Maria Friedman to direct HIGH SOCIETY at the Old Vic

Cole Porter’s classic feel-good musical, High Society comes to The Old Vic in a glittering new production staged in the round.

Directed by multi-award-winning director and musical star Maria Friedman (director of Merrily We Roll Along, Olivier Award winner for Best Musical Revival, Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical). High Society is based on The Philadelphia Story and the 1956 MGM film musical starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

Long Island socialite Tracy Lord is planning her lavish summer wedding when her ex- husband appears to try and win her back. His unwelcome arrival threatens to disrupt proceedings. When tabloid reporter Mike Connor arrives to cover the nuptials, he too takes a shine to the bride-to-be. But which of these three suitors will she choose?

Olivier Awards: Full list of Nominations

BEST ACTOR

Nominees:

Henry Goodman for The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Duchess Theatre 
Tom Hiddleston at Coriolanus at Donmar Warehouse
Rory Kinnear for Othello at the National Theatre, Olivier 
Jude Law for Henry V at the Noel Coward Theatre 

BEST ACTRESS

Nominees:

Hayley Atwell for The Pride at the Trafalgar Studios 

Anna Chancellor for Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre 

Judi Dench for Peter and Alice at the Noel Coward Theatre

Lesley Manville for Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre & Trafalgar Studios 

Merrily We Roll Along the Musical: Theatre Review

Based on the 1934 play of the same name, Merrily We Roll Along originally opened on Broadway in 1981 to a very poor reception. It officially opened on the 16^th November 1981 to mostly negative reviews but the score by Sondheim was widely praised. It closed after only 16 performances and 52 previews. An off-West End production opened (with Maria Friedman) in 1992 at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester and ran for three weeks. A West End production opened at the Donmar Warehouse in 2000 where it won the Olivier Award for Best Musical and it now has returned to the West End, this time transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre from the Menier Chocolate Factory directed by Maria Friedman. 
Merrily We Roll Along follows three best friends, Franklin Shepard, Mary Flynn and Charles Kringas. It’s a story of friendship and how working with your friends can destroy and strengthen relationships. Throughout the show Franklins love life is one of the main stories, showing his relationships crumble and blossom with Beth and Gussie and of course Mary and Charles. The show actually goes backwards, so the last scene is first and the first scene is the last. This may sound confusing but the way Sondheim has written the show it flows really well and is clearly stated what and where they are in each scene.