote songs for the television production “Evening Primrose” (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away With Murder (1996) and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls Of Summer (1956), Invitation To A March (1961), Twigs (1971) and The Enclave (1973). His collected lyrics with attendant essays have been published in two volumes: "Finishing the Hat" (2010) and "Look, I Made A Hat" (2011). In 2010 the Broadway theater formerly known as Henry Miller's Theatre was renamed in his honor.

GEORGE FURTH (Book). Graduated from Northwestern’s University School of Speech and did graduate work at Columbia University. After appearing in dozens of films and countless television shows as an actor, he went on to write (the play or book for) Company, Twigs, The Act, The Supporting Cast, Merrily We Roll Along, Precious Sons and Getting Away with Murder (with Stephen Sondheim). He won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, London’s Olivier and Evening Standard, Chicago’s Jefferson, the Andy and Drama League Awards.

FIASCO THEATER is an ensemble that offers dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions of plays and musicals. Fiasco's artists believe the performer, the text, and the audience's imagination are the primary elements required to create great theater. Past shows include Cymbeline (TFANA/Barrow Street), Into the Woods (Roundabout, Old Globe, McCarter), Measure for Measure (New Victory, Long Wharf), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger, TFANA), The Imaginary Invalid (Old Globe) and Twelfth Night (Classic Stage Company). Cymbeline was presented Off-Broadway twice, for nearly 200 performances, and was honored with the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for best revival. Into the Woods garnered the 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Revival. Into the Woods went on to play the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, and the 2016-17 national tour won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Visiting Production and LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Direction and Best Ensemble. Every year, Fiasco offers the Free Training Initiative—a three-week, conservatory-level classical acting intensive for professional actors, completely free of charge to students. Fiasco's work has been commissioned by the Old Globe and they have been in residence with TFANA, Duke University, Marquette University and LSU. They are currently in residence with Roundabout and NYU-Gallatin. Their work has been developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Orchard Project, SPACE at Ryder Farm and the Shakespeare Society, and they have led master classes at Brown University and NYU. Fiasco Theater receives generous support from Howard Gilman Foundation, SHS Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, Actors Equity Foundation, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, New York State Council on the Arts and The Shubert Organization.

The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre opened in March 2004 with an acclaimed premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel starring Viola Davis, directed by Dan Sullivan. In the ten years since that landmark production, the center has expanded beyond the Laura Pels Theatre to include the Black Box Theatre and now a new education center. The Steinberg Center continues to reflect Roundabout’s commitment to produce new works by established and emerging writers as well as revivals of classic plays. This state-of-the-art off-Broadway theatre and education complex is made possible by a major gift from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg to promote and advance American Theatre as a vital part of our culture by supporting playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new work, and providing financial assistance to not-for-profit theatre companies across the country. Since its inception, the Trust has awarded over $70 million to more than 125 theatre organizations.

Roundabout Theatre Company celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills that mission by producing familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals; discovering and supporting talented playwrights; reducing the barriers that can inhibit theatergoing; collaborating with a diverse team of artists; building educational experiences; and archiving over five decades of production history.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals and new works on its five stages: Broadway’s American Airlines Theatre, Studio 54 and Stephen Sondheim Theatre, and Off-Broadway’s Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout’s 2017-2018 season concludes with Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, directed by Patrick Marber, starring Tom Hollander; and Skintight by Joshua Harmon, directed by Daniel Aukin.

In 2018-2019, Roundabout’s Broadway season will present Bernhardt/Hamlet, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, starring Janet McTeer; True West by Sam Shepard, directed by James Macdonald, starring Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano; and Kiss Me, Kate, directed by Scott Ellis, starring Kelli O’Hara.

Off-Broadway in 2018-2019, Roundabout will produce Apologia by Alexi Kaye Campbell, directed by Daniel Aukin, with Stockard Channing; Merrily We Roll Along by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth, directed by Noah Brody in a Fiasco Theater production; Toni Stone by Lydia R. Diamond, directed by Pam MacKinnon, with Uzo Aduba; and Usual Girls by Ming Peiffer, directed by Tyne Rafaeli at Roundabout Underground.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

Follow ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY on Twitter @RTC_NYC, Instagram and on Facebook.

# # #