Clwyd Theatr Cymru, MOLD – Anthony Hopkins Theatre
Thursday 3 May – Saturday 2 June 2012
www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk (online booking – no fee)
Box Office 0845 330 3565

Broadway comes to Mold in May

Following the Clwyd Theatr Cymru hit production of Guys and Dolls in 2011, Broadway returns to north Wales next month when Nikolai Foster directs a major new production of  Merrily We Roll Along.

Merrily We Roll Along, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, opened on Broadway in 1981. It is based on a 1934 play of the same name by Moss Hart and George Kaufman about the compromise of youthful innocence, ideals and ambition in the pursuit of success. It was revived in a new version in San Diego in 1985 and won the Best Musical accolade at the Olivier Awards for the 2001 London production at the Donmar Warehouse.

Merrily We Roll Along is a life-affirming musical play which explores the challenges of friendship and the high price of success, set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in America’s fascinating history.

One of Sondheim’s best and most appealing scores, it tells the story of three friends, Frank, Charley and Mary and their extraordinary adventures together, starting in the mid 1970s and travelling backwards to a time when friends were inseparable, love was forever and life was brimming with optimism.

Merrily We Roll Along contains some of Sondheim’s most beautiful, moving and exuberant music.

In a career spanning more than five decades Stephen Sondheim has written lyrics for the classic musicals West Side Story and Gypsy and music and lyrics for a string of hit shows including Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and A Little Night Music, featuring the hit song Send in the Clowns which became a standard of both the musical theatre and jazz songbook.

Merrily We Roll Along is directed by Nikolai Foster, who returns to Mold following his successful production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams here in 2005.  Nikolai is Associate Director at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds where his recent work includes a new production of the Broadway musical Annie. Other recent shows include The Diary of Anne Frank for York Theatre Royal and a national tour and, last summer, As You Like It at the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester. He has directed musicals including Sondheim’s Assassins at the Crucible, Sheffield and the critically acclaimed production of Flashdance – The Musical at The Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End.
 
The shows is performed a talented company of seventeen, with new orchestrations for this production by Musical Director George Dyer, who collaborated with Nikolai Foster on Flashdance and Annie and whose other recent work includes The Wiz, a co-production between West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep.

Another member of the Flashdance creative team, Morgan Large, has designed sets and costumes for Merrily We Roll Along.  

Simon Thomas takes the role of Frank. He played Tony in West Side Story and recent musicals include Legally Blonde in the West End and the highly acclaimed production of Sondheim’s Into The Woods at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, which won an Olivier Award last year.

Matt Cross plays Charley. His recent theatre includes London Assurance at the National Theatre, directed by Nicholas Hytner. Other highlights include the part of Riff in the 50th Anniversary production of West Side Story.
 
Mary is played by Rebecca Lock. In the West End she starred in Phantom of the Opera and Avenue Q and also played Svetlana in Chess, directed by Craig Revel Horwood at The Prince of Wales Theatre, Toronto. Rebecca was guest soloist at the 30th Anniversary Side By Side By Sondheim at The Novello Theatre, London.

The company also includes Verity Rushworth, who played Grace in the West Yorkshire Playhouse production of Annie in 2011. She was Maria in the national tour of The Sound of Music and made her West End debut in the musical Hairspray at The Shaftesbury Theatre.

On ITV1 Verity played series regular Donna Windsor-Dingle in the popular soap Emmerdale, from 1998 until 2008. 

Musicians: Musical Dorector and keyboards 1, Huw Evans – keyboards 2, Martin Layzell – drums, Shaun Lock – clarinet, tenor and bass clarinet, Fraiser Patterson – flute, clarinet, alto sax, Anthony Thompson – trumpet and flugelhorn

Director – Nikolai Foster, Designer – Morgan Large, Musical Director & Orchestrator– George Dyer , Lighting – Ben Cracknell, Choreographer – Nick Winston, Sound – Kevin Heyes, Assistant Director – Tom O’Brien.