The Genius Of Sondheim Comes To The TU Mainstage

Do friendship and success go together? Must we look backward to move forward in life? Must artists compromise their ideals for commercial success? The Towson University Department of Theatre Arts, in collaboration with the TU Department of Music, examine these themes and more in the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, running May 2-11 at the TU Center for the Arts Mainstage.

Merrily We Roll Along tracks the unraveling of the friendship and aspirations of three friends. With a narrative traveling backward in time from 1980 to 1957, Frank, Charlie and Mary discover the true costs of success in this semi-autobiographical musical. Popular musical numbers include "Merrily We Roll Along, "Not a Day Goes By'" and "Good Thing Going," and "Old Friends" are exemplary of Sondheim's sardonic wit and lyrical genius Merrily We Roll Along received a Tony Award for Best Original Score, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics in 1982.

Some may say that the play holds a cynical look at the realities of being a professional artist but it also affirms the beauty and importance of friendship in anyone's life.

Jenny Male directs the production. Jenny Male is a director as well as fight, dance, and intimacy choreographer in the DC/Baltimore area. Her production of Argonautika was invited to perform at the Region 2 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in January 2016. Jenny is Associate Professor of Theatre at Howard Community College where she teaches voice, dialects, movement, stage combat, musical theatre, and Shakespeare performance. Jenny is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors International. She serves as Resident Intimacy & Fight Director for Rep Stage and is also a member of VASTA, ATME, and SDC. Jenny earned her MFA in Theatre Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002.

Music Direction for Merrily We Roll Along provided by Phillip Collister, the TU Music Department Chair. Collister has performed extensively as a soloist in opera, oratorio and recital. Collister is the Music Director of Young Victorian Theatre Company in Baltimore and formed TU's resident children's opera company, Opera in a Can. He also teaches private voice, vocal pedagogy and survey of vocal literature. Phillip earned a DMA in Voice & Opera from University of Maryland College Park ('96), Master of Music and Performance Certificate in Voice and Opera from Northwestern in 1986 and 1987, and Bachelor of Arts in Music/Theatre from Marycrest College in 1985.

Merrily We Roll Along is a musical that has fascinated theatre fans essentially as the most successful Broadway flop of all time, despite an all-star team and producer in Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics), George Furth (book), Jonathan Tunick (Orchestrations) and Hal Prince (producer). In the last 40 years, the show has enjoyed celebrated productions nationwide and even a concert production co-starting Lin-Manuel Miranda. Recently the show was remounted for Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Performances are as follows: May 2 at 7:30 p.m.; May 3, 4, 8, & 10 at 8:00 p.m.; May 5 at 2 p.m.; May 8-May 9 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10--$21 and can be purchased at TUBoxOffice.com.