Hannah Cruz to Play Gussie in Merrily We Roll Along Film

Hannah Cruz is set to play Gussie, the second wife of Franklin Shepard, in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along. The news was first reported in Deadline.

Told reverse-chronologically, the musical charts the fraying three-way friendship of creatives Franklin, Charley, and Mary, starting with bitter middle-age and ending with a trio of bright-eyed college graduates staring up in wonder at the newly launched Sputnik satellite. The show includes the now-classic Sondheim songs “Old Friends,” “Not a Day Goes By,” and “Our Time.”

Cruz joins Ben Platt as Charles Kringas, Paul Mescal as Franklin Shepard, and Beanie Feldstein as Mary Flynn. Mallory Bechtel will also star in a role that has not yet been revealed.

The movie is directed by Richard Linklater, who intends to shoot the film in over the course of two decades—roughly the same time frame as the story.

Initially a flop when it debuted on Broadway in 1981, Merrily played off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop in 2022 in an acclaimed off-Broadway revival helmed by Maria Friedman, who had previously directed Merrily at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory and the West End. The production was led by Daniel Radcliffe (who won a Tony for his performance), Jonathan Groff (who also won a Tony) and Lindsay Mendez. It transferred to Broadway in 2023 and won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Revival. That production has been filmed.

Cruz last appeared on Broadway as Inez Millholland in Shaina Taub’s Suffs, which closed in January.