Marc Bruni, John Rando & James Lapine to Direct 2012 City Center Encores! Series

Marc Bruni and John Rando will join James Lapine in directing the musicals of the 2012 Encores! series at City Center. As previously announced, Lapine will helm Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, which will open on February 8, 2012. Bruni will direct Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pipe Dream, opening March 28, and John Rando will direct Jule Styne and Leo Robin’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which will open on May 9.

Pipe Dream and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes will play for seven performances each, and Merrily We Roll Along will play for 15 performances. Rob Berman will serve as music director for all three shows. Casting has yet to be announced.

Featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by George Furth, Merrily We Roll Along follows the friendship of a group of up-and-coming songwriters. The story is told in reverse chronological order beginning in 1980 and ending in 1955. Lapine wrote the books for and directed Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion and the recent multi-media revue Sondheim on Sondheim. His directing credits include Merrily We Roll Along at the La Jolla Playhouse in California in 1985, and the Broadway productions of Golden Child, The Diary of Anne Frank, Dirty Blonde, Amour and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Based on John Steinbeck's novel Sweet Thursday, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pipe Dreams follows a group of outcasts in a California seaside town yearning for a better life. Bruni’s New York directing credits include Ordinary Days , Such Good Friends, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, High Spirits and Glimpses Of The Moon, as well as The Sound of Music, The Music Man, My One And Only and Seven Brides..., all for St. Louis Muny.

Featuring music by Jules Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin and a book by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes follows blonde bombshell Lorelei Lee as she sets sail on a Europe-bound cruise with her best friend Dorothy. Rando’s Broadway credits include The Wedding Singer, Urinetown (Tony Award for Best Director), The Dinner Party and A Thousand Clowns.