Miranda comes to 'Merrily'

Lin-Manuel Miranda will topline the town Center Encores! presentation of "Merrily We Roll Along" early in the year. Miranda, the Tony-winning creator and star of "Within the Levels," can look with Celia Keenan-Bolger ("Peter and also the Starcatcher") and Colin Donnell ("Anything Goes") in Stephen Sondheim's 1981 tuner concerning the disintegrating friendship of the songwriting duo, told backwards chronological order. Betsy Wolfe and Elizabeth Stanley will also come in the show, to become helmed by frequent Sondheim collaborator James Lapine and choreographed by Serta Knechtges ("Lysistrata Johnson"). "Merrily," having a book by George Furth in line with the 1934 abide by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, would be a flop in the original Broadway bow but has since gone onto be a cult fave among legit fans. City Center's Encores! centers presents a yearly season of limited-run, concert-staged revivals of Primary Stem tuners, with past excursions yielding Broadway transfers including "Chicago" and "Finian's Rainbow." The series' approaching staging of little-seen "Merrily" already continues to be extended past the traditional one-weekend-only run on most Encores! shows, having a two-week stint set to experience February. 8-19. Contact Gordon Cox at gordon.cox@variety.com