Maria Friedman to to Direct MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG Revival at Menier Chocolate Factory?

According to whatsonstage.com, British actress Maria Friedman will direct a revival of Sondheim's MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at The Menier Chocolate Factory, in celebration of Sondheim's 80th birthday. Dates for the production are unknown at this time. Friedman is n stranger to the piece.  She has not only appeared in the production, but also recently directed a student production at the Central School of Speech and Drama. The Menier Chocolate Factory has previously hosted other Sondheim revivals such as SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and SWEENEY TODD. 

Maria Friedman won the 2006 Theatre World Award for her performance as Marian Halcombe in the original Broadway production of Charlotte Jones, David Zippel, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White. With three Olivier Awards and seven nominations, her stage credits include her one-woman show Maria Friedman: By Special Arrangement (Olivier Award) and the London productions of Passion (Olivier Award), Sunday in the Park with George (Olivier nomination), Lady In The Dark (Olivier nomination), Ragtime, and Chicago. Her 2006 American debut CD, Now and Then, featured a special guest performance by Stephen Sondheim.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

The story revolves around Franklin Shepard who, having once been a talented composer of Broadway musicals, has now abandoned his friends and his songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood flicks. The musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank's life that shaped the man that he is today. Like Sweeney Todd, the show utilizes a chorus that sings reprises of the title song to transition the scenes. The musical closed on Broadway after only 16 performances in 1981 and marked the end of the Harold Prince-Sondheim collaborations until Bounce in 2003.