PS Classics is to record the recent Encores production of Merrily We Roll Along and issue it as a 2 disc set to be released on June 19th.

Broadly similar in concept to London’s Lost Musicals series, Encores is a series which presents in concert the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York. It production of Merrily We Roll Along was on atNew York CityCenter from February 8th – 19th 2012.

The full track listing for the album will be announced shortly.

Ben Brantley in The New York Times said of the production: “. . .  And by the end you felt that same old mixture of exhilaration and deflation that “Merrily” — beautiful and damned “Merrily” — always inspires.

. . . In Harold Prince’s original staging the ensemble was notable for its youth and lack of professional experience. Mr. Prince has said he envisioned the show as a sort of “Babes in Arms”-like frolic for fresh-faced performers. But Mr. Sondheim, being Mr. Sondheim, streaked even the show’s sunniest songs with chilling shadows of melancholy.

. . . As Mr. Donnell, Ms. Keenan-Bolger and Mr. Miranda perform the seemingly blithe trio “Old Friends,” you’re aware of the contradictory feelings of love and irritation and resentment that inform every element of the song. No composer of musicals has ever sustained as many strata of emotions in a single number (or a single phrase) as Mr. Sondheim does.

That’s why we’ll probably keep revisiting “Merrily We Roll Along,” again and again, in the years to come. And why, in the face of disillusion, we continue to hope that through some miracle this show will have grown up, after all, to be a worthy mate for the blessed score at its center.”

Cast

The long awaited production of Merrily We Roll Along, to be directed by Maria Friedman, is now slated to open at The Menier Chocolate Factory in November 2012.