John Doyle's Actor-Musician Merrily We Roll Along to Star Malcolm Gets, Daniel Jenkins and Becky Ann Baker | Playbill

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News John Doyle's Actor-Musician Merrily We Roll Along to Star Malcolm Gets, Daniel Jenkins and Becky Ann Baker Tony Award nominee Malcolm Gets, Daniel Jenkins and Becky Ann Baker will be "Old Friends" in Tony-winning director John Doyle's actor-musician staging of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Merrily We Roll Along at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

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Malcolm Gets

The Cincinnati production marks Gets' second pass at the role of songwriter Franklin Shepard – he previously played the role Off-Broadway in the 1994 York Theatre Company staging of Merrily, which introduced revisions by Sondheim and Furth since its 1981 Broadway run. Doyle's production will reflect the 1994 York revisions.

Gets (A New Brain, The Story of My Life) also collaborated with Doyle in the American premiere of his Rodgers and Hart actor-musician musical Ten Cents a Dance at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last summer.

Jenkins, a Tony Award nominee for Big River, will portray  songwriting partner Charley Kringas; with Baker (Good People, Assassins) as Franklin and Charley's disillusioned pal Mary Flynn.

Completing the cast of Merrily are a handful of Doyle musical veterans, including 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. 

The 1981 musical, which has a book by Furth and a score by Sondheim, is based on Kaufman and Hart's 1934 Broadway play. Merrily We Roll Along will run March 3-31, 2012, in the Robert S. Marx Theatre. An official opening has been set for March 8, 2012. Doyle will again incorporate his directorial signature, the actor-musician conceit, into his staging of Merrily, which famously travels backwards in time to navigate the bumpy history of three friends who start their careers in showbusiness together. He previously staged Merrily in a similar manner at the U.K's Watermill Theatre in 2008.

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

Mary-Mitchell Campbell, who orchestrated and was musical supervisor for Doyle's Company, will also be involved. Tony Award winner Scott Pask (The Coast of Utopia, The Pillowman) will design the set, with costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Jane Cox and sound design by Dan Moses Schreier. Cast member Matt Castle will musical direct.

For tickets phone (513) 421-3888 or visit CincyPlay.

 
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