FUSE Productions presents ‘Merrily We Roll Along’

UNIVERSITY PARK — ‘Merrily We Roll Along,’ the 1981 Stephen Sondheim musical, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, through Saturday, Feb. 24, in Schwab Auditorium.

The FUSE Productions show features a 17-person all-local cast led by Tyler Sperrazza as Franklin Shepard, James McCready as Charley Kringas and Madeline Biever as Mary Flynn.  Jonathan O’Harrow, Katie Kensinger and Leah Mueller also appear, as do FUSE newcomers Rachel Freenock, Mark Werner, Connor Henderson and Abbie Jensen.

The show features a live orchestra and is conducted and directed by Richard Biever and choreographed by Jill Brighton, with set design by Michael G. Benson, lighting by Sperrazza and costuming by Julie Snyder.

Based on a 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ employs a reverse chronological narrative. As the show opens, Franklin Shepard is a successful film producer and composer, influential and wealthy. He is surrounded by hangers-on at a lavish Hollywood party, but in one fateful evening he loses his best old friend, theater critic Mary Flynn, who is disgusted with him for “selling out” to commercialism, and his wife, because he is having an affair with a younger actress.

As the musical works backward through the previous 20 years, we learn about the decisions that took Shepard, Flynn and their friend and lyricist Charley Kringas from idealistic strivers and confidants to the tragic conclusion.

The show was not a success in its original Broadway incarnation, despite boasting a cast that included a young Jason Alexander, Giancarlo Esposito and Liz Callaway. It ran for only 16 performances and 52 previews at the Alvin Theatre in the fall of 1981. It was subsequently revised by the authors and prominently restaged several times during the ensuing decades, including at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and off-Broadway in 1994, where it was directed by Susan Schulman, now a Penn State professor. British productions in 2000 and 2013 received several awards, including the Olivier for best musical.

Richard Biever noted that many of the original production’s problems have been fixed in the revisals, including making the character of Franklin Shepard more sympathetic. Sperrazza hopes the audience will empathize with his character, even though, he said, “He’s not a hero.”

“The show is about relationships — the series of choices we make to bring people in (and) trust them,’ said Sperazza. ‘But, sometimes, they don’t work out, and ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ reminds us that our choices have consequences.”

Tickets for ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ are $30 for premium seating, $25 for adults and $15 for children and are available at www.fuseproductions.thundertix.com.