For Immediate Release: February 28, 2007
Contact: Brian Gaston, Box Office Manager 401-863-2730 * brian_gaston@brown.edu * Further information: www.brown.edu/tickets

Brown Theatre and Sock & Buskin present:

Merrily We Roll Along

Book by: George Furth Music and Lyrics by: Stephen Sondheim

Based on the Kaufman and Hart play by the same name

Directed by Curt Columbus Conducted by Paul Phillips

March 8-11 & 15-18, 2007 Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm

Stuart Theatre, 77 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912

Box Office: 401.863.2838 For more information: www.brown.edu/tickets

The Story: Sondheim's musical adaptation of the Kaufman and Hart play transforms the story of three successful people looking back on their lost friendship. Frank, Mary, and Charley grew up to realize their dreams and goals, but may have paid a greater price than they anticipated. Frank's anguished question—"Why?"—begins the journey backwards in time, recalling rivalries, jealousies, triumphs, failures, and loves both unrequited and reciprocal, as the three seek to discover how they got from "there" to "here." Merrily We Roll Along tells a masterful tale of three remarkable people reflecting on years of aspiration and reality, and dreams both fulfilled and lost.

Production History: The original production, like Sondheim and Furth's Company in 1970, was directed by Harold Prince and opened at the Alvin Theatre (same theatre as Franklin and Charley's fictional Musical Husbands) on November 16, 1981 after a troublesome preview period of 52 performances during which Prince tinkered endlessly with the set, costumes and teen-aged cast, which included Jim Walton as Franklin and future director Lonny Price as Charley. The press generally lavished praise upon Sondheim's score – which, like the plot, evolves backwards -- but faulted Prince's concept of the show. It lasted 16 performances, and Prince and Sondheim agreed to work with other people for a while. But the show refused to go away. In 1985, Sondheim's new collaborator James Lapine mounted a revised version and Furth and Sondheim were again inspired to make the show work. Productions at La Jolla in California and at Arena Stage in Washington affirmed the show's great potential, and more productions -- including one at Harvard University personally overseen by Furth -- continued to fine-tune the script. And in 1994 it received the revival it deserved. The York Theatre Company, with Sondheim and Furth, presented a sell-out production directed by Susan H. Schulman. It was such a smash, it had to be extended. This streamlined version is the script licensed for this production.

Highlights of Major Awards Won: 2001 Olivier Award Winner Best New Musical -- Merrily We Roll Along 1994 Drama Desk Award nominee Outstanding Musical -- Merrily We Roll Along 1994 Outer Critics Circle Award nominee Best Revival of a Musical -- Merrily We Roll Along 1982 Tony® Award nominee Best Original Score -- Stephen Sondheim

Curt Columbus (Director) joined Trinity Rep as artistic director in January 2006. He directed this season’s Cherry Orchard and A Christmas Carol. He was the associate artistic director of Steppenwolf Theater Company from 2000-2005, where his translations of Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya were presented in the Upstairs Theatre. Other Steppenwolf credits include translating Maria Arndt and directing The House of Lily, Division Street: America and Our Town. He was also the artistic director of Chicago Park District’s Theater on the Lake and an artistic associate at Victory Gardens Theater from 1990–2006. His adaptation of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (with Marilyn Campbell), which was presented by The Gamm Theatre and Writers’ Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois, was awarded a Joseph Jefferson Award for best new adaptation and is published by Dramatists’ Play Service. Curt’s new translations of Anton Chekhov’s plays have been published by Ivan R. Dee, including a volume of translations called Chekhov: The Four Major Plays. From that collection, Seagull premiered at Writers’ Theatre in September 2004, and Three Sisters premiered at Strawdog Theatre in October 2005. Curt was honored with a 2005-2006 Joseph Jefferson Citation for New Adaptation for his translation of Three Sisters. Curt has also been director of University Theater at the University of Chicago, where he lectured in the Humanities.

Paul Phillips (Musical Director) is Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Brown University, Music Director/Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony and Chorus in Massachusetts, and a frequent guest conductor who has appeared with over sixty orchestras and opera companies worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Boston Academy of Music, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Stadttheater Lüneburg and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He has led concerts with Itzhak Perlman, Eugenia Zukerman, Christopher O’Riley, Dave Brubeck, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie and many other celebrated artists, and conducted over 900 works in performance, including staged productions of Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, Mavra, My Fair Lady, The Medium, Nutcracker, The Pirates of Penzance and Tosca. At Brown, he has conducted productions of The Magic Flute (1993), Sweeney Todd (1998) and Candide (2002). This winter, he led the Brown University Orchestra on a New Year’s concert tour of China; this spring, he guest conducts in Portugal and leads the 2007 Massachusetts All-State Orchestra. Apart from conducting, he is an acclaimed composer, pianist and author. His music theatre work War Music, based on writings by Christopher Logue, premiered at the 2005 FirstWorksProv Festival, was produced in 2006 at the Chicago Humanities Festival and will be produced this April at New York University. His book A Clockwork Counterpoint: The Music and Literature of Anthony Burgess is scheduled to be published this year by Manchester University Press. Phillips studied at Eastman, Columbia, Tanglewood, Aspen, and the “Mozarteum” with teachers that include Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gunther Schuller and Kurt Masur. He was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Conductors Guild and is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd.

boxoffice@brown.edu
Box Office: 401-863-2838 Open Tuesday - Friday 12-5 PM
Brown University - Department of Theatre, Speech and Dance
(Box 1897) 77 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912

Copyright © 2004 Brown University
Site designed and maintained by Brian Gaston