Suffs Hannah Cruz Joins Paul Mescal and Ben Platt in Richard Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along Movie
(Photo by Jenny Anderson for Broadway.com)
Hannah Cruz has joined the cast of the (very gradually) upcoming movie version of the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical Merrily We Roll Along, Deadline reports. Cruz joins stars Paul Mescal (Franklin Shepard), Ben Platt (Charley Kringas) and Beanie Feldstein (Mary Flynn) in the film, which director Richard Linklater is shooting over a 20-year period, repeating the longitudinal filmmaking methodology from his 2014 drama Boyhood.
Cruz will play Gussie, second wife of Mescal’s Franklin Shepard. "I still can’t believe this is real. Beyond excited. See yall in 15ish years," Cruz said on Instagram.
Cruz has starred previously in the national tours of Legally Blonde, Bullets Over Broadway and Hamilton. She made her New York stage debut as Ruza Wenclawska in Suffs at the Public Theater and went on to star as Inez Milholland in the show's Broadway run last season. She also performed off-Broadway in the original Jason Robert Brown-Jonathan Marc Sherman musical The Connector. "I've worked really hard and a long time to be here, so I feel very happy and fulfilled," she told Broadway.com at the time.
Platt also spoke about the ongoing film project with Broadway.com last year. “It’s just crazy that we’re trying to do it,” he told Tamsen Fadal for The Broadway Show. “We sort of have to treat it like little short films that happen every so often because if you look too far ahead, it’s like, how are we ever going to get there?”
He added, “It’s such a gift and it’s also a way to just have Sondheim guardian angeling my life for the next 18 years.”
The film is indeed expected to be released some time in the early 2040s. In an Instagram Story, Cruz commented, "See you at the premiere in 2042."
Merrily We Roll Along traces 20 years of turbulent friendship in reverse chronological order. Maria Friedman's recent Broadway production, starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Musical Revival.
