6,330 performances — and Sondheim’s own 1971 Follies, an Encores! All those shows were, in essence, pristine presentations of the originals. Merrily underwent a more tortuous trip to City Center: literally decades of rewrites and rethinks, spurred by...

Yesterday, each successive Merrily insists of its predecessors, is done. And yet it never seems to quite escape the past. The new production that opened at City Center Encores last week (and runs though this weekend in an atypically long Encores...

But even if the original production was problematic and ugly, and the show’s plot is unusual and often sad, it contains many of Sondheim's most heartfelt and exquisitely crafted songs. James Lapine, who became Sondheim’s new collaborator after the...

The audition will consist of singing selections from the show, cold readings, and a short dance may be taught. Bring a head shot or photograph of yourself. The play, to be directed by former Second Stage director Shannon McNutt, is James Lapine and...

We just don't, unfortunately, have the luxury of that. But, there's something kind of freeing in it, also. Because there's so little time to think, so much of it is based on instinct and what [director] James [Lapine] throws at us and our first...

In his book "Finishing the Hat," Sondheim writes that Lapine's La Jolla production (which ran for only 24 performances) was "the critical moment of rehabilitation of 'Merrily We Roll Along.'" It inspired theater companies across the country (and...