About The Show
Following on from the Menier Chocolate Factory’s acclaimed productions of Sunday in the Park with George and A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim’s latest musical, ROAD SHOW, directed and designed by the Tony Award-winning John Doyle and featuring David Bedella, Michael Jibson, Jon Robyns and Gillian Bevan, premiers in a brand new production at the Menier Chocolate Factory on 6 July 2011.
ROAD SHOW sees John Doyle’s return to the UK after taking Broadway by storm with his physically scaled-down, emotionally intensified productions of the Sondheim classics Sweeney Todd (which started at the Watermill Theatre, transferred to the West End and then to Broadway and for which he received the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical) and Company. Set in the early part of the 20th century ROAD SHOW tells the true boom-and-bust story of the architect Addison Mizner and his fast-talking brother Wilson, two of the most colourful and outrageous fortune-seekers in American history. From panning for gold in Alaska to building the city of Boca Raton in Florida, both were driven by the need to succeed – at whatever cost. Unfortunately, this left them with a trail of debts, disastrous relationships (including their own as brothers) and unfulfilled dreams.
Written in 1999 and originally entitled Wise Guys, it was directed by Sam Mendes and starred Nathan Lane and Victor Garber. Renamed Bounce in 2003, it was directed by Harold Prince and played in Chicago and Washington, DC. John Doyle previously staged and designed ROAD SHOW at the Public Theater in New York in 2008.
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